Richard Oswald
director, producer, writer
- Birth name:
- Richard W. Ornstein
- Born:
- 1880-11-05, Vienna, Austria-Hungary [now Austria]
- Died:
- 1963-09-11, Düsseldorf, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany
- Professions:
- director, producer, writer
Biography
Viennese by birth and cosmopolitan by instinct, Richard Oswald stepped behind the camera in 1914; within months he had launched his own production shingle and begun turning out a torrent of pictures that spanned thrillers, social melodramas and literary adaptations. Between Berlin studios and the capitals of Europe, he launched careers, pushed taboo subjects onto the screen and kept audiences talking long after the lights came up. When Hitler’s regime shuttered Jewish voices, Oswald packed a lifetime of experience into a suitcase and crossed the Atlantic, rebuilding his life in Hollywood exile. His legacy lived on through son Gerd Oswald, who would carve out his own reputation in taut B-movies and golden-age television.
