Fritz Lang: Quick Facts

Written and fact-checked by

The Information Architects of Encyclopaedia Britannica

Facts

Born	December 5, 1890 • Vienna • Austria
Died	August 2, 1976 (aged 85) • Los Angeles • California
Notable Works	“Fury” • “M” • “Metropolis” • “The Big Heat” • “The Half-Caste” • “While the City Sleeps”

Photos

Fritz Lang directing Woman in the Moon (1929)

Gloria Grahame as Debby Marsh sits at a bar in a fur stole, looking up at Glenn Ford as Dave Bannion, who stands in a trench coat and fedora in The Big Heat (1953).

Sheppard Strudwick, seated at left, and Dana Andrews, center, in a courtroom scene from Beyond a Reasonable Doubt (1956), with a large film camera and other men in the background.

The great Spencer Tracy

Black-and-white scene from Metropolis directed by Fritz Lang, showing people fleeing through waist-deep water in a flooded industrial setting with a large circular machine in the background.

Alfred Abel, Brigitte Helm as the robot Maria, and Rudolf Klein-Rogge stand in a dramatic scene from Fritz Lang's 1927 film Metropolis, with a large pentagram in the background.

scene from The Woman in the Window

Brigitte Helm as Maria stands at the center of a group of children, who gather closely around her, in a scene from the 1927 film Metropolis directed by Fritz Lang.

See All Images →

Billy Wilder poses in a suit and hat, leaning against a streetlamp with a sign reading Sunset Blvd. in a promotional photo for the film Sunset Boulevard.

Billy Wilder

Austrian-born American director and producer

Otto Preminger

Otto Preminger

American filmmaker

Fred Zinnemann stands between Marlon Brando, left, in a suit, and Montgomery Clift, right, in a tank top, on the set of From Here to Eternity, with lockers in the background.

Fred Zinnemann

American director

Erich von Stroheim in Foolish Wives, 1922.

Erich von Stroheim

German actor and director

default image

Stan Brakhage

American filmmaker

default image

Maggie Gyllenhaal

American actress

default image

Ethan Coen

American filmmaker

default image

Joel Coen

American filmmaker

default image

David Maysles

American documentary filmmaker

default image

Harold Ramis

American actor, writer, and director

default image

Michael Cimino

American director

default image

Jesse Lasky

American producer

default image

Judith Malina

American theater director and actress

default image

James Ivory

American director

Master of suspense

Alfred Hitchcock

English-born American director

Steven Spielberg wearing a tuxedo and bow tie, smiling at the camera on the red carpet at the Cannes International Film Festival.

Steven Spielberg

American film director and producer

Woody Allen speaking into a microphone with hands raised beside his face during a press conference, against a red background.

Woody Allen

American director, writer, and actor

Orson Welles

Orson Welles

American actor, director, and writer

Martin Scorsese smiling in a tuxedo and bow tie, holding an Oscar statuette at the Academy Awards, with a gold Oscar statue in the background.

Martin Scorsese

American filmmaker

Vincente Minnelli, seated at right, discusses a storyboard with actress Lana Turner, seated at left in costume, on the set of The Bad and the Beautiful.

Vincente Minnelli

American director