Director

John Gottowt

Acting

Career Snapshot

Explained

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Directed credits

Emerging

Beginning to build directing work.

TMDB popularity

0.2

Low visibility

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Directed movies: 1Directed series: 0All crew credits: 1

TMDB ID: 9845

IMDb ID: nm0332024

Known for: Acting

Born: June 15, 1881

Died: August 29, 1942

Age: 61

Place of birth: Lemberg, Galicia, Austria-Hungary [now Lviv, Ukraine]

Gender: Male

Adult content flag: No

Career span: 1913 - 2025

Years active: 113

Average TMDB rating: 6.43

Wikidata: Q87468

Also known as

Isidor Gesang

Frequent jobs

Director (1)

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Biography

John Gottowt (born Isidor Gesang; 15 June 1881 – 29 August 1942) was an Austrian actor, stage director and film director for theatres and silent movies. Gottowt was born in Lemberg, Austria-Hungary (present-day Lviv, Ukraine) into a Jewish family. After his education in Vienna, he joined the Deutsches Theater in Berlin in 1905, working for Max Reinhardt as an actor and director. Gottowt was mainly active in different theatres in Berlin as a character actor and director. His first silent film appearance was in Paul Wegener’s Der Student von Prag ("The Student of Prague") (1913). In 1920 he appeared in Robert Wiene's Genuine and took the main role in the early science fiction film Algol. In 1921 he played Professor Bulwer (Abraham van Helsing) in the classic silent film Nosferatu directed by F.W. Murnau. Gottowt made also several films with his brother-in-law Henrik Galeen but, as a Jew, was banned in 1933 from working as a professional actor. After a few years in Denmark he moved to Kraków in Poland. He was murdered in 1942 by an SS officer while in hiding in Wieliczka, disguised as a Roman Catholic priest.

Movies