Erich von Stroheim (1885-1957) is best known to the filmgoing public for his acting roles as monocle-wearing Nazi officers and other villains, which earned him the nickname "the man you love to hate." However, during the 1920s and early 1930s von Stroheim also directed and wrote screenplays for films in Hollywood, most notably the silent film Greed. After World War II, he left the United States and worked in Europe until his death in 1957. He returned to Hollywood only once, to portray Gloria Swanson's butler/ex-husband in Billy Wilder's 1950 film classic Sunset Boulevard.

von Stroheim enjoyed telling elaborate tales about his youth in Vienna as Erich Oswald Hans Carl Maria von Stroheim, the son of a noble Austrian family; however, the truth was far different. He was born Erich Oswald Stroheim, on September 22, 1885, in Vienna, Austria. However, rather than being a wealthy member of the Austrian aristocracy, his...