F. W. Murnau

Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau studied philology and art before Max Reinhardt pulled him into his acting school, then spent World War I as an infantry officer and later a Flying Corps observer, surviving multiple crashes. His first film as director appeared in 1919, but 1922's Nosferatu — an unauthorized Dracula adaptation that Stoker's estate nearly destroyed — made him a name in German Expressionist cinema despite commercial failure. The Last Laugh in 1924 and a Faust adaptation in 1926 cemented his reputation before Fox lured him to Hollywood, where Sunrise in 1927 became what many would call one…