Fritz Lang

Friedrich Christian Anton Lang was born in Austria on December 5, 1890, and became one of Germany's great Expressionist filmmakers before the rise of the Third Reich made staying impossible. His silent work peaked with Metropolis in 1927 - a futuristic epic - and M in 1931, the noir precursor that redefined suspense. Woman in the Moon in 1929 pioneered the rocket launch countdown and the concept of a vertical launch pad, details that would shape real spaceflight. After directing Dr. Mabuse the Gambler in 1922 and Die Nibelungen in 1924, he fled to Hollywood in 1934, became a U.S. citizen in 1939, and turned out Fury, You Only Live Once, The Woman in the Window, Scarlet Street, and The Big Heat across two decades. In the late 1950s he went back to Germany for a final trilogy: an adaptation of The Indian Tomb and a third Mabuse film in 1960. He died August 2, 1976.