Josef von Sternberg (29 May 1894 – 22 December 1969) was an Austrian-American film director.

He was born in Vienna, Austria but spent much of his childhood in New York City where his father, a former soldier in the army of Austria-Hungary, tried to make a new life for himself. Sternberg grew up in poverty and dropped out of high school. As a youth he got a job cleaning and repairing movie prints and soon found himself apprenticing in the movie industry. He made his directorial debut in 1925 with The Salvation Hunters and had commercial success later in the decade with a series of early gangster films.

His new found prosperity made it possible for him to commission an impressive mini- mansion from the famous architect Richard Neutra. Even after its demolition Von Sternberg house remained an example of modernism in Architecture.

In 1930, von Sternberg went to Germany and directed the widely acclaimed film Der Blau Engel (The Blue Angel) in English and German language versions. Sternberg cast the unknown Marlene Dietrich as Lola Lola and made her an international star.

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