Anatole Litvak — director with roots in the Russian Empire
Anatole Litvak was born Anatoly Mikhailovich Litvak in Kiev, then in the Russian Empire, in 1902, into a Jewish family. His exact birth date is disputed: the current English Wikipedia gives 3 June, earlier versions and other references 10 May, and some sources 21 May. Wikipedia describes the family as Lithuanian Jewish, as his surname suggests; another account traces it to Berdychiv and Bila Tserkva.
He began working in the theatre at thirteen in Petrograd and studied at the state drama school there. In 1923 he joined the Nordkino film studio in Leningrad, where he was assistant director on nine silent films and directed his first film, Tatiana (1925). In 1925, after the Soviet government had nationalised the theatres, he left for Berlin, where he was hired to work on the editing of G. W. Pabst's The Joyless Street (1925), with Greta Garbo, and in 1930 began directing for UFA.
After the Nazis came to power in 1933 he moved to Paris, which became his favourite setting: thirteen of his thirty-seven films take place there. Mayerling (1936), with Charles Boyer and Danielle Darrieux, made his international reputation and brought him a contract with Warner Bros. In Hollywood he directed City for Conquest (1940), among other films, and became an American citizen in 1940.
During the Second World War he served in the US Army and worked with Frank Capra on the Why We Fight documentaries; The Battle of Russia (1943), which he directed alone, was nominated for an Academy Award. As he later put it, he had been born in Russia, had left at twenty-two and was now an American citizen. After the war he made two of his best-known films in 1948: the thriller Sorry, Wrong Number and The Snake Pit, one of the first Hollywood films to treat mental illness seriously, which brought him a nomination for best director and Olivia de Havilland one for best actress. Decision Before Dawn (1951) was nominated for best picture.
In the 1950s he worked increasingly in Europe, directing Anastasia (1956), with Ingrid Bergman and Yul Brynner, The Journey (1959) and Goodbye Again (1961). He was appointed OBE. He died in Neuilly-sur-Seine, near Paris, on 15 December 1974, aged seventy-two.
"Left Soviet Russia for Berlin in 1925; moved to Paris after 1933 and to Hollywood in 1937; US citizen 1940."
Migration storyTracing the roots — Kiev, Kiev Governorate (now Kyiv, Ukraine)
Born in Kiev in 1902 into a Jewish family, he began acting in Petrograd at thirteen, studied drama there and from 1923 worked at the Nordkino studios, before leaving for Berlin in 1925.
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Kiev, Kiev Governorate (now Kyiv, Ukraine). At the time, this region lay within the Russian Empire, which spanned from Poland to the Pacific.