I was born Friedrich Wilhelm Plumpe on December 28, 1888 in Bielefeld, Germany, but consequently changed my name as a homage to the Upper Bavarian artists’ colony I had joined with my friend Ehrenbaum-Degele.I pursued my interest in European Art at the University of Heidelberg and learned theatre by working in the acting company of Max Reinhardt. During the Great War I served as a combat pilot. After Germany’s surrender, I returned to civilian life as a filmmaker and directed my first feature Der Knabe in Blau in 1919. This was followed by films such as Nosferatu, Der Letzte Mann and Faust. The later was to be my last German production.I emigrated to Hollywood in 1926 and collaborated with Fox Studios to make Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans, which, although was not a financial success, did win an Oscar for Unique and Artistic Production at the first Academy Awards in 1928.
Now in the era of talkies, the sound-indulged Four Devils and City Girl shortly followed Sunrise but were not well received by the skeptical picture-house audiences.
Disappointed, I travelled to Bora Bora in the South Pacific for a break from Hollywood. Although my time in Bora Bora was to be a break from Hollywood, however, it was not to be a break from filmmaking. I involved myself, perhaps inevitably, with the production of Tabu: A Story of the South Seas. Initially it began as another collaboration, this time with documentary filmmaker Robert Flaherty. Due to artistic differences we parted company and I completed the project alone.
Unfortunately I did not attend the premiere of my latest work. I died in an automobile accident in California on March 11, 1931, aged 42, after my fourteen year old Filipino valet Garcia Stephenson lost control of the wheel. I will never forgive myself for ignoring the advice of the many who warned me of the dangers child chauffeurs possess.
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