Biography

Made an international star of the American actress Louise Brooks with Loulou (1929).

His film Quatre de l'infanterie (1930) was banned by the Nazis. Afterwards, Pabst had a brief sojourn in France and an unhappy experience in Hollywood, ultimately returning to Germany at the onset of World War II.

In 1935 he planned a movie of the German opera "Faust", which would have reunited him with the two actresses whose careers he had set alight: Greta Garbo (as Gretchen) and Louise Brooks (as Helen of Troy). Unfortunately, nothing came of the idea.

Pabst studied engineering in Vienna but ended up preferring the theatre and acted in Switzerland by 1905. He then joined touring companies of Europe and the United States. He was interned in France during World War I. By 1923, he was assistant to the film director Carl Froelich and soon graduated to director in his own right, noted for stark realism, rather then the prevailing expressionism.

He was much criticized for staying in Germany during the Second World War instead of fleeing to one of the Allied countries. This did great damage to his reputation.