{
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  "@id": "https://www.screensearch.co.uk/person/9845/john-gottowt",
  "name": "John Gottowt",
  "url": "https://www.screensearch.co.uk/person/9845/john-gottowt",
  "knownForDepartment": "Acting",
  "description": "John Gottowt (born Isidor Gesang; 15 June 1881 – 29 August 1942) was an Austrian actor, stage director and film director for theatres and silent movies.\n\nGottowt was born in Lemberg, Austria-Hungary (present-day Lviv, Ukraine) into a Jewish family. After his education in Vienna, he joined the Deutsches Theater in Berlin in 1905, working for Max Reinhardt as an actor and director. Gottowt was mainly active in different theatres in Berlin as a character actor and director.\n\nHis first silent film appearance was in Paul Wegener’s Der Student von Prag (\"The Student of Prague\") (1913). In 1920 he appeared in Robert Wiene's Genuine and took the main role in the early science fiction film Algol. In 1921 he played Professor Bulwer (Abraham van Helsing) in the classic silent film Nosferatu directed by F.W. Murnau.\n\nGottowt made also several films with his brother-in-law Henrik Galeen but, as a Jew, was banned in 1933 from working as a professional actor. After a few years in Denmark he moved to Kraków in Poland. He was murdered in 1942 by an SS officer while in hiding in Wieliczka, disguised as a Roman Catholic priest.",
  "birthDate": "1881-06-15",
  "deathDate": "1942-08-29",
  "birthPlace": "Lemberg, Galicia, Austria-Hungary [now Lviv, Ukraine]",
  "alternateName": [
    "Isidor Gesang"
  ],
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  "lastVerified": "3 May 2026",
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      "title": "Nosferatu",
      "year": "1922",
      "role": "as Professor Bulwer",
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      "tmdbId": 27522,
      "title": "Waxworks",
      "year": "1924",
      "role": "as Owner of the Waxworks",
      "roleKind": "cast",
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      "title": "The Living Dead",
      "year": "1932",
      "role": "as Beamter des Mechanischen Museums",
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      "posterUrl": "https://image.tmdb.org/t/p/w500/hYBAjzKZBFlHmiDi2pN9hu95pwi.jpg",
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      "title": "The Hunchback and the Dancer",
      "year": "1920",
      "role": "as James Wilton",
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      "voteAverage": 7,
      "posterUrl": "https://image.tmdb.org/t/p/w500/hWJvGG6QU2ouIfaWtAggC0tW832.jpg",
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      "title": "The Student of Prague",
      "year": "1913",
      "role": "as Scapinelli - An Old Adventurer",
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      "title": "Algol: Tragedy of Power",
      "year": "1920",
      "role": "as Algol",
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    {
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      "title": "The Night of Queen Isabeau",
      "year": "1920",
      "role": "as Buckliger Narr",
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      "title": "Brennendes Land",
      "year": "1921",
      "role": "as Wladislaus",
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      "title": "Genuine: The Tragedy of a Vampire",
      "year": "1920",
      "role": "as Guyard",
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      "posterUrl": "https://image.tmdb.org/t/p/w500/pQZNf7PA0CTJXZFez7NQ3RUgJ0r.jpg",
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      "tmdbId": 1284267,
      "title": "The Twelfth Hour",
      "year": "1930",
      "role": "as Sanitarium Doctor",
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      "voteAverage": null,
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      "title": "Morphium",
      "year": "1919",
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      "title": "The Flight in the Night",
      "year": "1926",
      "role": "as Bediensteter",
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      "title": "Radiohead X Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror",
      "year": "2025",
      "role": "as Professor Bulwer - ein Paracelsianer",
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      "posterUrl": "https://image.tmdb.org/t/p/w500/w981zbjFihnpLMWmWrE8kokJe4z.jpg",
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      "title": "Peer Gynt - 1. Teil: Peer Gynts Jugend",
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      "title": "Das schwarze Los",
      "year": "1913",
      "role": "as Brighella",
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      "title": "Die Prinzessin von Neutralien",
      "year": "1917",
      "role": "as The billionaire Vandergold",
      "roleKind": "cast",
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      "mediaType": "movie",
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      "title": "Der rote Henker",
      "year": "1920",
      "role": "as L'Angely",
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      "title": "Der schwarze Stern",
      "year": "1922",
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