Born Jessaja Granach, he was a Polish-born actor and a major stage performer with Berlin's Volksbuhne, under Piscator. Onscreen from 1922, he appeared in numerous German films of the '20s and early '30s. When Hitler came to power in 1933, Granach was forced to emigrate to the U.S. via the Soviet Union. He went on to play character roles on Broadway and in a dozen or so Hollywood films until his death in 1945.