Tod Browning
Charles Albert Browning or Tod Browning (* July 12, 1880 or 1882 in Louisville, Kentucky; † October 6, 1962 in Santa Monica, California ) was an American film director who mainly through a number of contributions to the classic horror film of the 1920s and 1930s years is remembered.
Life
Browning came from a well-off family and followed the age of 16 of a dancer to the circus. Further stations before Hollywood career were the Vaudeville theater and acting. In 1916, he was assistant director of DW Griffith in Intolerance. Then he started his own productions.
His first success was 1925, the silent film The Unholy Three. With Lon Chaney he turned 1927 The Unknown and the legendary midnight (London After Midnight ). Among his best known films include the 1931 resulting Dracula - the classic vampire film, the incumbent Bela Lugosi as Dracula Actor - and Mark of the Vampire ( The Mark of the Vampire, 1935), also with Lugosi in the lead role.
Height of his career was 1932 Freaks, which was widely interpreted as a classic of the horror genre. Tod Browning was looking for people with disabilities and diminutive actor who took over the lead roles for this movie.