14 Facts About Benjamin Christensen

Benjamin Christensen was a Danish film director, screenwriter and an actor, both in film and on the stage.

Benjamin Christensen was born in Viborg, Denmark as the youngest of the twelve children.

Benjamin Christensen initially studied medicine, but got interested in acting and began studies at the Det Kongelige Teater in Copenhagen in 1901.

In 1911, Benjamin Christensen made his debut as a film actor.

In 1913, Benjamin Christensen assumed control of the small, Hellborg-based production company for which he worked, and reorganized it as Dansk-Biograf Kompagnie, making a directorial debut with Det hemmelighedsfulde X, a spy melodrama, with camerawork, cutting, and art direction that was considered revolutionary for the period.

Between 1918 and 1921, Benjamin Christensen researched the history of necromancy as background for his next and greatest film, Haxan.

Benjamin Christensen appeared in the film in the role of Satan.

Benjamin Christensen made two films for them, though his most memorable work in Germany was as an actor in the key supporting role of the painter Claude Zoret in his fellow countryman Carl Theodor Dreyer's film Michael.

In 1924, MGM swept through the talent pool at UFA and picked up, among others, Benjamin Christensen, who departed so quickly that he may not have completed his second feature, Die Frau mit dem schlechten Ruf.

The film was not released until the end of 1925, by which time Benjamin Christensen had already disowned the film.

Benjamin Christensen got off a good start with the Norma Shearer vehicle The Devil's Circus, a commercial success.

When work stalled in 1927 on MGM's troubled, three-years-long production of The Mysterious Island, Benjamin Christensen was let go.

Benjamin Christensen moved to Warner Brothers, where he made four films.

However, Damen med de lyse Handsker was a spy thriller that proved an unmitigated disaster on the level of Mockery, and Benjamin Christensen found himself out of the film business for good.