Leopold Jessner
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Leopold Jessner (March 3, 1878–October 30, 1945) was a noted producer and director of German Expressionist theater.
A native of Königsberg, Jessner was a touring actor in his youth and turned to directing in 1911. He was director of the Berlin State Theatre from 1919-1925 and was known for bare stages in which flights of steps served as different spaces for scenes and directing actors to act in an oversimplified, unnatural manner.
Being both Jewish and a Socialist, he was forced to emigrate to the United States in 1933, after Adolf Hitler came to power in Germany. He worked in film anonymously in the United States until his death, in Los Angeles.