He was the most brilliant, obsessive, secretive, far-sighted, and self-destructive figure in Hollywood history. A wandering Austrian Jew, the son of a Viennese hatter, Erich von Stroheim adopted the style of an emigre aristocrat and launched a career that changed the face of American movies. Starting our as an actor, von Stroheim became "the man you love to hate," a commplex and contradictory personality who encouraged his audiences to confuse the man on screen with the one behind the camera. Before the Hollywood moguls finally had their way, he created a handful of silent film classics that shocked his enemies and astonished his friends. Like his mentor, D. W. Griffith, he believed that film was an art form, not an investment opportunity. When his employers disagreed, the sparks flew.