Birth Name: Maximilian Raoul Steiner
Date of Birth: 10 May, 1888
Place of Birth: Vienna, Austria-Hungary (now Austria)
Date of Death: December 28, 1971
Place of Death: Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Ethnicity: Ashkenazi Jewish
Max Steiner was an Austrian-American composer and conductor. Referred to as “the father of film music,” he was known as one of Hollywood’s greatest music composers. Among the films he scored are Cimarron (1931), King Kong, Little Women (1933), The Informer (1935), Little Lord Fauntleroy (1936), Jezebel (1938), Dark Victory, Gone with the Wind, The Oklahoma Kid, Sergeant York, Desperate Journey, Now, Voyager; Casablanca, The Adventures of Mark Twain (1944), Since You Went Away, Arsenic and Old Lace, Adventures of Don Juan, Rhapsody in Blue, Mildred Pierce (1945), Night and Day, The Big Sleep (1946), Life with Father, The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, Key Largo, Johnny Belinda (1948), The Searchers, and A Summer Place. He was nominated for twenty four Academy Awards, winning three.
Max was the son of Mirjam/Marie Josefine “Mizzi,” a dancer, who also worked in the restaurant business, and Gabor Steiner, an impresario, carnival exposition manager, theatre manager, inventor, and operator of a music hall. His father was responsible for building the Wiener Riesenrad ferris wheel at the Prater amusement park in Leopoldstadt, Austria, in 1897; said to have been the world’s tallest ferris wheel for decades. His family was involved in business and the theatre, and was wealthy. His father was born in Temesvár/Timișoara, now Timiș County, Banat, Romania. His mother was from Graz, Styria. His uncle, Franz Steiner, was also a musician. Born Jewish, some of his relatives converted to Catholicism in Austria. His full name is sometimes referred to as Maximilian Raoul Walter Steiner.
Max conducted an American operetta, The Belle of New York, at the age of twelve. He attended the Vienna University of Technology, and later the Imperial Academy of Music. He moved to London, England, in the early 1910s, and was interned as an enemy alien during WWI; though given exit papers. He moved to the U.S. in 1914, settling in New York City, New York. In 1929, he went to work in Hollywood, Los Angeles, California.
Max was married to Leonette “Lee” Blair, until his death. He had a son with his former wife, harpist Louise Klos.
Max’s paternal grandfather was named Maximilian Steiner. Maximilian was born in Ofen/Buda, then in the Austrian Empire, and was an Austrian actor, and theatre director and manager. He led Vienna’s Theater an der Wien, from 1869 to 1880, and helped develop the Viennese style of operetta. He was said to have persuaded composer Johann Strauss II to write for the theatre. Max’s uncle Franz ran the Theater an der Wien for a few years after Maximilian’s death.
Max’s paternal grandmother was named Rosa “Szali” Kollinsky. Rosa was born in Timișoara, Timiș County, Romania.
Max’s maternal grandfather was surnamed Hollmann.
Max’s maternal grandmother was named Maria Hasiba.
Sources: Genealogies of Max Steiner – https://www.geni.com
https://www.findagrave.com
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