Nils Olaf Chrisander

Who was Nils Olaf Chrisander?

Nils Olaf Chrisander was a Swedish actor and film director in the early part of the twentieth-century.

Born Waldemar Olaf Chrisander in Stockholm, Sweden, Chrisander's first screen appearances as an actor were in German and Swedish silent films in the mid-1910s. His first motion picture role role was in the 1915 Carl Schönfeld-directed German silent film drama Um ein Weib.

As an actor, Chrisander is possibly best recalled for starring as "Erik the Phantom" in the now lost 1916 Ernst Matray-directed German adaptaion of Gaston Leroux's novel The Phantom of the Opera opposite Norwegian actress Aud Egede-Nissen. Matray's version is the first film adaptation of Leroux's 1909-1910 serialized novel. In 1917, he appeared opposite the popular Polish film actress Pola Negri in her first role in a German production, Nicht lange täuschte mich das Glück. In 1919, he co-directed the German silent film Alraune und der Golem with actor and director Paul Wegener.

After performing in a film serial for director Karl Gerhardt opposite actress Lil Dagover from 1920 to 1921, Chrisander began his career in Germany as a director. In total, he directed three films in Germany, before relocating to the United States where he directed two dramatic films: 1927's Fighting Love, starring Jetta Goudal, Victor Varconi and Henry B. Walthall for Cecil B. DeMille Pictures, and that same year, The Heart Thief, starring Joseph Schildkraut and Lya De Putti.