Ernst Reicher

German actor, screenwriter, film producer and film director of the silent era. For more than a decade from 1914, Reicher wrote and starred as fictional detective Stuart Webbs, and was closely identified with the part.

At Continental-Kunstfilm's studios Ernst Reicher acted, wrote scripts and directed films from 1912 to 1918. In December 1912 he starred in Vorglühen des Balkanbrandes, directed by Joe May. He wrote, directed and starred in two films: Das Werk in February 1913, and Die Statue in 1914, which was banned by the Berlin police censor until 1919.

From March to May 1914 he wrote and starred in the first three of the Stuart Webbs detective films, a popular detective series directed by Joe May for Continental in which he played a gentleman detective modelled on Sherlock Holmes: Die geheimnisvolle Villa; Der Mann im Keller; and Der Spuk im Haus des Professors. When World War I broke out, Joe May split with Reicher to make his own Joe Deebs detective motion pictures.

It was not until 1918 that Reicher turned to other topics. On 1 April 1919, he moved the headquarters of his film company to Munich. His most elaborate production was The Book of Esther (1919) in which he also starred. At the beginning of the twenties he suffered a serious car accident, in which he suffered a vertebral and fractured skull. Only from 1926 he appeared again on the screen, but he could no longer build on previous successes.

After the seizure of power in 1933 by the National Socialists (Nazis), Reicher emigrated to Prague, where he fell into oblivion. His last, tiny role in the 1936 French-language remake of The Golem was cut out of the final version. He was found dead in a Prague hotel room on 1 May 1936, aged 50.