Biography

In the 20s he shot many entertainment movies, adventure stories, crimes and historical productions as a director.

He was married with the actress Eva May who shot herself in 1924 at the age of 22. His sister was the actress Loo Hardy who committed suicide in 1938 at the age 40 during her exile in London.

Manfred Noa directed the historic movie "Helena" (1924) which was running more than 3 hours and was brought to the cinemas in two parts. Although the movie is regarded as one of the great classics and the cinematical skill delights today the movie was not able to yield the enormous costs of the production. Thereby the production company Bavaria got into a financial disorder and had to declare bankruptcy the next year.

He realised the silent movies "Schneider Wibbel" (1920) and "Söhne der Nacht" (1921) before his movie "Nathan der Weise" (1922) became an enormous success. The production company Emelka became skyrocketing because of the box-office takings. The movie was casted with many well-known actors and actresses of that time like Ernst Matray, Max Schreck (the main actor from "Nosferatu"), Ferdinand Martini, Rudolf Lettinger, Margarete Kupfer, Werner Krauss, Lia Eibenschütz, Carl de Vogt and Fritz Greiner. The later very popular actor Carl-Heinz Schroth made his film debut with a small support role.

The director Manfred Noa belongs to the forgotten film cineast of the silent movie era although he realised some remarkable movies. His early death in 1930 may contributed to this circumstance.