Trivia

Obtained a PhD in Mathematics before turning to writing novels.

Decided to emigrate from his native Germany to England after hearing an anti-Semitic tirade by Nazi propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels.

Landed a worldwide success with his novel "Donovan's Brain" in 1942, which was filmed four times over the next 20 years.

His science-fiction novel "F.P. 1 antwortet nicht" attracted great attention and was filmed as F.P.1 Doesn't Answer (1932) with Hans Albers and Sybille Schmitz. The movie was a great international success. It was his last film in Germany before he fled to Switzerland in 1933 to escape the Nazis. However, in Switzerland he was chased away as an illegal immigrant and had to go to England via France. There he had his breakthrough with the draft for Transatlantic Tunnel (1935).

Brother of Robert Siodmak.

Spent much time in the small central California mountain resort town of Three Rivers before moving there permanently in the 1970s, and where he lived until his death. Three Rivers is not far from the city of Visalia--clearly the inspiration for the name of the fictional town of Visaria, the setting for the Wolfman movies.

In 1937 he went to the US, where he already had a good reputation because of his earlier novels. He was introduced to Universal by Joe May, also an emigrated German director. It was at Universal where Siodmak became identified with science-fiction and horror; especially with movies like The Invisible Man Returns (1940), The Invisible Woman (1940) and The Wolf Man (1941).

He and brother Robert Siodmak started in the film business writing German inter-titles for Mack Sennett comedies.

Became an American citizen in 1963.

Studied mathematics, physics and engineer science since in Zurich in 1926.

Was , the son of Rosa Philippine (née Blum) and Ignatz Siodmak. His parents were both from Jewish families in Leipzig.

In the plots of his work, he utilized the latest scientific findings, combining those with pseudo-scientific motifs like the Jekyll and Hyde complex, the Nazi trauma and the East-West dichotomy.

His final significant genre credit was for Terence Fisher's German production Sherlock Holmes and the Deadly Necklace (1962).

He began his writing career in his 20s with such stories as "Die Eier von Tangayika" (1926) and "Helene droht zu platzen" (1929).

Has written an opera, "Song of Frankenstein", and a play about Jack the Ripper.

He took early royalties earned by his first books and invested in People on Sunday (1930), a documentary-style chronicle of the lives of four Berliners on a Sunday based on their own lives. The movie was co-directed by Robert Siodmak. and Edgar G. Ulmer, with a script by Billy Wilder in collaboration with Fred Zinnemann and cameraman Eugen Schüfftan. Siodmak was the nephew of producer Seymour Nebenzal, who funded "Menschen am Sonntag" with funds borrowed from his father, Heinrich Nebenzahl.

In 1928 he wrote scripts for movies for the first time; his idea for the script for People on Sunday (1930) constituted the first directorial success for his brother Robert Siodmak.

In 1998 he won the Berlinale Camera at the 48th Berlin International Film Festival.

An extensive interview with him about his career in both Germany and Hollywood is found in Eric Leif Davin's "Pioneers of Wonder".

Nephew of Seymour Nebenzal.