Gustav von Seyffertitz

Gustav von Seyffertitz (1863-1943) was an Austrian actor.

Born in Vienna, he had long experience as a stage actor in Germany and the United States before arriving in Hollywood in 1917. To avoid the anti-German sentiment aroused by World War I, he made his first films under the name G. Butler Clonblough. In 1919, he directed the film The Secred Garden under that pseudonym. He later directed three more films, as G. V. Seyffertitz.

During the 1920s he made many films, usually as the villain, for example as Moriarty in Sherlock Holmes (1922) with John Barrymore in the title role. The coming of sound revealed his strong foreign accent, but that caused him few problems as he just moved to playing foreigners. He retired in 1939.