The Swedish actor and director Nils Chrisander conquered the German silver screen from 1915, first as an actor, from 1919 as a director too.
By 1930, he was living at S. Gramercy Place in Los Angeles, California. Later on he moved back to Sweden, where in he lived in a small village in the south of the country.
In 1919, he co-directed the German silent film Alraune und der Golem with actor and director Paul Wegener.
As an actor, Chrisander is possibly best recalled for starring as "Erik the Phantom" in the now lost 1916 Ernst Matray-directed German adaptation Das Phantom der Oper, based on 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 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.
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.
