German-U.S. film director. He acted with M. Reinhardt's German stage company (1911-14) and in short film comedies, then turned to directing costume dramas which were the first German films shown abroad, incl. Passion (1919), Deception (1920), and The Loves of Pharaoh (1921), as well as such comedies as The Doll (1919) and The Oyster Princess (1919). He moved to Hollywood in 1923 and developed a style of sophisticated wit and unerring narrative timing--the famous "Lubitsch touch"--in such successful comedies as The Marriage Circle (1924), The Love Parade (1929), Trouble in Paradise (1932), Ninotchka (1939), The Shop Around the Corner (1940), To Be or Not to Be (1942), and Heaven Can Wait (1943).