Aleksandër Moisiu
Alexander Moissi (; ; 2 April 1879 – 22/23 March 1935) was an Austrian stage actor of Albanian origin. Early years Moissi was born in Trieste to Moisi Moisiu from Kavaye, Ottoman Empire (today Kavajë in Albania), who was a rich Albanian merchant of oil and wheat, and an Arbëresh mother, Amalia de Rada, from Trieste, daughter of a Florentine doctor. After an international childhood in Trieste, Durrës and Graz, the 20-year-old Alexander settled with his mother and two sisters in Vienna. He began vocal studies and applied for a drama training at the k.k. Hofburgtheater, but was rejected due to his strong Italian accent and had to confine himself to non-speaking roles. It was his performance in Molière's Tartuffe of the Burgtheater 1899/1900 season, which stunned the renowned Austrian actor Josef Kainz, playing the lead role. With Kainz' encouragement and support, Moissi's career as one of the great European stage actors of the early-20th century began. The following year took him to the New German Theatre in Prague and in 1903 he joined the ensemble of the Deutsches Theater in Berlin, where he became a protégé of the influential director Max Reinhardt. Together with Rudolph Schildkraut he performed in