Conrad Veidt
Conrad Veidt was a true master of the silent screen. He starred in one of the first pro-gay films ever in the German silent film Different from the Others (1919). A year later he starred in the German Expressionist masterpiece The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920). Veidt also memorably portrayed a circus performer with a grotesque smile in The Man Who Laughs (1928). Veidt fled Germany in 1933 after the rise of the Nazis and starred in British and American productions for the rest of his life including The Thief of Bagdad (1940) and his final role in Casablanca (1942). Many of his films are available to stream for free online.