Biography

Emil Stepanek (21 February 1895 – 12 April 1945) was an Austrian set designer and film architect. Stepanek was born in Vienna, the son of a carpenter, and received a training in stage set construction, in which he worked for several years. Between 1916 and 1918 he had to perform military service. After the end of World War I he returned to his work in theatres.

In 1919 he had his first contact with the film industry. In the years that followed he often worked with the renowned film architects Julius von Borsody, Artur Berger and Alexander Ferenczy, particularly on the epic films of Sascha-Film directed by Alexander Korda and Michael Curtiz: Prinz und Bettelknabe (1920), Sodom und Gomorrha (1922), Die Sklavenkönigin (1924) and Salammbô (1924).

Stepanek remained in film set construction up to 1936, after which he worked in the area of executive film production. In 1944 he became director of the whole of set construction in the Rosenhügel Film Studios. On 12 April 1945, one day before the end of hostilities in World War II in Vienna, he lost his life in unexplained circumstances.