He was born in Karlovy Vary, Bohemia, Austria-Hungary, but his family came from Ústí nad Labem.
He then moved to Germany and shot his first film Storms in May there in 1919, under the pseudonym Franz Planer.
[1] When the Nazis came to power, he decided to move from Germany to Austria and then to Great Britain.
He decided to change his name again to Franz Planer, this time officially and permanently.
[1] He shot over 130 movies in Hollywood, including Letter from an Unknown Woman (1948), The Big Country (1958) and Breakfast at Tiffany's (1961).