Georg Jacobsohn was born into a Jewish household in Schmiegel, Province of Posen, Imperial Germany.

In 1904, he was engaged at the Theater of Wilhelmshaven, followed by appearances at Stolp in 1905, Altona, Mülheim an der Ruhr, Bochum and Göttingen.

In 1917, John first appeared in silent movies, playing a Tibetan monk in Die Fremde (The Stranger), and Death in Hilde Warren und der Tod (Hilde Warren and Death).

Beginning in the 1920s, John appeared in the films of notable German filmmakers, where he often played bizarre, gnome-like figures, such as the beggar in Fritz Lang's Der müde Tod (Tired Death, 1921, released in English as Destiny), and the blind balloon-seller who recognizes the murderer due to a whistled song in 1931's M. For F. W. Murnau he played a night-watchman in Der Letzte Mann (The Last Man, 1924, released in English as The Last Laugh).

[1] Being a Jew, John was deported in autumn 1941 to the Łódź Ghetto where he died on 18 November 1941 at the age of 62.