Elisabeth Bergner

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Elisabeth Bergner
Austro-Hungarian Empire (now Drohobych, Ukraine)
Died12 May 1986(1986-05-12) (aged 88)
, England
OccupationActress
Years active1924–1984
Spouse
(m. 1933; died 1972)
[2]
Elisabeth Bergner during her visit to Israel, 1949. Beno Rothenberg, Meitar collection, National Library of Israel
Elisabeth Bergner during her visit to Israel, 1949. Beno Rothenberg, Meitar collection, National Library of Israel

Elisabeth Bergner (22 August 1897 – 12 May 1986) was an Austrian-British actress. Primarily a stage actress, her career flourished in Berlin and Paris before she moved to London to work in films. Her signature role was Gemma Jones in

Drama League.[4]

Life and career

She was born Ella vel Ettel Bergner in

Schmelke Juda) Bergner,[5] a merchant. She grew up in a secular Jewish home. The Hebrew she heard in her childhood was associated with Yom Kippur and Pesach, and on her visits to Israel, she apologized for not knowing the language.[6][7][8]

She first acted on stage at age 14, and appeared in Innsbruck a year later. In Vienna at age 16, she toured Austrian and German provinces with a Shakespearean company. She worked as an artist's model, posing for sculptor Wilhelm Lehmbruck, who fell in love with her. She eventually moved to Munich and later Berlin.[9]

In 1923, she made her film debut in Der Evangelimann. With the rise of

Catherine the Great was banned in Germany because of the government's racial policies, according to Time on 26 March 1934.[9]
She was naturalised as a British subject in 1938.

She was nominated for an

Shakespeare's play, and the first sound film of any Shakespeare play filmed in England. Bergner had previously played the role on the German stage, and several critics found that her accent got in the way of their enjoyment of the film, which was not a success. She returned intermittently to the stage, for instance in the title role of John Webster's The Duchess of Malfi in 1946.[10]

Bergner temporarily returned to Germany in 1954, where she acted in movies and on the stage; the Berlin district of

Golden Globe for Best Foreign-Language Foreign Film of 1974. In 1980, Austria awarded her the Cross of Merit for Science and Art, and, in 1982, she won the Eleonora Duse Prize Asolo.[9]

Death

She later moved to London, where she died, aged 88, from cancer.[11] She was cremated at Golders Green Crematorium on 15 May 1986, where she is commemorated with an oval memorial tablet in the West Cloister.

All About Eve

According to

The Wisdom of Eve" appeared in Cosmopolitan in 1946. The play based on that story was the basis for Joseph L. Mankiewicz's All About Eve. The episode occurred when Bergner was performing in the play The Two Mrs. Carrolls. Bergner took pity on a "waif-like" young woman who stood outside the theater for days on end. She gave her a job as her secretary, and the young actress tried to "take over" Bergner's life.[12]

Literary references

The character of Dora Martin in the novel Mephisto by Klaus Mann reportedly is based on her.[13]

Bibliography

  • Anne Jespersen: Toedliche Wahrheit oder raffinierte Taeuschung. "Die Frauen in den Filmen Elisabeth Bergners" in Michael Omasta, Brigitte Mayr, Christian Cargnelli (eds.): Carl Mayer, Scenarist: Ein Script von ihm war schon ein Film – "A script by (in German and English)

Partial filmography

See also

References

  1. ^ "Birth certificate of Elisabeth Bergner giving forename as "Ella vel Ettel"". Retrieved 13 January 2022.
  2. ^ "Elisabeth Bergner". Nndb.com. Retrieved 2 December 2017.
  3. ^ Biography (1943), playbill.com. Accessed 13 December 2016.
  4. ^ "Broadway Show Log". The Billboard. Vol. 56, no. 20. Nielsen Business Media. 13 May 1944. p. 29. Retrieved 2 December 2017 – via Google Books.
  5. ^ "Birth certificate of Elisabeth Bergner". Retrieved 13 January 2022.
  6. ^ Elisabeth Ettel background, books.google.ca; accessed March 6, 2015.
  7. ^ Bergner profile, books.google.ca. Accessed 6 March 2015.
  8. ^ Profile, Haaretz.com. Accessed 6 March 2015.
  9. ^ a b c Profile, jwa.org. Accessed 6 March 2015.
  10. ^ Bergner in The Duchess of Malfi, nytimes.com. Accessed 21 March 2023.
  11. ^ "Elisabeth Bergner, an Actress in Plays and Films, Dies at 85". The New York Times. 13 May 1986. Retrieved 6 October 2019.
  12. ISSN 0362-4331
    . Retrieved 7 October 2019.
  13. ^ Mephisto Archived 3 April 2015 at the Wayback Machine, Rowohlt.de; accessed 18 May 2015.(in German)

External links