Jetta Goudal

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Jetta Goudal
Forest Lawn Memorial Park, Glendale
OccupationActress
Years active1918–1932
Spouse
​
(m. 1930)​

Jetta Goudal (/ˈʒɛtə/, born Julie Henriette Goudeket; July 12, 1891 – January 14, 1985) was a Dutch-American actress, successful in Hollywood films of the silent film era.

Early life

Goudal was born on July 12, 1891, the daughter of Geertruida (née Warradijn; 1866–1920) and Wolf Mozes Goudeket (1860–1942), a wealthy diamond cutter, in Amsterdam.

Orthodox.[3] She had an older sister, Bertha (1888–1945), and a younger brother, Willem, who died when he was 4 months old in 1896. Her father remarried in 1929 to Rosette Citroen (1882–1943). Her father was murdered at Sobibor extermination camp, age 82. Almost all of her Dutch-Jewish relatives met the same fate. Only a daughter of her sister Bertha survived The Holocaust
.

Tall and regal in appearance, she began her acting career on stage, traveling across Europe with various theater companies. In 1918, she left

Versailles on July 12, 1901 (shaving 10 years off her age as well), the daughter of a fictional Maurice Guillaume Goudal, a lawyer.[1][4]

Career

She first appeared on Broadway in 1921, using the stage name Jetta Goudal. After meeting director Sidney Olcott, who encouraged her venture into film acting, she accepted a bit part in his 1922 film production Timothy's Quest. Convinced to move to the West Coast of the United States, Goudal appeared in two more Olcott films in the ensuing three years.

Goudal's first role in motion pictures came in

Lower East Side. Goudal then worked in the Adolph Zukor and Jesse L. Lasky co-production of The Spaniard and her growing fame brought her to the attention of producer/director Cecil B. DeMille
.

Goudal appeared in several highly successful and acclaimed films for DeMille and became one of the top box-office draws of the late 1920s. DeMille later claimed that Goudal was so difficult to work with that he eventually fired her and cancelled their contract. Goudal filed a lawsuit for breach of contract against him and DeMille Pictures Corporation. Although DeMille claimed her conduct had caused numerous and costly production delays, Goudal won the suit in a landmark ruling when DeMille was unwilling to provide his studio's financial records to support his claim of financial losses.

Goudal appeared in 1928's The Cardboard Lover, produced by

D.W. Griffith, and in 1930, Jacques Feyder
directed Goudal in her only French-language film, a made-in-Hollywood production titled Le Spectre vert.

Later career

Because of her audaciousness in suing DeMille and her high-profile activism in the

Fox Film Corporation
production of Business and Pleasure.

Personal life and death

In 1930, she married Harold Grieve, an art director and founding member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. When her film career ended, she joined Grieve in running a successful interior design business. They remained married until her death in 1985 in Los Angeles.[5] She is interred next to her husband in a private room at the Great Mausoleum, Sanctuary of the Angels, at Forest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery in Glendale, California.

In 1960, for recognition of Goudal's contribution to the motion picture industry, she was honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6333 Hollywood Blvd.[6]

On April 19, 2019, the city council of Amsterdam renamed bridge 771, previously without a name, the Jetta Goudalbridge. In early 2020, the name tag was installed.

Holocaust

Jetta Goudal lost nearly all her relatives in

Sobibór extermination camp
. Jetta Goudal's stepmother, Rosette Citroen, was also killed at Sobibor in 1943. Only Bertha's daughter, Geertruida (Truus) Beffie survived the war and died in 2013 in Pennsylvania, United States.

Filmography

Year Title Role Notes
1922 Timothy's Quest
1923 The Bright Shawl La Pilar
The Green Goddess Ayah
1924 Open All Night Lea
1925 The Spaniard Dolores Annesley Lost film
Salome of the Tenements Sonya Mendel Lost film
The Coming of Amos Princess Nadia Ramiroff
The Road to Yesterday Malena Paulton
1926 Three Faces East Miss Hawtree / Fraulein Marks
Paris at Midnight Delphine
Her Man o' War Cherie Schultz
1927 Fighting Love Donna Vittoria
White Gold Dolores Carson
The Forbidden Woman Zita Gautier
1928 The Cardboard Lover Simone
1929 Lady of the Pavements Countess Diane des Granges
1930 Le Spectre vert
1932 Business and Pleasure Madame Momora

References

  1. ^
    ISBN 0-8131-2249-X
    . page 146.
  2. ^ Information Archived May 6, 2006, at the Wayback Machine at classicimages.com
  3. ^ "Elisabeth n » Stamboom van Emden (Culemborg) » Genealogie Online".
  4. ^ Benham, Charles C. "JETTA GOUDAL: The Exotic" Archived February 8, 2005, at the Wayback Machine at www.classicimages.com (September 1999)
  5. ^ "Silent Film Actress Jetta Goudal Dies." Los Angeles Times. January 16, 1985, Page OC13.
  6. ^ "Jetta Goudal | Hollywood Walk of Fame". www.walkoffame.com. 25 October 2019. Retrieved 2020-03-06.

Further reading

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Jetta Goudal.
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