Lili Damita

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Lili Damita around 1928 on a photograph by Alexander Binder

Lili Damita , also Lily Damita , actually Liliane Marie Madeleine Carré (born July 10, 1904 in Blaye , Gironde Department , France , † March 21, 1994 in Palm Beach , Florida , United States ), was a French-American film actress with Excursions to Austrian and German silent films .

Life

Lili Damita was considered one of the most beautiful and glamorous film divas of her time (late twenties, early thirties). As Liliane Carré, she trained as a dancer at the Paris Opera from 1918 and began her stage career at the age of 16 at Paris music halls . She soon made a name for herself as a dancer and singer. In the early 1920s it was built up to become the successor to the Mistinguett in the "Casino de Paris", initially under the pseudonym Damita del Rojo, then also as Lily Seslys.

At the age of 17 she got her first film role and from 1923 called herself only Lili (or Lily) Damita. The artist's breakthrough came in 1925 when she moved to Vienna , where the Hungarian director Mihaly Kertész made three films with her in quick succession ( The Toy of Paris, Fiaker No. 13 and The Golden Butterfly ). The great success brought Lily Damita a film offer from Berlin in 1926 . There, too, she found plenty of employment until the end of the silent film era, including in a by-work by GW Pabst .

During the transition from silent to talkies, the petite French woman accepted an invitation from Samuel Goldwyn and tried her luck in Hollywood. Initially employed there in "some notable early works ( The Rescue , The Bridge of San Luis Rey , Gamecocks of Love )", Lili Thusa's film career quickly silted up. After her last film, for which she returned to her old French homeland in 1937, Lili Damita settled permanently in the USA. Most recently she lived in Florida , now suffering from Alzheimer's disease, where she died at the age of almost 90.

Private

Thusa's No. 1 husband was Mihaly Kertész, the director of her three Austrian films (better known by his Americanized name Michael Curtiz ). The marriage lasted exactly as long as the shooting lasted: from 1925 to 1926.

During her subsequent stay in Germany, there was a violent liaison with the German Emperor's grandson Prince Louis Ferdinand , which was only ended under pressure from the family, as the actress was viewed as not befitting.

During one of her crossings to the USA, Lili Damita met the previously almost unknown Australian Errol Flynn on board . Both married in 1935, from this marriage the actor Sean Flynn emerged. Flynn quickly became a Hollywood star thanks to Soa's contacts in the film industry, ironically mainly through his adventure films directed by Michael Curtiz. This marriage to Flynn also ended in divorce in 1942.

From 1962 to 1983, the artist, who had long been inactive at the time, was married to an Iowa dairy farmer named Allen R. Loomis. The couple lived in Beverly Hills .

Since her son Sean, who worked as a photo reporter during the Vietnam War , did not return from an assignment in April 1970, Lili Damita has invested a fortune in the search for him.

Filmography

  • 1921: L'Empereur des pauvres
  • 1921: Corsica
  • 1922: La Fille sauvage
  • 1923: La Voyante
  • 1924: Le Retour
  • 1925: The Toys of Paris
  • 1926: Fiaker No. 13
  • 1926: The golden butterfly
  • 1926: You don't play with love
  • 1927: The Last Night (also English verse: The Queen Was in the Parlor )
  • 1927: The famous woman
  • 1928: The great adventurer
  • 1928: The woman under torture
  • 1928: The Rescue (The Rescue)
  • 1929: The Bridge of San Luis Rey (The Bridge of San Luis Rey)
  • 1929: Gamecocks of Love (The Cock-Eyed World)
  • 1930: Le Père Celibataire
  • 1930: Soyons gais
  • 1931: Quand on est belle
  • 1931: The Fighting Caravans
  • 1931: The Woman Between
  • 1931: Friends and Lovers
  • 1932: Madame loses her dress (This Is the Night)
  • 1932: The Match King
  • 1932: Une heure après de toi
  • 1933: Goldie Gets Along
  • 1933: The Stolen Millionaire (On a volé un homme)
  • 1934: Brewster's Millions
  • 1935: Frisco Kid
  • 1936: The Devil on Horseback
  • 1937: L'Escadrille de la chance

literature

  • Kay Less : The film's great personal dictionary . The actors, directors, cameramen, producers, composers, screenwriters, film architects, outfitters, costume designers, editors, sound engineers, make-up artists and special effects designers of the 20th century. Volume 2: C - F. John Paddy Carstairs - Peter Fritz. Schwarzkopf & Schwarzkopf, Berlin 2001, ISBN 3-89602-340-3 , p. 267.

Web links

Commons : Lili Damita  - collection of images

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Kay Less : The film's great personal dictionary . The actors, directors, cameramen, producers, composers, screenwriters, film architects, outfitters, costume designers, editors, sound engineers, make-up artists and special effects designers of the 20th century. Volume 2: C - F. John Paddy Carstairs - Peter Fritz. Schwarzkopf & Schwarzkopf, Berlin 2001, ISBN 3-89602-340-3 , p. 267.
  2. ↑ Cf. Several levels -Article 51/1968 aunt front 41/1966 swans and geese 20/1966 Extinct shine
  3. ^ David Ragan: Who's Who in Hollywood 1900–1976 . New Rochelle, New York, 5th edition November 1977. There it reads verbatim on page 103: “Missing in Action for many months before the war's end, he still has not been found - though his mother has spent a fortune in her search for him. "
personal data
SURNAME Damita, Lili
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Damita, Lily; Carré, Liliane Marie Madeleine (real name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION French-American film actress with excursions to Austrian and German silent films
DATE OF BIRTH July 10, 1904
PLACE OF BIRTH Blaye , Gironde department , France
DATE OF DEATH March 21, 1994
Place of death Palm Beach , Florida , United States