Fern Andra

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Fern Andra

Fern Andra ( Fern Edna Andrews (birth name); Vernal Andrews (further name); Baroness Fern Andra von Weichs (further name); born  November 24, 1894 in Watseka , Illinois , † February 8, 1974 in Aiken , South Carolina ) was one American actress , director , screenwriter and film producer . Along with Henny Porten and Asta Nielsen , she was one of the most popular and well-known actresses in German silent films of the 1910s.

Life

As the daughter of an artist and an opera singer, she stood on stage for the first time with a tightrope act at the age of four. She received lessons in dance and singing. In 1899 she made her first film in New York : Uncle Tom's Cabin . At first, however, she stayed true to the artistry and toured with a circus troupe through the USA, Canada and Europe.

Fern Andra met Max Reinhardt in Berlin , with whom she took acting lessons. In 1913 she starred in her first German film entitled Das Ave Maria . Still not very well known, she also appeared in an Austrian film for the only time in 1915 ( Zwei Freunde ). In line with the tastes of the contemporary audience, she appeared primarily in sentimental entertainment films, but also impressed with artistic performances in circus films . Between 1916 and 1918 she was almost exclusively in front of the camera with Alfred Abel , in 1920 she starred in Robert Wienes Genuine . She produced the majority of her films between 1915 and 1925 together with her (since 1917) partner Georg Bluen , with her own company Andra-Film and Fern Andra-Film Co. Georg Bluen. In the mid-1920s, her popularity with the German audience waned, so that from 1928 she worked in Great Britain and the USA, and later there also for radio and television. She played her last film role in 1930 in Lotus Lady .

In 1919 she published a novel called The Path That Led Into the Glass House. The novel of a woman's life , followed in 1920 by the autobiography What I know to say about myself .

She caused a stir in 1922 as the victim of a plane crash near Hamburg-Fuhlsbüttel , in which the pilot Lothar von Richthofen was killed. She survived seriously injured.

Fern Andra was married four times without children. Her first husband, Freiherr Friedrich von und zu Weichs , fell in 1917, her second marriage to Kurt Prenzel in 1924 was divorced, as was her third marriage to actor Ian Keith in 1932 . Her fourth husband, Sam Edge Dockrell, died in 1973.

Filmography (selection)

Works

  • Fern Andra: The path that led into the glass house. Novel of a woman's life. , Paul & Co, Berlin 1919.
  • Fern Andra: What I can say about myself. , Kino-Album 1, Mörlins, Berlin 1920.

annotation

  1. ↑ The year of birth is also given in some sources as 1893 or 1895.
  2. ↑ Book title mentioned at Filmportal

Web links

Commons : Fern Andra  - Collection of Images
personal data
SURNAME Andra, Fern
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Andrews, Fern Edna; Andrews, Vernal; Andra von Weichs, Fern (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American actress, director, screenwriter and film producer
DATE OF BIRTH November 24, 1894
PLACE OF BIRTH Watseka , Illinois
DATE OF DEATH February 8, 1974
Place of death Aiken , South Carolina