Germaine Damar

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Germaine Damar in June 2011 (Photo François Besch )

Germaine Damar (born August 31, 1929 in Pétange ) is a Luxembourgish film actress and acrobatic artist. Her real name is Germaine Haeck , later Germaine Haeck Toporow , in some film credits she is also listed under her temporary stage name Ria Poncelet .

origin

She was the third of four daughters of the ironworker Dominique Haeck and his wife Barbara Poncelet. In the Niederkorn gymnastics club , Germaine Damar laid the foundations for her later career. With her sister Geny and two gymnastics teachers, she formed the acrobatic quartet Los Habaneros here . However, she fled to Paris with her parents and siblings on May 10, 1940 after the occupation of Luxembourg by German troops. There the twelve-year-old continued to develop her talents and performed together with her sister Geny and her former gymnastics teacher Atilio Bariviera as Trio Delux in the Alhambra and the Bobino . On the side she took dance lessons and trained in acting and ballet.

job

After the Second World War , she traveled to North Africa and the Middle East and performed with her sister Sylvie and her husband as Trio Vialine in Cairo before King Faruk . She now carried the stage name Ria Poncelet . In Cairo she also met the actress Zarah Leander , whom she arranged for test shoots for May 10, 1952 at the Herzog Filmverleih . Shortly afterwards she got her first role in the revue film Tanzende Sterne , although Herbert Tischendorf (producer) and Robert A. Stemmle (director) were not satisfied with the recordings, Géza von Cziffra was looking for such a talented dancer for his music film. She changed her name from Germaine Haeck to Germaine Damar and was considered a French dancer in the press for a long time.

After this breakthrough, Germaine Damar received a contract and starred in another 28 films, including three films with Peter Alexander as a partner. Her best-known music / dance film The Legs of Dolores (1957) was a huge hit in Argentina , and Germaine Damar moved to South America for three years and became a popular television star there who received her own television show. In 1963 she shot her last movie in Spain.

For his documentary Germaine Damar - Der tanzende Stern (2011), director Michael Wenk brought the Luxembourg actress back in front of the camera decades after her career ended. In the documentary, Germaine Damar looks back on her seemingly magical rise to the screen star of the 1950s, but also reports on professional and private failures.

Private

Germaine Damar was in a relationship with actor Georg Thomalla and producer Andreas C. Schuller for some time . In Argentina she married the American Roman G. Toporow. In 1964 she gave up the job, in 1966 her son Roman Martin was born. Her husband died in 1993 and Germaine Damar has lived in Fort Lauderdale , Florida ever since .

Filmography

Documentary about Germaine Damar

literature

  • Viviane Thill, Paul Lesch (Red.): Germaine Damar: A Luxembourg star in German film of the 50s . Center nationale de l'audiovisuel, Dudelange 1995.
  • Manfred Hobsch: love, dance and 1000 hit films . Schwarzkopf & Schwarzkopf Verlag, Berlin 1998.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1974263/
personal data
SURNAME Damar, Germaine
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Haeck, Germaine (maiden name); Poncelet, Ria (stage name); Haeck Toporow, Germaine (name after marriage)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Luxembourgish film actress
DATE OF BIRTH August 31, 1929
PLACE OF BIRTH Pétange , Luxembourg