Lya Lys

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Lya Lys, born as Natalia Margoulies (also written Margulies ; * May 18, 1908 in Berlin , Prussia , German Empire ; † June 2, 1986 in Newport Beach , Orange County , California , USA ), was a Russian and French-born , naturalized US - Actress .

Live and act

False and contradicting information has been circulating about Lya Lys for many years. Contrary to what is often claimed, she was not born as Nathalie Lyecht. Her father was a banker by the name of Marg (o) ulies and was living in Berlin when she was born in 1908. Her mother was a French pediatrician named Ina Blumenfeld. Shortly after the outbreak of hostilities that led to the outbreak of World War I at the beginning of August 1914 , her parents, who, as Russians and French, were now Germany's enemy nations, had to flee Berlin and finally settled in France with their daughter. Natalia grew up in Switzerland for a while. According to an obituary in the Los Angeles Times , she is said to have studied languages at the Sorbonne .

In Paris, the 21-year-old, who has now adapted her first name to the French “Nathalie”, looked for a connection with the (still silent) film. Julien Duvivier gave her her first role in his internationally cast novel, Irene Rysbergues' great love . After a late and insignificant German silent film from 1930, Moral at Midnight, in which she played a supporting role alongside Gustav Diessl and Camilla Horn , Lya Lys became well known in the same year for her appearance in Luis Buñuel's legendary, surrealist experimental film The golden age . Although she played the main role there, Lya Lys did not manage to develop her career. She then played on the side of Buster Keaton in a German and a French version of one of his US films and then moved to the United States, where she was briefly (1931) married to the US actor George Morton (1908-1966).

In her second marriage, Lya Lys married businessman Percy S. Montague and took his surname. In 1933 Lya Lys was naturalized in California and was now officially called Nathalie Margoulis Montague. But even this marriage was short-lived. As an actress, Lya Lys continued to appear under her stage name, but her roles soon dwindled to batch format. In some productions, such as the adventure film Bengali with Gary Cooper , her name was not even mentioned in the opening credits. A slightly larger role was her debut in 1939 in the first major anti-Nazi propaganda film in Hollywood, Confessions of a Nazi Spy , granted. Towards the end of the same year she was seen in the horror story The Second Life of Dr. X with Humphrey Bogart "as the vampiric title hero". In the following year (1940) Lya Lys ended her all in all rather lackluster film career and in January of the same year married in Las Vegas for the third time, this time the machine manufacturer John Gunnerson from Chicago.

The following years remained hidden in the dark for a long time. This was followed by massive financial setbacks. Lys' writes for the Associated Press in 1943 . At that time she wrote fashion and make-up tips for several provincial newspapers. Also in 1943, they separated from Gunnerson in a lightning divorce. In 1954 Lya Lys married again in Florida , this time a certain George Feit; this marriage lasted until her death.

Filmography (complete)

  • 1929: Irene Rysbergue's great love (Maman Colibri)
  • 1930: the golden age
  • 1930: Soyons gai
  • 1930: morale at midnight
  • 1931: Casanova reluctantly
  • 1931: Buster se marie
  • 1933: Clear all Wires!
  • 1933: The Big Brain
  • 1933: Jimmy and Sally
  • 1934: Bengali
  • 1935: George White's 1935 Scandals
  • 1935: La veuve joyeuse
  • 1935: Vagabond Lady
  • 1937: Who is Martin Mills? ( The Great Gambini )
  • 1938: My Dear Miss Aldrich
  • 1938: Rogue with heart ( The Young in Heart )
  • 1939: I was a Nazi spy
  • 1939: The second life of Dr. X ( The Return of Doctor X )
  • 1940: Murder in the Air

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Los Angeles Times v. June 8, 1986, p. 24.
  2. ↑ Lys naturalization on ancestry.com
  3. ↑ 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 1: A - C. Erik Aaes - Jack Carson. Schwarzkopf & Schwarzkopf, Berlin 2001, ISBN 3-89602-340-3 , p. 443.
  4. ↑ AP Name Card at ancestry.com
  5. ↑ Florida Lys marriage on ancestry.com
personal data
SURNAME Lys, Lya
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Lys, Lya (full name); Margoulies, Natalia (maiden name); Margulies
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Russian and French-born, naturalized US actress
DATE OF BIRTH May 18, 1908
PLACE OF BIRTH Berlin , Prussia , German Empire
DATE OF DEATH June 2, 1986
Place of death Newport Beach , Orange County , California , USA