Lya Mara

Lya Mara. Photograph by Alexander Binder , around 1929

Lya Mara (actually Alexandra Gudowitsch ; Latvian : Aleksandra Gudoviča ; born August 1, 1897 in Riga , Livonia Governorate , Russian Empire ; † March 1, 1960 in western Switzerland) was a German silent film actress of Latvian- Polish origin.

Life

After dropping out of school, attending a ballet school and a first job at the ballet of the State Theater in Riga, she went to Warsaw in 1913 and became a prima ballerina . Initially on the side, she appeared as Mia-Mara in Polish films from 1916 , where she starred in two films with Pola Negri .

The director, producer and actor Friedrich Zelnik discovered her and brought her to Berlin in 1917, where from now on she appeared almost exclusively in his specially tailored entertainment films. Her first German film was The Sex of the Rogues. 1st part . In the same year, Zelnik married Lya Mara. The subjects of her films were colportal and did not stand out from the average entertainment film of the time. In the 1920s she stood in front of the camera several times with Hans Albers ( Lydia Sanin , 1922, On orders from the Pompadour , 1924, The Venus of Montmarte , 1925 and The Red Circle , 1929).

From around 1925 Lya Mara played in commercially successful silent film operettas such as Die Försterchristl , An der Schöne Blaue Donau , Der Zigeunerbaron and others. a. next to Alfred Abel and Harry Liedtke . In the course of this success, a series of novels was published as dime books under the title Lya. The romance of a cinema queen . Then she retired from the film business. Her only sound film is the Zelnik production Everyone Asks for Erika (1931).

In 1933 she went into exile with her husband in London, where her trace is temporarily lost. After his death in 1950, Lya Mara moved to Switzerland to live with her sister. She was buried in Ronco near Ascona .

Filmography

1916: Student love
1916: Bestia
1917: The Sex of the Rogues, Part 1
1918: The nun and the harlequin
1918: The Rothenburgers
1918: Halka's pledge
1918: The sex of the rogue. Part 2
1919: Charlotte Corday
1919: Maria Evere
1919: Manon. The high song of love
1919: The heiress of Monte Christo
1919: The House of Innocence
1920: A Demimonde marriage
1920: The Princess of the Nile
1920: The experiences of the famous dancer Fanny Elßler
1920: Anna Karenina
1920: Kri-Kri, the Duchess of Tarabac
1920: Carnival
1921: Count Varenne's mistress
1921: Miss Beryll ... a millionaire's whim
1921: From the memoirs of a film actress
1921: Trix, the novel of a millionaire
1921: Tanja, the woman on the chain
1921: The girl from Piccadilly. 2 parts
1921: The marriage of Princess Demidoff
1922: The king's mistress
1922: Yvette, the fashion princess
1922: The daughter of Napoleon
1922: Humiliated and insulted
1922: The girl from hell
1922: Lyda Ssanin
1922: The men of Sybill
1923: Daisy. A lady's adventure
1923: Katyusha Maslowa
1923: Nelly, the bride without a husband
1924: The mistress of Monbijou
1924: The girl from Capri
1924: By order of the Pompadour
1925: The Venus of Montmartre
1925: The cherry season
1925: women who are often not greeted
1926: The Forester Christian
1926: On the beautiful blue Danube
1926: The laughing cricket
1927: The Gypsy Baron
1927: The dancing Vienna . At The Beautiful Blue Danube. Part 2
1928: Mariett is dancing today
1928: Mary Lou
1928: My heart is a jazz band
1929: The red circle
1931: Everyone asks about Erika

literature

Walther Killy , Rudolf Vierhaus (ed.): German Biographical Encyclopedia . Volume 6: Kogel - Maxsein. Saur, Munich et al. 1997, ISBN 3-598-23166-0 .
Kay Less : "In life, more is taken from you than given ...". Lexicon of filmmakers who emigrated from Germany and Austria between 1933 and 1945. A general overview. Acabus-Verlag, Hamburg 2011, ISBN 978-3-86282-049-8 , p. 68 f.

Web links

Commons : Lya Mara - collection of images

Individual evidence

↑ The date and place of death come from the film lexicon by Kay Less: "In life, more is taken from you than given ...". Lexicon of filmmakers who emigrated from Germany and Austria between 1933 and 1945. A general overview. 2011, p. 68 f.
^ Gerhard Lamprecht : German silent films 1917–1918 . Deutsche Kinemathek eV, Berlin 1969, p. 19 .

personal data
SURNAME	Mara, Lya
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Gudowitsch, Alexandra (maiden name); Gudoviča, Aleksandra (Latvian)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	German silent film actress of Latvian-Polish origin
DATE OF BIRTH	August 1, 1897
PLACE OF BIRTH	Riga
DATE OF DEATH	March 1, 1960
Place of death	western Switzerland

[1] The date and place of death come from the film lexicon by Kay Less: "In life, more is taken from you than given ...". Lexicon of filmmakers who emigrated from Germany and Austria between 1933 and 1945. A general overview. 2011, p. 68 f.

[2] Gerhard Lamprecht : German silent films 1917–1918 . Deutsche Kinemathek eV, Berlin 1969, p. 19 .