Maria Forescu | |
---|---|
![]() | |
Born | Maria Füllenbaum 15 January 1875 |
Died | 28 October 1947 72) | (aged
Occupation | Film actress |
Years active | 1913–1933 |
Maria Forescu (15 January 1875 – 28 October 1947) was an Austro-Hungarian-born Romanian opera singer and film actress. During the silent and talkies era of the German cinema, she appeared in several movies as a supporting actress. When Adolf Hitler came to power, Forescu, like other Jews of that period, was barred from her profession. Living undercover during the later years of World War II, she survived the Holocaust and died in 1947 in East Berlin.
Forescu was born Maria Füllenbaum [1] on 15 January 1875, [2] in Czernowitz, Austria-Hungary. She attended a boarding school in Paris. She studied singing, music and drama at the Prague Conservatory. Around the turn of the century, she debuted as an operetta singer and soon became a well known member of the renowned Viennese Carl Theater. She also performed in several of the tours organized by the theater throughout Europe. Then she went to Berlin, where she appeared at the theater of the West, at the Operetta Theater, and the Metropolitan Theater.
She made her film acting debut in 1911 with the Charles Paulus-directed Die Pflicht. [3] She left singing in 1915 to concentrate on her film acting career. She mainly appeared as a supporting actress. After the advent of the talkies she acted in several films of her friend Harry Piel. She had played the character of Yelina in the crime film Marizza . [4] The most popular films in which Maria Forescu acted were the Gerhard Lamprecht-directed Between Night and Dawn and the Hans Behrendt-directed Danton (both 1931). [3] In the 1929 film Der Sittenrichter. § 218. Eine wahre Begebenheit , Forescu played the woman who aborted the heroine's child. The film was considered controversial for depicting the topic of abortion. [5] She also starred in the 1920 silent film The Women House of Brescia . [3] The film was rejected by the British Board of Film Classification. [6]
In 1932, after filming Das erste Recht des Kindes (directed by Fritz Wendhausen), her career was cut short by the new laws made by the Nazi party. She was deprived of living a respected life and was prohibited from engaging in any professional activities. Forescu, who was of Jewish origin, was expelled from the Reichsfachschaft Film in 1938. After the expulsion and the rising hatred against the Jews she took refuge with Maria Hirschburg on the Motzstrasse in Berlin-Wilmersdorf. She died in 1947 in Berlin-Müggelheim. [7] Throughout her career she had acted in approximately 160 films.[ citation needed ]
Edythe Chapman was an American stage and silent film actress.
Helen Jerome Eddy was a motion picture actress from New York City. She was noted as a character actress who played genteel heroines in films such as Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm (1917).
Charlotte Ander was a German actress.
Frederic Zelnik was an Austrian producer, director, and actor. He was one of the most important producers-directors of the German silent cinema. Zelnik achieved success through period operetta films in the 1920s and 1930s.
Lillian Rose Rich Woodland, more commonly known as Lillian Rich was an English-born actress of the silent era. She appeared in more than 60 films between 1919 and 1940.
Lloyd Whitlock was a prolific American actor who began working during Hollywood's silent era. Born in 1891, he appeared in nearly 200 films between 1916 and 1949. Distinguished by his height and stature, he became especially known for playing heavies in B-movie westerns.
Alfred Peter Abel was a German film actor, director, and producer. He appeared in more than 140 silent and sound films between 1913 and 1938. His best-known performance was as Joh Fredersen in Fritz Lang's 1927 film Metropolis.
Lee Parry was a German film actress of the silent era. She appeared in more than 40 films between 1919 and 1939.
Olga Engl was an Austrian-German stage and motion picture actress who appeared in nearly 200 films.
Marcella Albani, was an Italian actress and writer. Although largely forgotten today, Albani was an idol of European cinema in the 1920s, and appeared in 50 films between 1919 and 1936 in 5 different countries.
Georg John was a German stage and film actor.
Erna Morena was a German film actress, film producer, and screenwriter of the silent era. She appeared in 104 films between 1913 and 1951.
Ida Wüst was a German stage and film actress whose career was prominent in the 1920s and 1930s with Universum Film AG (UFA).
Dimitri Buchowetzki (1885–1932) born Dmitry Savelyevych Bukhovecky was a Russian film director, screenwriter, and actor in Germany, Sweden, United States, United Kingdom, and France.
Georg Alexander was a German film actor who was a prolific presence in German cinema. He also directed a number of films during the silent era.
Eduard Clemens Franz Anna Freiherr von Wangenheim, known as Eduard von Winterstein, was an Austrian-German film actor who appeared in over one hundred fifty German films during the silent and sound eras. He was also a noted theater actor.
Olga Limburg was a German theater and film actress. She began her artistic career in 1901 with a commitment at the Municipal Theatre of Poznan. Since 1902, she played at several of Berlin's leading theaters including the Tribune, the Metropol Theatre, Berlin Lustspielhaus, the comedy and the Theater am Kurfürstendamm. During the early part of her theater career, Limburg usually played supporting roles. Later she worked in the "comical oldies" plays.
Hermann Picha was a German stage and film actor. Picha was extremely prolific, appearing in over 300 short and feature films during the silent and early sound eras. Picha played a mixture of lead and supporting roles during his career. He played the title role in the 1920 film Wibbel the Tailor, directed by Manfred Noa. He appeared in Fritz Lang's Destiny.
Luther A. Reed was an American screenwriter and film director.
Hugo Döblin was a German stage and film actor. He appeared in more than eighty films, most of them during the silent era. The Jewish Döblin left Germany following the Nazi Party's rise to power in 1933, and after moving first to Czechoslovakia and Austria, eventually settled in Switzerland. His younger brother was novelist, essayist, and doctor Alfred Döblin (1878–1957).