Biography
Berliner was born Gertrude Berliner in Berlin, Germany]. She became a famous cabaret performer in Berlin. In 1925, she appeared in her first movie, a silent film called Krieg im Frieden . Berliner would wait four years before her second movie, but her film career would then take off. In 1929, she appeared in Dich hab ich geliebt , which would become the first German talkie released in the United States. Berliner appeared in a number of well known movies in Germany during the 1930s, including Masken , The Invisible Front , Großstadtnacht [ de ] and Kaiserwalzer . Es war einmal ein Musikus (1933) was her last movie in Germany; it also featured S.Z. Sakall, in the fourth German movie that the two appeared in together.
Being Jewish, she left Germany when Hitler and the Nazi Party came to power in 1933 and went to France. In 1939, she immigrated to the United States. However, in Hollywood Berliner was not able to continue her promising movie career, receiving only bit roles in four movies. Her first role in an American film did not come until 1942, in Casablanca . She portrayed a woman playing baccarat with a Dutch banker (played by Torben Meyer). She appears in a scene with her four-time co-star from her career in Germany, S.Z. Sakall, when she says to his character, Carl the waiter, "Will you ask Rick if he will have a drink with us?", to which Carl responds, "Madame, he never drinks with customers. Never. I have never seen it."
Later that year, she had another bit part in the World War II romance Reunion in France , and in 1943 she played Frau Reitler in The Strange Death of Adolf Hitler . Her last American movie was a small uncredited role as a German actress in the musical The Dolly Sisters in 1945, again appearing with S.Z. Sakall. She did not appear on film again until 1955, with a small role in her final film, the West German production Before God and Man .
Berliner lived quietly in California until she died on February 26, 1977, in San Diego, just two days shy of her 74th birthday.
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