1. Elisabeth Bergner was an Austrian-British actress.
20 Facts About Elisabeth Bergner
1. 2.
Elisabeth Bergner played Gemma, first in London and then in the Broadway debut, and in a film version for which she was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress.
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In 1943, Bergner returned to Broadway in the play The Two Mrs Carrolls, for which she won the Distinguished Performance Medal from the Drama League.
4.
Elisabeth Bergner was born Ella vel Ettel Bergner in Drohobych, Austro-Hungarian Empire to Sara and Emil Bergner, a merchant.
5.
Elisabeth Bergner first acted on stage at age 14, and appeared in Innsbruck a year later.
6.
Elisabeth Bergner worked as an artist's model, posing for sculptor Wilhelm Lehmbruck, who fell in love with her.
7.
Elisabeth Bergner was naturalised as a British subject in 1938.
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Elisabeth Bergner was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress for the film version of Escape Me Never.
9.
Elisabeth Bergner repeated her stage role of Rosalind, opposite Laurence Olivier's Orlando, in the 1936 film As You Like It, the first sound film version of Shakespeare's play, and the first sound film of any Shakespeare play filmed in England.
10.
Elisabeth Bergner had previously played the role on the German stage, and several critics found that her accent got in the way of their enjoyment of the film, which was not a success.
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Elisabeth Bergner returned intermittently to the stage, for instance in the title role of John Webster's The Duchess of Malfi in 1946.
12.
In 1954, Elisabeth Bergner temporarily returned to Germany, where she acted in movies and on the stage; the Berlin district of Steglitz named a city park after her.
13.
Elisabeth Bergner was married once, to Hungarian-born British writer, film director, and producer Paul Czinner, from 1933 to 1972.
14.
Elisabeth Bergner was the source for the story which became the 1950 Academy Award for Best Picture-winning film All About Eve.
15.
The episode occurred when Elisabeth Bergner was performing in the play The Two Mrs Carrolls.
16.
Elisabeth Bergner took pity on a "waif-like" young woman who stood outside the theater for days on end.
17.
Elisabeth Bergner gave her a job as her secretary, and the young actress tried to "take over" Bergner's life.
18.
Elisabeth Bergner was reputedly the inspiration for the character of Dora Martin in the novel Mephisto by Klaus Mann.
19.
Elisabeth Bergner later moved to London, where she died, aged 88, from cancer.
20.
Elisabeth Bergner was cremated at Golders Green Crematorium on 15 May 1986, where she is commemorated with an oval memorial tablet in the West Cloister.