1. Frieda Ulricke "Henny" Porten was a German actress and film producer of the silent era, and Germany's first major film star.
14 Facts About Henny Porten
1. 2.
Henny Porten appeared in more than 170 films between 1906 and 1955.
3.
Frieda Ulricke Porten was born in Magdeburg, in what was then the German Empire.
4.
Henny Porten's father, Franz Porten, was an actor and film director, as was her older sister Rosa Porten.
5.
Henny Porten was one of the few German actresses of the era to enter film without having stage experience.
6.
Henny Porten founded in 1919 a film production company of her own, which in 1924 merged with the signature of Carl Froelich.
7.
Henny Porten starred in the 1924 film Grafin Donelli, which was directed by Georg Wilhelm Pabst.
8.
Henny Porten died in West Berlin, West Germany, in 1960.
9.
Henny Porten was buried in the Kaiser-Wilhelm-Gedachtnis Cemetery in Berlin.
10.
In 1907, after finishing her studies at the De Mugica College for Elderly Daughters, the young Henny Porten became a professional actress and worked with the Deutsche Mutoskop und Biograph GmbH before signing an exclusive contract with Messter and starring in the film Lohengrin, based on the opera in three acts by Richard Wagner.
11.
Hence, Henny Porten was not known by name but by the epithet of the "Messter's girl".
12.
The characters that Henny Porten played in her films, emerged from the daily life of the people and allowed German viewers to recognize familiar structures for them.
13.
Henny Porten was faithful to this characterization from 1910 until the end of the silent film era.
14.
Henny Porten used to play women who found fulfillment in serving others and in self-sacrifice, who indulged in submission even against their will.