Lilian Harvey

Lilian Harvey was born on January 19th, 1906 in London. Her mother was English and her father was German. When she was eight her family moved to Berlin shortly before the outbreak of WW1. She spent much of the war at school in Switzerland where she broadened her knowledge of languages and classical dance. After graduating high school in Berlin, she worked in theatre revues before debuting in her first film "Der Fluch" for Robert Land. After many roles in silent films, UFA found great use for her acting, dancing and language skills in many famous light operettas made with the advent of sound. These highly popular films (usually co-starring Willy Fritsch, with whom she became irrevocably associated in the public's mind as the romantic dream-team of the European cinema) were usually made in three different languages at once. The cast would be switched around her for the various takes in German, French and English (Laurence Olivier had his first film role in one of her vehicles).

The actress Lillian Harvey was born as Lilian Helen Muriel Pape in London-Hornsey. Her family took up residence at Berlin in 1914, Lillian Harvey was sent to Switzerland during the war time where she lived with her aunt. After her return to Berlin she attended a ballet school at the Staatsoper Berlin in 1923 and was soon on the way with first tours through Europe.

Her most successful film, 1931's "Der Kongress Tanzt"/"Le congress s'amuse"/"Congress Dances" led to a contract in Hollywood with the Fox Film Company. She dissolved this contract after a few pictures, walking out on a role that was filled by then-unknown Alice Faye and returning to UFA to be with director Paul Martin, with whom she was romantically involved. The Nazi regime had come to power in her absence and Lilian Harvey found it difficult to work under Goebbels. She was instrumental in helping those persecuted by the Nazis escape until her film popularity waned and she was forced to escape as well. She eventually landed in the USA and spent most of WW2 in Los Angeles working as a volunteer nurse. Her former directors and co-workers like Michael Curtiz and Billy Wilder remained social contacts, but the stigma of having been UFA's biggest star of the early thirties kept her from reigniting her own film career. She did theatre work and continued to work on European stages after the war.

Although she invested the main part of her fortune into real estates she decided - also because she was a British citizen - to emigrate to France in 1939. There she took financial part in her last two movies "Serenade" (1940) and "Miquette" (1940), but the movies weren't successful.During this time she became dispossessed in Germany and lost the bulk of her wealth.

During the war time she got involved in the troops care in France, but when the threat also grew in France, she went via Portugal to the USA where she worked for the Red Cross. She generally refused all film offers - most of them were small support roles. Instead of this she frequently appeared on stage. In 1946 she returned to Europe again.