Lya De Putti
Encyclopedia
Lya De Putti was a Hungarian film actress of the silent era
, noted for her portrayal of vamp characters.
, Hungary
(today Vojčice
, Slovakia
), she was one of the four children of Julius de Putti, a cavalry officer, and his wife, the former Countess Maria Katarina Hoyos. She had two brothers, Geza and Alexander, and a sister, Mitzi.
She began her stage career on the Hungarian Vaudeville
circuit. She soon progressed to Berlin
, where after performing in the ballet
, she made her screen debut in 1918. She became the premiere danseuse at the Berlin Winter Garden in 1924.
Around that time German film director Jol Mai noticed her and cast her in her first important film, The Mistress of the World. She followed this success with noteworthy performances in Manon Lescaut and
Varieté
(1925). The latter featured her opposite Emil Jannings
and directed by E. A. Dupont
. Both films are UFA
productions. While in Germany, De Putti starred with such actors as Conrad Veidt
, Alfred Abel
, Werner Krauss
, Grete Mosheim
, and Lil Dagover
and was filmed by directors F. W. Murnau and Fritz Lang
.
The actress came to America in February 1926. At the time she told reporters she was twenty-two years old. Her ocean liner's records list her as having been twenty-six. De Putti was generally cast as a vamp character, and often wore her dark hair short, in a style similar to that of Louise Brooks
or Colleen Moore
. De Putti starred in D. W. Griffith
's The Sorrows of Satan
(1926). The film was released in two versions, one in America and the other in Europe. In the American version one scene had De Putti fully dressed. The same scene in the European release had De Putti topless.
. She denied the engagement. In 1913, she married Zoltán Szepessy, a county magistrate. They divorced in 1918. The couple had two daughters, Ilona (b. 1914) and Judith (b. 1916).
and Zasu Pitts
, she failed to make it big, and left the screen by 1929 to attempt to re-start her career on Broadway
.
Her Hollywood efforts were inhibited by her foreign accent. Later she went to England
to make silent movies and studied the English language. Soon she returned to America to attempt talkies.
She was hospitalized to have a chicken bone removed from her throat, and contracted a throat infection. She was taken to the Harbor Sanitarium, then located at 667 Madison Avenue.
She reportedly behaved irrationally and eluded her nurses. Eventually she was found in a corridor. She developed pleurisy
in her right side, followed by pneumonia
in both lungs.
in Hartsdale, New York
.
Short Subjects:
Silent film
A silent film is a film with no synchronized recorded sound, especially with no spoken dialogue. In silent films for entertainment the dialogue is transmitted through muted gestures, pantomime and title cards...
, noted for her portrayal of vamp characters.
Early life and career
Born as Amalia de Putti in VécseVojcice
Vojčice is a village and municipality in the Trebišov District in the Košice Region of south-eastern Slovakia.-Geography:The village lies at an altitude of 111 metres and covers an area of 17.896km².It has a population of about 2075 people.-Facilities:...
, Hungary
Hungary
Hungary , officially the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is situated in the Carpathian Basin and is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine and Romania to the east, Serbia and Croatia to the south, Slovenia to the southwest and Austria to the west. The...
(today Vojčice
Vojcice
Vojčice is a village and municipality in the Trebišov District in the Košice Region of south-eastern Slovakia.-Geography:The village lies at an altitude of 111 metres and covers an area of 17.896km².It has a population of about 2075 people.-Facilities:...
, Slovakia
Slovakia
The Slovak Republic is a landlocked state in Central Europe. It has a population of over five million and an area of about . Slovakia is bordered by the Czech Republic and Austria to the west, Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east and Hungary to the south...
), she was one of the four children of Julius de Putti, a cavalry officer, and his wife, the former Countess Maria Katarina Hoyos. She had two brothers, Geza and Alexander, and a sister, Mitzi.
She began her stage career on the Hungarian Vaudeville
Vaudeville
Vaudeville was a theatrical genre of variety entertainment in the United States and Canada from the early 1880s until the early 1930s. Each performance was made up of a series of separate, unrelated acts grouped together on a common bill...
circuit. She soon progressed to Berlin
Berlin
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
, where after performing in the ballet
Ballet
Ballet is a type of performance dance, that originated in the Italian Renaissance courts of the 15th century, and which was further developed in France and Russia as a concert dance form. The early portions preceded the invention of the proscenium stage and were presented in large chambers with...
, she made her screen debut in 1918. She became the premiere danseuse at the Berlin Winter Garden in 1924.
Around that time German film director Jol Mai noticed her and cast her in her first important film, The Mistress of the World. She followed this success with noteworthy performances in Manon Lescaut and
Varieté
Varieté
Variety is a 1925 silent drama film directed by Ewald Andre Dupont based on the novel Der Eid des Stephan Huller by . Jannings portrays "Boss Huller," an ex-trapeze artist who runs a seedy carnival with his wife and child...
(1925). The latter featured her opposite Emil Jannings
Emil Jannings
Emil Jannings was a German actor. He was not only the first actor to win the Academy Award for Best Actor, but also the first person to be presented an Oscar...
and directed by E. A. Dupont
Ewald André Dupont
Ewald André Dupont was a German film director, one of the founders of the German film industry. He was frequently credited as E. A. Dupont....
. Both films are UFA
UFA
Ufa is a city in Russia.UFA or Ufa may also refer to:*Ufa River, a river in Russia*Ufa, Ethiopia, a town in Ethiopia*Ultra flat architecture, a network architecture design for LTE 4G mobile telecommunication networks...
productions. While in Germany, De Putti starred with such actors as Conrad Veidt
Conrad Veidt
Conrad Veidt was a German actor best remembered for his roles in films such as The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari , The Man Who Laughs , The Thief of Bagdad and Casablanca...
, Alfred Abel
Alfred Abel
Alfred Abel was a German film actor, director, and producer. He appeared in over 140 silent and sound films between 1913 and 1938...
, Werner Krauss
Werner Krauss
Werner Johannes Krauss was a German stage and film actor.-Early life:Krauss was born at the parsonage of Gestungshausen in Upper Franconia, where his grandfather was Protestant pastor. He spent his childhood in Breslau and from 1901 attended the teacher's college at Kreuzburg...
, Grete Mosheim
Grete Mosheim
Margaret "Grete" Mosheim was a German film, theatre and television actress of Hungarian Jewish ancestry.-Early life:Mosheim was born in Berlin, Germany on 8 January 1905...
, and Lil Dagover
Lil Dagover
Lil Dagover was a German stage, film and television actress whose career spanned nearly six decades.-Early life:...
and was filmed by directors F. W. Murnau and Fritz Lang
Fritz Lang
Friedrich Christian Anton "Fritz" Lang was an Austrian-American filmmaker, screenwriter, and occasional film producer and actor. One of the best known émigrés from Germany's school of Expressionism, he was dubbed the "Master of Darkness" by the British Film Institute...
.
The actress came to America in February 1926. At the time she told reporters she was twenty-two years old. Her ocean liner's records list her as having been twenty-six. De Putti was generally cast as a vamp character, and often wore her dark hair short, in a style similar to that of Louise Brooks
Louise Brooks
Mary Louise Brooks , generally known by her stage name Louise Brooks, was an American dancer, model, showgirl and silent film actress, noted for popularizing the bobbed haircut. Brooks is best known for her three feature roles including two G. W...
or Colleen Moore
Colleen Moore
Colleen Moore was an American film actress, and one of the most fashionable stars of the silent film era.-Early life:...
. De Putti starred in D. W. Griffith
D. W. Griffith
David Llewelyn Wark Griffith was a premier pioneering American film director. He is best known as the director of the controversial and groundbreaking 1915 film The Birth of a Nation and the subsequent film Intolerance .Griffith's film The Birth of a Nation made pioneering use of advanced camera...
's The Sorrows of Satan
The Sorrows of Satan (film)
The Sorrows of Satan is a silent film by D. W. Griffith based on the novel The Sorrows of Satan by Marie Corelli. At this point in his career Griffith had given up his independent filmmaker status by joining Paramount Pictures....
(1926). The film was released in two versions, one in America and the other in Europe. In the American version one scene had De Putti fully dressed. The same scene in the European release had De Putti topless.
Private life
De Putti was once rumored to be engaged to Count Ludwig Salm von Hoogstraten, a former husband of the American oil heiress Millicent RogersMillicent Rogers
Mary Millicent Abigail Rogers , better known as Millicent Rogers, was a socialite, fashion icon, and art collector...
. She denied the engagement. In 1913, she married Zoltán Szepessy, a county magistrate. They divorced in 1918. The couple had two daughters, Ilona (b. 1914) and Judith (b. 1916).
Return to Broadway
The following year, De Putti went to Hollywood, but found little success there. Despite working with such distinguished actors as Adolphe MenjouAdolphe Menjou
Adolphe Jean Menjou was an American actor. His career spanned both silent films and talkies, appearing in such films as The Sheik, A Woman of Paris, Morocco, and A Star is Born...
and Zasu Pitts
ZaSu Pitts
ZaSu Pitts was an American actress who starred in many silent dramas and comedies, transitioning to comedy sound films.-Early life:ZaSu Pitts was born in Parsons, Kansas to Rulandus and Nellie Pitts; she was the third of four children...
, she failed to make it big, and left the screen by 1929 to attempt to re-start her career on Broadway
Broadway theatre
Broadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...
.
Her Hollywood efforts were inhibited by her foreign accent. Later she went to England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
to make silent movies and studied the English language. Soon she returned to America to attempt talkies.
She was hospitalized to have a chicken bone removed from her throat, and contracted a throat infection. She was taken to the Harbor Sanitarium, then located at 667 Madison Avenue.
She reportedly behaved irrationally and eluded her nurses. Eventually she was found in a corridor. She developed pleurisy
Pleurisy
Pleurisy is an inflammation of the pleura, the lining of the pleural cavity surrounding the lungs. Among other things, infections are the most common cause of pleurisy....
in her right side, followed by pneumonia
Pneumonia
Pneumonia is an inflammatory condition of the lung—especially affecting the microscopic air sacs —associated with fever, chest symptoms, and a lack of air space on a chest X-ray. Pneumonia is typically caused by an infection but there are a number of other causes...
in both lungs.
Death
She died in 1931, aged 32, in the Harbor Sanitorium, leaving just £800 (UK equivalent at the time) and a few bits of jewellery. Four years earlier, £800 was her weekly wage. She is interred in the Ferncliff CemeteryFerncliff Cemetery
Ferncliff Cemetery and Mausoleum is located on Secor Road in the hamlet of Hartsdale, town of Greenburgh, Westchester County, New York, about 25 miles north of Midtown Manhattan. It was founded in 1902, and is non-sectarian...
in Hartsdale, New York
Hartsdale, New York
Hartsdale is a hamlet and a census-designated place located in the town of Greenburgh, Westchester County, New York. The population was 5,293 at the 2010 census.-Geography:Hartsdale is located at ....
.
Filmography
Features:- The Emperor's Soldiers (19181918 in filmThe year 1918 in film involved some significant events.-Events:*Following litigation for anti-trust activities, the US Supreme Court orders the Motion Picture Patents Company to disband....
) - On the Waves of Happiness (19201920 in filmThe year 1920 in film involved some significant events.-Events:* November 27 - The Mark of Zorro, starring Douglas Fairbanks opens.-Top grossing films :-Films released in 1920:U.S.A. unless stated*The $1,000,000 Reward...
) - Gypsy Blood (1920)
- You Are the Life (19211921 in film-Top grossing films :-Films released in 1921:U.S.A. unless stated*$10,000 Under a Pillow, silent film directed by Frank Moser*The Ace of Hearts, silent film directed by Wallace Worsley*Across the Divide, silent film directed by John Holloway...
) - The Indian Tomb (1921)
- The Love Affairs of Hector Dalmore (1921)
- Driving Force (1921)
- Ilona (1921)
- OthelloOthelloThe Tragedy of Othello, the Moor of Venice is a tragedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written in approximately 1603, and based on the Italian short story "Un Capitano Moro" by Cinthio, a disciple of Boccaccio, first published in 1565...
(19221922 in film-Events:* June 11 - United States première of Robert J. Flaherty's Nanook of the North, the first commercially successful feature length documentary film....
) - The Burning Soil (1922)
- PhantomPhantom (1922 film)Phantom is a silent film that was directed by F. W. Murnau the same year Murnau directed Nosferatu. It is an example of German Expressionist film and has a surreal, dreamlike quality.-Plot summary:The film is told in an extended flashback...
(1922) - The Three Marys and Mr. Marana (19231923 in film-Events:*April 15 - Lee De Forest demonstrates the Phonofilm sound-on-film system at the Rivoli Theater in New York with a series of short musical films featuring vaudeville performers.-Top grossing films :-Films released in 1923:U.S.A...
) - The Ravine of Death (1923)
- Die FledermausDie FledermausDie Fledermaus is an operetta composed by Johann Strauss II to a German libretto by Karl Haffner and Richard Genée.- Literary sources :...
(1923) - S.O.S. The Island of Tears (1923)
- Thamar, The Child of the Mountains (19241924 in film-Events:* Entertainment entrepreneur Marcus Loew gained control of Metro Pictures, Goldwyn Pictures Corporation and Louis B. Mayer Pictures to create Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer...
) - Malva (1924)
- Claire (1924)
- In the Name of the Kaisers (19251925 in film-Events:*November 5: The Big Parade holds its Grand Premier*December 30: premier of Ben-Hur the most expensive silent film ever made costing 4-6 million dollars -Top grossing films :...
) - Comedians (1925)
- VarietéVarietéVariety is a 1925 silent drama film directed by Ewald Andre Dupont based on the novel Der Eid des Stephan Huller by . Jannings portrays "Boss Huller," an ex-trapeze artist who runs a seedy carnival with his wife and child...
(1925) - Manon Lescaut (19261926 in film-Events:*August - Warner Brothers debuts the first Vitaphone film, Don Juan. The Vitaphone system used multiple 33⅓ rpm disc records developed by Bell Telephone Laboratories and Western Electric to play back audio synchronized with film....
) - Young Blood (1926)
- The Sorrows of SatanThe Sorrows of Satan (film)The Sorrows of Satan is a silent film by D. W. Griffith based on the novel The Sorrows of Satan by Marie Corelli. At this point in his career Griffith had given up his independent filmmaker status by joining Paramount Pictures....
(1926) - Prince of Tempters (1926)
- God Gave Me Twenty Cents (1926)
- Cage of Death (19271927 in film-Events:*January 10 - Fritz Lang's science-fiction fantasy Metropolis premieres in Germany.*April 7 - Abel Gance's Napoleon often considered his best known and greatest masterpiece, premiers at the Paris Opéra and would demonstrate techniques and equipment that would not be used for years to...
) - The Heart Thief (1927)
- Buck Privates (19281928 in film-Events:Although some movies released in 1928 had sound, most were still silent.* July 28 - Lights of New York is released by Warner Brothers. It is the first "100% Talkie" feature film, in that dialog is spoken throughout the film...
) - Midnight Rose (1928)
- Charlott Verloh (1928)
- The Scarlet LadyThe Scarlet LadyThe Scarlet Lady is a 1928 American silent drama film, written by Bess Meredyth and directed by Alan Crosland.-Cast:*Lya De Putti*Don Alvarado*Warner Oland*Otto Matieson *Hans Joby*Valentina Zimina...
(1928) - All About Love (19291929 in film-Events:The days of the silent film are numbered. A mad scramble to provide synchronized sound is on.*January 20 - The movie In Old Arizona is released. The film is the first full-length talking film to be filmed outdoors....
) - The InformerThe Informer (1929 film)The Informer is a 1929 British drama film directed by Arthur Robison and starring Lya De Putti, Lars Hanson, Warwick Ward and Carl Harbord. It was based on the novel The Informer by Liam O'Flaherty which was more famously adapted in the 1935 film The Informer...
(1929)
Short Subjects:
- A Christmas Movie for Adults (19241924 in film-Events:* Entertainment entrepreneur Marcus Loew gained control of Metro Pictures, Goldwyn Pictures Corporation and Louis B. Mayer Pictures to create Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer...
)
External links
- Lya de Putti Photo Gallery at silent-movies.org
- Photographs of Lya De Putti