Lya Mara
Encyclopedia
Lya Mara was one of the biggest stars of the German silent cinema
.
Lya Mara was born as Aleksandra Gudowicz in a Polish family in Riga
, Livonia
. As a young girl she wanted to become a chemist, as then famous Maria Skłodowska-Curie. Just before the World War I
,in 1913 Lya Mara moved with her family to Warsaw
, as Poland
and Latvia
were part of the Russian Empire
. She began her acting career as a dancer.
In Warsaw, Lya Mara played her first small part in a short fiction silent film under a characteristically simplified title We want husband (We want husband, 1916, as Mia Mara) and soon after in another film Bestia (The Beast, premiere on January 5, 1917) directed by a Polish director of older generation Alexander Hertz. Another Polish actress Pola Negri
, who later made an extraordinary career in Germany and in America, was the star of this film. Soon after that film Pola Negri
left for Berlin and Lya Mara followed her steps. It was a time of the World War I
and Poland occupied since 1915 by the Germans, became a part of the German Empire
.
Lya Mara's first film in Germany was Halkas Gelöbnis (1918) directed by an Austrian director Alfred Halm, who also scripted her another film Jadwiga. Both films were produced by young and energetic director-producer Frederic Zelnik. Lya Mara married him in 1918.
Frederic Zelnik promoted Lya Mara to a major star in Germany as she played mainly in films he directed and produced. Since 1920 Zelnik's film production company was named Zelnik-Mara-Film GmbH. Lya Mara played important parts as Charlotte Corday, Anna Karenina (1919) and Manon, attracting audience with her charm and youthful appeal. Lya Mara and her husband Frederic Zelnik became real celebrities, receiving at their home many known artists. Her popularity has been further cemented by hundreds of her photographs issued as postcards, chocolate and cigarettes trade cards.
A serious car accident at the end of the 1920s interrupted her career.
Somehow Lya Mara could not adapt her acting to the new artistic conditions after the introduction of sound in cinema in 1929, while Zelnik became first director in Germany who postsynchronized foreign films. Lya Mara's only film from the sound era is Jeder fragt nach Erika(1931) directed by her husband.
When Hitler took power in Germany (1933), Lya Mara left with Frederic Zelnik for London. There is no record of her acting there, in none of her husband films produced until 1939 in England
and The Netherlands.
Frederic Zelnik died in London on November 29, 1950. It is generally admitted, that Lya Mara spent last years of her life in Switzerland
.
Cinema of Germany
Cinema in Germany can be traced back to the late 19th century. German cinema has made major technical and artistic contributions to film.Unlike any other national cinemas, which developed in the context of relatively continuous and stable political systems, Germany witnesses major changes to its...
.
Lya Mara was born as Aleksandra Gudowicz in a Polish family in Riga
Riga
Riga is the capital and largest city of Latvia. With 702,891 inhabitants Riga is the largest city of the Baltic states, one of the largest cities in Northern Europe and home to more than one third of Latvia's population. The city is an important seaport and a major industrial, commercial,...
, Livonia
Livonia
Livonia is a historic region along the eastern shores of the Baltic Sea. It was once the land of the Finnic Livonians inhabiting the principal ancient Livonian County Metsepole with its center at Turaida...
. As a young girl she wanted to become a chemist, as then famous Maria Skłodowska-Curie. Just before the World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
,in 1913 Lya Mara moved with her family to Warsaw
Warsaw
Warsaw is the capital and largest city of Poland. It is located on the Vistula River, roughly from the Baltic Sea and from the Carpathian Mountains. Its population in 2010 was estimated at 1,716,855 residents with a greater metropolitan area of 2,631,902 residents, making Warsaw the 10th most...
, as Poland
Poland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
and Latvia
Latvia
Latvia , officially the Republic of Latvia , is a country in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by Estonia , to the south by Lithuania , to the east by the Russian Federation , to the southeast by Belarus and shares maritime borders to the west with Sweden...
were part of the Russian Empire
Russian Empire
The Russian Empire was a state that existed from 1721 until the Russian Revolution of 1917. It was the successor to the Tsardom of Russia and the predecessor of the Soviet Union...
. She began her acting career as a dancer.
In Warsaw, Lya Mara played her first small part in a short fiction silent film under a characteristically simplified title We want husband (We want husband, 1916, as Mia Mara) and soon after in another film Bestia (The Beast, premiere on January 5, 1917) directed by a Polish director of older generation Alexander Hertz. Another Polish actress Pola Negri
Pola Negri
Pola Negri was a Polish stage and film actress who achieved worldwide fame for her tragedienne and femme fatale roles from the 1910s through the 1940s during the Golden Era of Hollywood film. She was the first European film star to be invited to Hollywood, and became a great American star. She...
, who later made an extraordinary career in Germany and in America, was the star of this film. Soon after that film Pola Negri
Pola Negri
Pola Negri was a Polish stage and film actress who achieved worldwide fame for her tragedienne and femme fatale roles from the 1910s through the 1940s during the Golden Era of Hollywood film. She was the first European film star to be invited to Hollywood, and became a great American star. She...
left for Berlin and Lya Mara followed her steps. It was a time of the World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
and Poland occupied since 1915 by the Germans, became a part of the German Empire
German Empire
The German Empire refers to Germany during the "Second Reich" period from the unification of Germany and proclamation of Wilhelm I as German Emperor on 18 January 1871, to 1918, when it became a federal republic after defeat in World War I and the abdication of the Emperor, Wilhelm II.The German...
.
Lya Mara's first film in Germany was Halkas Gelöbnis (1918) directed by an Austrian director Alfred Halm, who also scripted her another film Jadwiga. Both films were produced by young and energetic director-producer Frederic Zelnik. Lya Mara married him in 1918.
Frederic Zelnik promoted Lya Mara to a major star in Germany as she played mainly in films he directed and produced. Since 1920 Zelnik's film production company was named Zelnik-Mara-Film GmbH. Lya Mara played important parts as Charlotte Corday, Anna Karenina (1919) and Manon, attracting audience with her charm and youthful appeal. Lya Mara and her husband Frederic Zelnik became real celebrities, receiving at their home many known artists. Her popularity has been further cemented by hundreds of her photographs issued as postcards, chocolate and cigarettes trade cards.
A serious car accident at the end of the 1920s interrupted her career.
Somehow Lya Mara could not adapt her acting to the new artistic conditions after the introduction of sound in cinema in 1929, while Zelnik became first director in Germany who postsynchronized foreign films. Lya Mara's only film from the sound era is Jeder fragt nach Erika(1931) directed by her husband.
When Hitler took power in Germany (1933), Lya Mara left with Frederic Zelnik for London. There is no record of her acting there, in none of her husband films produced until 1939 in 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...
and The Netherlands.
Frederic Zelnik died in London on November 29, 1950. It is generally admitted, that Lya Mara spent last years of her life in Switzerland
Switzerland
Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....
.
Filmography
- 1916: Chcemy męża (as Mia Mara)
- 1916: Wściekły rywal (as Mia Mara)
- 1916: Studenci (as Mia Mara)
- 1917: Bestia (as Mia Mara)
- 1918: Halkas Gelöbnis
- 1918: Jadwiga
- 1918: Geschichte einer Gefallenen, Die
- 1918: Das Geschlecht der Schelme 1. Teil
- 1918: Die Nonne und der Harlekin
- 1918: Die Rothenburger / Leib und Seele
- 1918: Das Geschlecht der Schelme 2. Teil
- 1919: Charlotte Corday
- 1919: Maria Evere
- 1919: Die kleine Stasiewska
- 1919: Die Erbin von Monte Christo
- 1919: Das Haus der Unschuld
- 1919: Anna Karenina
- 1920: Eine Demimonde-Heirat
- 1920: Die Prinzessin vom Nil
- 1920: Die Erlebnisse der berühmten Tänzerin Fanny Elßler
- 1920: Kri-Kri, die Herzogin von Tarabac
- 1920: Apachenlord, Der
- 1920: Fasching
- 1920: Wer unter Euch ohne Sünde ist...
- 1921: Die Geliebte des Grafen Varenne
- 1921: Miss Beryll... Die Laune eines Millionärs
- 1921: Aus den Memoiren einer Filmschauspielerin
- 1921: Trix, der Roman einer Millionärin
- 1921: Die Dame mit den Smaragden
- 1921: Tanja, die Frau an der Kette
- 1921: Das Mädel vom Piccadilly 1. Teil
- 1921: Das Mädel vom Piccadilly 2. Teil
- 1921: Die Ehe der Fürstin Demidoff
- 1922: Die Geliebte des Königs
- 1922: Yvette, die Modeprinzessin
- 1922: Die Tochter Napoleons
- 1922: Erniedrigte und Beleidigte
- 1922: Das Mädel aus der Hölle
- 1922: Lydia Sanin
- 1922: Die Männer der Sybill
- 1923: Daisy. Das Abenteuer einer Lady
- 1923: Auferstehung. Katjuscha Maslowa
- 1923: Nelly, die Braut ohne Mann
- 1924: Die Herrin von Monbijou
- 1924: Das Mädel von Capri
- 1924: Auf Befehl der Pompadour
- 1925: Freudlose Gasse, Die with Greta Garbo in the main part
- 1925: Die Venus von Montmartre
- 1925: Die Kirschenzeit
- 1925: Frauen, die man oft nicht grüßt
- 1926: Die FörsterchristlDie FörsterchristlDie Försterchristl is an operetta in three acts by Georg Jarno to a libretto by Bernhard Buchbinder. It premiered on 17 December 1907 at the Theater in der Josefstadt in Vienna. Three years later, its English version had a run of 64 performances at Broadway's Herald Square Theatre in 1910/11 under...
- 1926: An der schönen blauen Donau
- 1926: Die lachende Grille
- 1927: Der Zigeunerbaron
- 1927: Weber, Die
- 1927: Das tanzende Wien. An der schönen blauen Donau 2. Teil
- 1928: Heut' tanzt Mariett
- 1928: Mary Lou
- 1929: Mein Herz ist eine Jazzband
- 1929: Der rote KreisDer rote Kreis (1929 film)Der rote Kreis is a 1929 British-German crime film directed by Frederic Zelnik and starring Lya Mara, Fred Louis Lerch, and Stewart Rome....
- 1931: Jeder fragt nach Erika
External links
- Lya Mara in the Online-Filmdatenbank (German)
- Lya Mara
- Photos of Lya Mara