Lilian Harvey
Encyclopedia
Lilian Harvey was a British
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

-born actress and singer, long-based in Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

, where she is best known for her role as Christel Weinzinger in Erik Charell
Erik Charell
Erich Karl Löwenberg , later known as Erik Charell, was a German actor and director. He was best known as a director of musical revues and operettas, especially at Großes Schauspielhaus in Berlin...

's 1931 film Der Kongress tanzt.

Life

Helene Lilian Muriel Pape was born in 1906 in Hornsey
Hornsey
Hornsey is a district in London Borough of Haringey in north London in England. Whilst Hornsey was formerly the name of a parish and later a municipal borough of Middlesex, today, the name refers only to the London district. It is an inner-suburban area located north of Charing Cross.-Locale:The ...

, North London
North London
North London is the northern part of London, England. It is an imprecise description and the area it covers is defined differently for a range of purposes. Common to these definitions is that it includes districts located north of the River Thames and is used in comparison with South...

. Her mother, Ethel Marion Laughton, was English
English people
The English are a nation and ethnic group native to England, who speak English. The English identity is of early mediaeval origin, when they were known in Old English as the Anglecynn. England is now a country of the United Kingdom, and the majority of English people in England are British Citizens...

 and her father, Walter Bruno Pape, was a German
Germans
The Germans are a Germanic ethnic group native to Central Europe. The English term Germans has referred to the German-speaking population of the Holy Roman Empire since the Late Middle Ages....

 businessman. At the beginning of 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...

 the family found itself in Magdeburg
Magdeburg
Magdeburg , is the largest city and the capital city of the Bundesland of Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. Magdeburg is situated on the Elbe River and was one of the most important medieval cities of Europe....

, and as they were unwilling and unable to return to England, Harvey was sent to live with an aunt at Solothurn
Solothurn
The city of Solothurn is the capital of the Canton of Solothurn in Switzerland. The city also comprises the only municipality of the district of the same name.-Pre-roman settlement:...

 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....

. After the war, the Papes lived in 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 Lilian took her high-school diploma (Abitur
Abitur
Abitur is a designation used in Germany, Finland and Estonia for final exams that pupils take at the end of their secondary education, usually after 12 or 13 years of schooling, see also for Germany Abitur after twelve years.The Zeugnis der Allgemeinen Hochschulreife, often referred to as...

) in 1923. She began her career by attending the dance and voice school of the Berlin State Opera
Berlin State Opera
The Staatsoper Unter den Linden is a German opera company. Its permanent home is the opera house on the Unter den Linden boulevard in the Mitte district of Berlin, which also hosts the Staatskapelle Berlin orchestra.-Early years:...

 and assumed her grandmother's maiden name (Harvey) as her professional surname.

Career

After an engagement as a revue
Revue
A revue is a type of multi-act popular theatrical entertainment that combines music, dance and sketches. The revue has its roots in 19th century American popular entertainment and melodrama but grew into a substantial cultural presence of its own during its golden years from 1916 to 1932...

 dancer in Vienna
Vienna
Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...

 in 1924, Harvey received her first movie role as the young Jewish girl "Ruth" in the film Der Fluch directed by Robert Land. Subsequently, she starred in many silent film
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...

s. In 1925, she was cast in her first leading role in the film Leidenschaft by Richard Eichberg
Richard Eichberg
Richard Eichberg was an German film director and producer. He directed 87 films between 1915 and 1949. He also produced 77 films between 1915 and 1950.He was born in Berlin, Germany and died in Munich, Germany....

, side by side with Otto Gebühr
Otto Gebühr
Otto Gebühr was a German theatre and film actor, who appeared in 102 movies released between 1917 and 1962. He is noted for his performance as the Prussian king Frederick the Great in numerous films.-Life:...

.

Because of her training as a singer, Harvey was able to pursue a successful acting career during the initial talkie
Sound film
A sound film is a motion picture with synchronized sound, or sound technologically coupled to image, as opposed to a silent film. The first known public exhibition of projected sound films took place in Paris in 1900, but decades would pass before sound motion pictures were made commercially...

 era of the early 1930s. Her first movie with Willy Fritsch
Willy Fritsch
Willy Fritsch was a German theater and film actor, the popular leading man in German silent motion-pictures.-Biography:...

 was the operetta
Operetta
Operetta is a genre of light opera, light in terms both of music and subject matter. It is also closely related, in English-language works, to forms of musical theatre.-Origins:...

 film Die keusche Susanne
Die keusche Susanne
Die keusche Susanne is an operetta in three acts by Jean Gilbert. The German libretto was by Georg Okonkowski, based on the play Le fils à papa by Antony Mars and Maurice Desvallières. Jean Gilbert's son, Robert Gilbert prepared a revised version in 1953.-Performance history:It was first performed...

in 1926. Harvey and Fritsch became the "dream couple" of German movies in the early 1930s with the romantic love story Liebeswalzer; she was called the "sweetest girl in the world" by the press, after a song featured in the film. She and Fritsch starred in a total of 11 movies together, among them the criminal comedy Hokuspokus (1930) after a play by Curt Goetz
Curt Goetz
Curt Goetz , born Kurt Walter Götz, was a Swiss-German writer, actor and film director. Curt Goetz was regarded as one of the most brilliant comedy writers of his time in the German-speaking world. Together with his wife Valérie von Martens he acted in his own plays and also filmed them...

, directed by Gustav Ucicky
Gustav Ucicky
Gustav Ucicky was an acclaimed Austrian film director, screenwriter and cinematographer. He was one of the more successful and acclaimed directors in Austria and Germany from the 1930s through to the early 1960s...

, which became a box office success. An English
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...

 version (The Temporary Widow
The Temporary Widow
The Temporary Widow is a 1930 British-German comedy film by the Austrian director Gustav Ucicky, starring Laurence Olivier in his first film role, Lilian Harvey and Athole Stewart....

) was filmed simultaneously, starring Lilian Harvey and Laurence Olivier
Laurence Olivier
Laurence Kerr Olivier, Baron Olivier, OM was an English actor, director, and producer. He was one of the most famous and revered actors of the 20th century. He married three times, to fellow actors Jill Esmond, Vivien Leigh, and Joan Plowright...

, who thereby made his film debut. She also appeared in the musical film
Musical film
The musical film is a film genre in which songs sung by the characters are interwoven into the narrative, sometimes accompanied by dancing. The songs usually advance the plot or develop the film's characters, though in some cases they serve merely as breaks in the storyline, often as elaborate...

 Die Drei von der Tankstelle of the same year, which also became a major success and gave the young actor Heinz Rühmann
Heinz Rühmann
Heinrich Wilhelm "Heinz" Rühmann was a popular German film actor.-Life and work:Rühmann was born in Essen, Westphalia. His role in the 1930 movie Die Drei von der Tankstelle led him to film stardom. He remained highly popular as a comedic actor throughout the 1930s and early 1940s...

 his break.

In 1931, Harvey played the leading part in the film Der Kongreß tanzt
Der Kongreß tanzt
Der Kongress tanzt is a Germany musical comedy film produced in 1931 by Ufa, directed by Erik Charell, starring Lilian Harvey as Christel Weinzinger, the glove seller, Willy Fritsch as Tsar Alexander I of Russia and his doppelgänger, Uralsky, Otto Wallburg as Bibikoff, his Adjutant, Conrad Veidt...

(The Congress Dances); her song Das gibt's nur einmal written by Werner R. Heymann
Werner R. Heymann
Werner R. Heymann was a German film composer. He was a member of the jury at the 10th Berlin International Film Festival.-Selected filmography:* Napoléon * Spione...

 became a most popular melody. Her subsequent movies were filmed in English and French versions, so Harvey became known outside of Germany. She was invited to Hollywood and made four movies for the Fox Film Corporation, but these were not as successful as her German films. She eventually abandoned George White's 1935 Scandals
George White's 1935 Scandals
George White's 1935 Scandals is an American musical film, written by Jack Yellen and produced in 1935 by Fox Film Corporation . It was a follow-up to the 1934 release, George White's Scandals.-Plot:The film centers on real-life stage and screen producer George White as he gathers acts for his new...

, leading executives to cast Alice Faye
Alice Faye
Alice Faye was an American actress and singer, called by The New York Times "one of the few movie stars to walk away from stardom at the peak of her career." She is remembered first for her stardom at 20th Century Fox and, later, as the radio comedy partner of her husband, bandleader and comedian...

 in the part, and Faye became an overnight sensation. In 1935, Lilian Harvey returned to Germany.

Emigration from Nazi Germany

As she was still in touch with her Jewish colleagues, Harvey was placed under close observation by the Gestapo
Gestapo
The Gestapo was the official secret police of Nazi Germany. Beginning on 20 April 1934, it was under the administration of the SS leader Heinrich Himmler in his position as Chief of German Police...

. Nevertheless she pushed the career of her protégé, director Paul Martin
Paul Martin (director)
Paul Martin was a German film director and screenwriter. He directed 60 films between 1932 and 1967.-Selected filmography:* Glückskinder * Die Tödlichen Träume * Die Privatsekretärin...

, performing in his screwball comedy Glückskinder (1936) and further successful movies for the UFA
Universum Film AG
Universum Film AG, better known as UFA or Ufa, is a film company that was the principal film studio in Germany, home of the German film industry during the Weimar Republic and through World War II, and a major force in world cinema from 1917 to 1945...

 until 1939, such as Sieben Ohrfeigen, the biographical film Fanny Elßler (1937) together with Willy Birgel
Willy Birgel
Willy Birgel , born Wilhelm Maria Birgel, was German theatre and film actor.Birgel began his acting career before World War I on the stage in his native city of Cologne, and came to movies rather late...

 and Capriccio; as well as Frau am Steuer in 1939.

In June 1937 Harvey had helped the choreographer Jens Keith prosecuted under Paragraph 175
Paragraph 175
Paragraph 175 was a provision of the German Criminal Code from 15 May 1871 to 10 March 1994. It made homosexual acts between males a crime, and in early revisions the provision also criminalized bestiality. All in all, around 140,000 men were convicted under the law.The statute was amended several...

 by posting a bail for him. Released from custody, Keith escaped to Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...

; this led to a stern interrogation by the Nazi authorities. In 1939, Harvey was forced to leave Germany herself, leaving her real-estate fortune, which was confiscated. She eventually landed in the United States and spent most of World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

 in Los Angeles, working as a volunteer nurse. Because she had performed for French troops, the Nazi regime deprived Harvey of her German citizenship in 1943.

After retiring from acting, she retired to her residence in Juan-les-Pins
Juan-les-Pins
Juan-les-PinsCountry:Region:Department: Alpes-MaritimesArrondissement: GrasseCanton: Vallauris-Antibes-OuestMunicipality: AntibesPopulation:?Coordinates:Time zone:CET, UTC+1Elevation:10 amslPostal code:06600...

 in Vichy France
Vichy France
Vichy France, Vichy Regime, or Vichy Government, are common terms used to describe the government of France that collaborated with the Axis powers from July 1940 to August 1944. This government succeeded the Third Republic and preceded the Provisional Government of the French Republic...

. There, she made two movies in 1940 – Sérénade and Miquette (her last), both directed by Jean Boyer. After the occupation of southern France by Germany, she emigrated to Hollywood again and toured the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 performing in Noël Coward's Blithe Spirit
Blithe Spirit
Blithe Spirit is a comic play written by Noël Coward which takes its title from Percy Bysshe Shelley's poem "To a Skylark" . The play concerns socialite and novelist Charles Condomine, who invites the eccentric medium and clairvoyant, Madame Arcati, to his house to conduct a séance, hoping to...

.

After World War II

After the war, Harvey returned to Paris. In the following years, she travelled as a singer through Scandinavia
Scandinavia
Scandinavia is a cultural, historical and ethno-linguistic region in northern Europe that includes the three kingdoms of Denmark, Norway and Sweden, characterized by their common ethno-cultural heritage and language. Modern Norway and Sweden proper are situated on the Scandinavian Peninsula,...

 and Egypt
Egypt
Egypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...

. In 1949, she returned to West Germany
West Germany
West Germany is the common English, but not official, name for the Federal Republic of Germany or FRG in the period between its creation in May 1949 to German reunification on 3 October 1990....

 giving several concerts. From 1953 to 1957, she was married to Danish theatre agent Hartvig Valeur-Larsen.

Harvey retired to the resort town of Antibes
Antibes
Antibes is a resort town in the Alpes-Maritimes department in southeastern France.It lies on the Mediterranean in the Côte d'Azur, located between Cannes and Nice. The town of Juan-les-Pins is within the commune of Antibes...

 on the French Riviera
French Riviera
The Côte d'Azur, pronounced , often known in English as the French Riviera , is the Mediterranean coastline of the southeast corner of France, also including the sovereign state of Monaco...

, where she operated a souvenir shop and raised edible snails. She died of liver failure on 27 July 1968 in Juan-les-Pins, aged 62. She was buried at the Robiac Cemetery in Antibes
Antibes
Antibes is a resort town in the Alpes-Maritimes department in southeastern France.It lies on the Mediterranean in the Côte d'Azur, located between Cannes and Nice. The town of Juan-les-Pins is within the commune of Antibes...

.

Filmography

  • 1924 – Der Fluch
  • 1924 – Die Motorbraut – Lee Perry's Double in Switzerland
  • 1925 – Leidenschaft – Die Liebschaften der Hella von Gilsa
  • 1925 – Der Fluch – Ruth
  • 1925 – Liebe und Trompetenblasen – Komtesse Maria Charlotte
  • 1925 – Die Kleine vom Bummel – Die 'Kleine'
  • 1926 – Prinzessin Trulala – Prinzessin Trulala
  • 1926 – Die keusche Susanne – Jacqueline
  • 1926 – Vater werden ist nicht schwer – Harriet
  • 1927 – Die tolle Lola – Tänzerin Tilly Schneider aka Lola Cornero
  • 1927 – Eheferien – Hella
  • 1927 – Du sollst nicht stehlen
  • 1928 – Eine Nacht in London – Aline Morland
  • 1928 – Ihr dunkler Punkt – Lilian von Trucks/Yvette
  • 1929 – Rund um die Liebe
  • 1929 – Adieu Mascotte – Mascotte
  • 1929 – Wenn Du einmal Dein Herz verschenkst
  • 1930 – Liebeswalzer [MLV] – Princess Eva
  • 1930 – The Love Waltz [MLV] – Princess Eva
  • 1930 – Hokuspokus [MLV] – Kitty Kellermann
  • 1930 – The Temporary Widow
    The Temporary Widow
    The Temporary Widow is a 1930 British-German comedy film by the Austrian director Gustav Ucicky, starring Laurence Olivier in his first film role, Lilian Harvey and Athole Stewart....

    [MLV] – Princess Eva
  • 1930 – Die Drei von der Tankstelle [MLV] – Lilian Cossmann
  • 1930 – Le chemin du paradis [MLV] – Liliane Bourcart
  • 1930 – Einbrecher [MLV] – Reneé
  • 1931 – Princesse! à vos ordres! [MLV] – La princesse Marie-Christine
  • 1931 – Nie wieder Liebe [MLV] – Gladys O'Halloran
  • 1931 – Calais-Douvres [MLV] – Gladys O'Halloran
  • 1931 – Der Kongreß tanzt
    Der Kongreß tanzt
    Der Kongress tanzt is a Germany musical comedy film produced in 1931 by Ufa, directed by Erik Charell, starring Lilian Harvey as Christel Weinzinger, the glove seller, Willy Fritsch as Tsar Alexander I of Russia and his doppelgänger, Uralsky, Otto Wallburg as Bibikoff, his Adjutant, Conrad Veidt...

    [MLV] – Christel Weinzinger, Gloves-seller
  • 1931 – Le Congrès s'amuse [MLV] – Christine "Christel" Weizinger
  • 1932 – Zwei Herzen und ein Schlag [MLV] – Jenny
  • 1931 – La fille et le garçon [MLV] – Jenny Berger/Ria bella
  • 1932 – Quick – German [MLV] – Eva
  • 1932 – Quick – French [MLV] – Christine Dawson
  • 1932 – Ein blonder Traum [MLV] – Jou-Jou
  • 1932 – Un rêve blond [MLV] – Joujou
  • 1932 – Happy Ever After [MLV] – Jou-Jou
  • 1933 – Ich und die Kaiserin [MLV] – Juliette
  • 1933 – Moi et l'Impératrice [MLV] – Juliette
  • 1933 – My Lips Betray – Lili Wieler
  • 1933 – My Weakness – Looloo Blake
  • 1933 – I Am Suzanne
    I am Suzanne
    I Am Suzanne! is a 1933 American romance film set in Paris and dealing with puppeteers. It was directed by Rowland V. Lee and starring Leslie Banks, Lilian Harvey and Gene Raymond....

    – Suzanne
  • 1934 – The Only Girl [MLV] – Juliette
  • 1935 – Let's Live Tonight – Kay Routledge aka Carlotta
  • 1935 – Invitation to the Waltz
    Invitation to the Waltz (film)
    Invitation to the Waltz is a 1935 British, black-and-white, musical film directed by Paul Merzbach and starring Lilian Harvey, Wendy Toye, Carl Esmond and Ronald Shiner as the Street Vendor. It was based on a play by Eric Maschwitz...

    – Jenny Peachey
  • 1935 – Schwarze Rosen [MLV] – Tania Fedorovna
  • 1935 – Roses noires [MLV] – Tatiana
  • 1935 – Black Roses – Tania Fedorovna
  • 1936 – Glückskinder [MLV] – Ann Garden & Jackson's Niece
  • 1936 – Les gais lurons [MLV] – Ann Garden
  • 1937 – Sieben Ohrfeigen – Daisy Terbanks – Astor's Daughter
  • 1937 – Fanny ElßlerFanny Elßler
    Fanny Elssler
    Fanny Elssler - 27 November 1884), born Franziska Elßler, was an Austrian ballerina of the 'Romantic Period'.- Life :Daughter of Johann Florian Elssler, a second generation employee of Prince Esterhazy in Eisenstadt. Both Johann and his brother Josef were employed as copyists to the Prince's...

  • 1938 – Capriccio – Madelone aka Don Juan
  • 1939 – Castelli in aria [MLV] – Annie Wagner detta 'Mimì'
  • 1939 – Frau am Steuer – Maria Kelemen
  • 1940 – Sérénade – Margaret Brenton
  • 1940 – Miquette – Miquette Grandier

In popular media

In Quentin Tarantino
Quentin Tarantino
Quentin Jerome Tarantino is an American film director, screenwriter, producer, cinematographer and actor. In the early 1990s, he began his career as an independent filmmaker with films employing nonlinear storylines and the aestheticization of violence...

's 2009 film Inglourious Basterds, Lillian Harvey's duet with Willy Fritsch
Willy Fritsch
Willy Fritsch was a German theater and film actor, the popular leading man in German silent motion-pictures.-Biography:...

 from the 1936 film Glückskinder, Ich wollt' ich wär ein Huhn ("I wish I was a chicken") can be heard playing on a phonograph in the basement scene "La Louisiane" as well as in the extended scene "Lunch With Goebbels", as Joseph Goebbels
Joseph Goebbels
Paul Joseph Goebbels was a German politician and Reich Minister of Propaganda in Nazi Germany from 1933 to 1945. As one of Adolf Hitler's closest associates and most devout followers, he was known for his zealous oratory and anti-Semitism...

 (Sylvester Groth
Sylvester Groth
Sylvester Groth is a German film actor and tenor.He is best known to English-language audiences for appearing in Quentin Tarantino's 2009 film Inglourious Basterds, in which he portrayed Nazi Minister of Propaganda Joseph Goebbels....

) happily sings a portion of the song after deciding to hold a private screening of the film. After the screening, cinema owner, Shosanna Dreyfus (Mélanie Laurent
Mélanie Laurent
Mélanie Laurent is a French actress, director, singer and writer. She is best known to international audiences for her role as Shosanna Dreyfus in Quentin Tarantino's 2009 film Inglourious Basterds, for which she won Best Actress from the Online Film Critics Society and the Austin Film Critics...

), under the alias "Emmanuelle Mimieux", comments on liking Lilian Harvey in the film — to which an irritated Goebbels angrily insists her name never be mentioned again in his presence. The song as performed by the Comedian Harmonists remains popular in Germany to date.

External links

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