Nora Gregor
Encyclopedia
Biography
She was born Eleonora Hermina Gregor in GoriziaGorizia
Gorizia is a town and comune in northeastern Italy, in the autonomous region of Friuli Venezia Giulia. It is located at the foot of the Julian Alps, bordering Slovenia. It is the capital of the Province of Gorizia, and it is a local center of tourism, industry, and commerce. Since 1947, a twin...
, a town which then belonged to Austria-Hungary
Austria-Hungary
Austria-Hungary , more formally known as the Kingdoms and Lands Represented in the Imperial Council and the Lands of the Holy Hungarian Crown of Saint Stephen, was a constitutional monarchic union between the crowns of the Austrian Empire and the Kingdom of Hungary in...
but is now part of Italy, to Austrian Jewish parents.
Her first husband was Mitja Nikisch
Mitja Nikisch
Mitja Nikisch, a classical pianist and dance band leader, was born in Leipzig, Germany on May 21, 1899 and died in Venice, Italy on August 5, 1936.- Life :...
, a pianist. They divorced circa 1934.
In the mid 1930s Gregor became the mistress of the married vice chancellor of Austria, fascist politician Prince Ernst Ruediger von Starhemberg
Ernst Rüdiger Starhemberg
Ernst Rüdiger Camillo Starhemberg was an Austrian nationalist and conservative politician prior to World War II, a leader of the Heimwehr and later of the Christian Social Party/Fatherland's Front...
, with whom she had a son, Heinrich (1934–1997). On 2 December 1937, five days after the prince's marriage to his first wife, the former Countess Marie-Elisabeth von Salm-Reifferscheidt-Raitz, was annulled, he and Gregor wed in Vienna.
In 1938, the Starhembergs emigrated to France through Switzerland, and her husband joined the Free French forces; cut off from their money and eighty family estates, they were supported for a period by Starhemberg's close friend Friedrich Mandl
Friedrich Mandl
Friedrich Mandl was chairman of Hirtenberger Patronen-Fabrik, a leading Austrian armaments firm founded by his father, Alexander Mandl....
, the Austrian armaments magnate. In 1942, the Starhembergs moved to Argentina.
Reportedly depressed since the beginning of her South America
South America
South America is a continent situated in the Western Hemisphere, mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere. The continent is also considered a subcontinent of the Americas. It is bordered on the west by the Pacific Ocean and on the north and east...
n exile, Gregor committed suicide in Viña del Mar
Viña del Mar
Viña del Mar , is a city and commune on central Chile's Pacific coast. Its long stretches of white sandy beaches are a major attraction for national and international tourists. The city is Chile's main tourist attraction. Known as "La Ciudad Jardín" , Viña del Mar is a Chilean Municipality located...
, Chile.
Career
Gregor entered films in the early 1920s. She worked briefly in Hollywood during the early talkie era, appearing in the foreign-language versions of such films as The Trial of Mary Dugan (1929) and His Glorious Night (1929).Her most famous screen role was as Christine de la Chesnaye in Jean Renoir
Jean Renoir
Jean Renoir was a French film director, screenwriter, actor, producer and author. As a film director and actor, he made more than forty films from the silent era to the end of the 1960s...
's 1939 film La Règle du Jeu
The Rules of the Game
The Rules of the Game is a 1939 French film directed by Jean Renoir about upper-class French society just before the start of World War II...
. Her last appearance was in the 1945 Chilean film La Fruta mordida.
Filmography
- Wie Satan starb (1920)
- Gefesselt (1920)
- Das Grinsende Gesicht (1921)
- Die Schauspielerin des Kaisers (1921)
- Die Trennende Brücke (1922)
- Die Tochter des Brigadiers (1922)
- Die Venus (1922)
- Irrlichter der Tiefe (1923)
- Die Kleine Sünde (1923)
- MikaëlMichael (1924 film)Michael was a silent film released in 1924, directed by Carl Theodor Dreyer, director of other notable silents such as The Passion of Joan of Arc , Master of the House , and Leaves from Satan's Book...
(1924) - Moderne Laster (1924)
- Das Mädchen mit der Protektion (1925)
- Der Mann, der sich verkauft (1925)
- Der Geiger von Florenz (1926)
- Eheskandal im Hause Fromont jun. und Risler sen. (1927)
- Olympia (1930)
- ...und das ist die Hauptsache!? (1931)
- Mordprozeß Mary Dugan (1931)
- Wir schalten um auf Hollywood (1931)
- La règle du jeuThe Rules of the GameThe Rules of the Game is a 1939 French film directed by Jean Renoir about upper-class French society just before the start of World War II...
(1939) - Abenteuer am Lido (1933)
- Was Frauen träumen (1933)
- But the Flesh Is Weak (1932)
- La Fruta mordida (1945)
Names and Styles
- 1901-ca. 1920: Fraulein Eleanora Gregor
- ca. 1925-ca.1934: Frau Mitja Nikisch (privately), Fraulein Nora Gregor (professionally)
- ca. 1934-1937: Fraulein Nora Gregor (professionally)
- 1937-1949: Her Most Serene Highness Princess von Starhemberg (privately), Fraulein Nora Gregor (professionally)