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POLA NEGRI (1897 - 1987)
Pola Negri was a Polish stage and film actress and singer who achived worldwide fame during the silent and golden eras of Hollywood. She was the first European star to come to America and paved the way for Greta Garbo and Marlene Dietrich to follow. Negri was known for her tragedienne and femme fatale roles and was acknowledged as a sex symbol.
Yet, few people today are familiar with this magnificent actress and the dramatic events of her life.
She was born Barbara Apollonia Chalupiec in Lipno, Poland on January 3, 1897. Miss Negri, with a flair for self-publicity, assigned herself the birth date December 31, 1899 - perhaps to lessen her age, but perhaps to also add the drama of being born on the eve of a new century. Her early life in Poland was difficult. Her father was jailed for being a revolutionary and her mother scraped by an existence for the two of them.
Pola discovered her performance talents early and gained admission to the Imperial Ballet School in Warsaw. She moved to the Rozmaitosci Theatre and made a spectacular debut in 1913 in the play „Hannele”. Together with Alexander Hertz she made eight films in Poland. Max Reinhardt spotted her during a visit to Warsaw and convinced her to move to Berlin. It was there that she joined up with her fellow actor Ernest Lubitsch, who then become her director in her early European films. The films Sumurum, Carmen and Madame duBarry established Pola Negri as a box office sensation in Europe. It was no surprise that Hollywood came calling…..
Jesse Lassky, President of Paramount Pictures, signed Pola Negri to a five- year contract beginning in 1922. She went on to make 20 movies with Paramount in Hollywood. All of her films were box office successes. The best known films are: The Spanish Dancer, Forbidden Paradise, Men, Hotel Imperial, Barbed Wire and A Woman of the World.
Her off-screen life in the US also made the headlines of newspapers and gossip columns. Pola Negri was engaged to Charlie Chaplin at one time and was engaged to Rudolph Valentino at the time of his death in 1926. Pola Negri was the first „woman in black” grieving at Valentino’s tomb.
She returned to Europe after her contract expired to perform in vaudeville shows and then in a film in London titled The Woman He Scorned. In 1932, she returned to Hollywood and made her first talkie titled A Woman Commands. Pola even sang in the film. Her song „Paradise” became an international hit.
Miss Negri then returned to Europe to work at UFA in Germany from 1935 to 1938. Her best-known films from that period are: „ Mazurka”, „Tango Notturno”, „ Madame Bovary”, and „From Moscow to Shanghai”. Pola never appeared in any propaganda films. She fled Germany to France where she worked for the Red Cross and then went on to Portugal and escaped back to America.
Pola Negri spent the next 46 years living quietly with her friend, Margaret West, in Los Angeles and then in San Antonio, Texas. Pola supported the arts and local Catholic charities. She made only two more films: Hi Diddle Diddle in 1942 and The Moon-Spinners in 1964. Miss Negri became a US citizen in 1951.In 1970, her autobiography, “Memoirs of a Star”, was published.
She passed away on August 1, 1987 (aged 90) after an illness. She is entombed at Calvary Cemetery in Los Angeles.
Miss Negri was married twice: first to Count Dambski and then to Prince Mdivani. Both marriages ended in divorce.
Miss Negri always said that Valentino had been the love of her life. During her lifetime, Pola Negri started many fashion trends including painting her fingernails and toenails red and wearing a turban.
Miss Negri’s movies are sometimes shown at film festivals and on TV.
