- Born
- Died
- Birth nameEleanore Maria Leisner
- Lenore Aubert was born in present-day Slovenia, at the time still
connected to the Austro-Hungarian Empire (her French name was pure
Hollywood hokum, designed to make her background more exotic - though
she did live for some time in Paris). Eleanore Maria Leisner was the
daughter of an Austrian general and spent her formative years in Vienna
where she studied acting and appeared in a few movies as an extra. Her
marriage to a Jewish boy obliged her to leave Austria after the
'Anschluss' and the couple emigrated to the United States via France.
In New York, Lenore found work as a model and was eventually offered a
lucrative stage role as Lorraine Sheldon in "The Man Who Came to
Dinner" at the La Jolla Playhouse in San Diego. Determined to get the
part, Lenore crossed the U.S. by bus.
Once settled in California, Lenore was
'discovered' twice. The first time, she was spotted by an agent for Samuel Goldwyn
and signed to appear as the alluring Nazi spy trying to tempt
Bob Hope in
They Got Me Covered (1943).
Though Dorothy Lamour wryly commented on
Lenore's sexy walk, there was not enough screen time for the newcomer
to seriously challenge the established star in the popularity stakes.
After that, Lenore went into
Action in Arabia (1944) opposite
George Sanders. This picture did
not make much of a splash either, but attracted the attention of
Republic studio boss Herbert J. Yates,
who was still desperately searching to find a replacement for his
failed star Vera Ralston. Lenore was
consequently cast in the period thriller
The Catman of Paris (1946)
which was launched with a (for Republic) bigger-then-average publicity
campaign and went on to be exhibited at the better cinemas.
Unfortunately, in the course of the 65 minutes, sets and cinematography
were the real stars. Though the cast tried hard, they failed to
overcome the deficiencies of lacklustre direction,a silly script and
the even sillier makeup for the not very scary top- hatted 'werecat'
monster. Needless to say, that 'Catman' did nothing for the careers of
any involved.
During the next few years, Lenore appeared in a number of B-movies,
such as
The Return of the Whistler (1948)
and Barbary Pirate (1949). Her own
favourite among her screen roles was that of Viennese singer/actress
Fritzi Scheff (1879-1954) in
I Wonder Who's Kissing Her Now (1947).
Several times she had screen-tested, unsuccessfully, for A-grade
productions. These included
Saratoga Trunk (1945) and
For Whom the Bell Tolls (1943),
but on both occasions she lost out to
Ingrid Bergman. Lenore's greatest
success in film was probably retrospectively, due to the popularity and
later cult status enjoyed by two films starring her with Abbott and
Costello, made back-to-back:
Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein (1948)
(generally regarded as the duo's best) and
Bud Abbott Lou Costello Meet the Killer Boris Karloff (1949).
A story goes, that, during production of the former, Lenore (attired all
in mink) walked actor
Glenn Strange -- in full make-up as the
Frankenstein monster -- on a leash up and down the
studio lot in full view of visiting tourists arriving on the tour tram (nothing beats good publicity !).
In the 1950's, Lenore joined her husband who was in the garment
business in New York. The business succeeded, the marriage did not.
With the exception of a couple of minor European films, Lenore's acting
career was effectively over. She devoted much of her remaining life to
charitable causes, doing work for the United Nations and the Museum of
Natural History in New York.- IMDb Mini Biography By: I.S.Mowis
- SpousesMilton Greene(1959 - 1974) (divorced)Julius Altman(1938 - ?) (divorced)
- She was one of the few women to portray a scientist, and the only one to play a "mad" scientist, in what has been called "The Golden Age of Cinema", although at the tail end of it, when she played Dr. Sandra Mornay, who worked with the evil Count Dracula, in Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein (1948).
- Forced to leave Austria when the Nazis took over because her husband was Jewish, she fled to Paris, where for a time she was a model.
- Her father was a general in the Austro-Hungarian army.
- Although her name and somewhat unidentifiable accent has led many to believe that she's French, "Lenore Aubert" is actually a stage name; her real name is Eleanore Leisner, and she was born in what is now Slovenia.
- Was discovered by a talent scout while performing in a Los Angeles
community theatre production
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