Biography for
Brigitte Helm More at IMDbPro »

Date of Birth

17 March 1906, Berlin, Germany

Date of Death

11 June 1996, Ascona, Switzerland

Birth Name

Brigitte Eva Gisela Schittenhelm

Mini Biography

After her role in Metropolis (1927) she made a string of movies in which she almost always had the starring role, easily making the transition to sound films. Her last film was Ein idealer Gatte (1935) (An Ideal Spouse) in 1935.

IMDb Mini Biography By: Dave Steup <orfila@aol.com>

Spouse

Dr. Hugo von Kuenheim	(1935 - ?) 4 children
Rudolf Weissbach	(? - ?) (divorced) (first)

Trivia

Josef Von Sternberg's original choice for the starring role of The Blue Angel (1930) which went to Marlene Dietrich.

By the time she died in 1996, she had been long forgotten, unlike her jazz-age rival Marlene Dietrich.

Supposedly director James Whale's first choice for his Bride of Frankenstein (1935). She refused to come to America.

Due to the coming of sound films and her disgust with Adolf Hitler's takeover of the German film industry, she retired to Switzerland in 1935 and never made another film. She lived out the rest of her life in quiet solitude repeatedly refusing to talk about her film career anywhere at any time.

Only German actress to date mentioned in the "In Memoriam" section during the telecast of the 69th annual Academy Awards in 1997. (June 2008).