Top 250 MoviesMost Popular MoviesTop 250 TV ShowsMost Popular TV ShowsMost Popular Video GamesMost Popular Music VideosMost Popular Podcasts
    Release CalendarBrowse Movies by GenreTop Box OfficeShowtimes & TicketsMovie NewsIndia Movie Spotlight
    What's on TV & StreamingBrowse TV Shows by GenreTV NewsIndia TV Spotlight
    What to WatchLatest TrailersIMDb OriginalsIMDb PicksIMDb Podcasts
    OscarsBest Picture WinnersBest Picture WinnersSundance Film FestivalIndependent Spirit AwardsBlack History MonthSXSWSTARmeter AwardsAwards CentralFestival CentralAll Events
    Born TodayMost Popular CelebsMost Popular CelebsCelebrity News
    Help CenterContributor ZonePolls
For Industry Professionals
  • All
  • Titles
  • TV Episodes
  • Celebs
  • Companies
  • Keywords
  • Advanced Search
Watchlist
Sign In
Sign In
New Customer? Create account
  • Fully supported
  • English (United States)
    Partially supported
  • Français (Canada)
  • Français (France)
  • Deutsch (Deutschland)
  • हिंदी (भारत)
  • Italiano (Italia)
  • Português (Brasil)
  • Español (España)
  • Español (México)
  • Biography
  • Awards
  • Trivia
IMDbPro

Elisabeth Bergner(1897-1986)

  • Actress
  • Producer
IMDbProStarmeter
See rank
Elisabeth Bergner
Elisabeth Bergner was the daughter of the merchant Emil Ettel and his wife Anna Rosa Wagner. She grew up in Vienna, and she made her theatre debut in Innsbruck in 1915. In 1916 she obtained a contract in Zürich, where she played Ophelia next to the famous Alexander Moissi, who fell in love with her. The next stage in her career was Vienna, where she posed as a model for the talented but deeply unhappy sculptor Wilhelm Lehmbruck. He fell in love with her, but she rejected him; his suicide soon afterwards shocked her. After performing in Vienna and Munich she came to Berlin in 1921. There she played in productions by Max Reinhardt and became a very popular actress.

During her early years as an actress, she was often helped by the poet and critic Albert Ehrenstein, whom she called Xaverl. Ehrenstein was also in love with her. At one time she promised him a child but changed her mind. Ehrenstein wrote numerous poems for her, but often she kept him at a distance. However, their friendship lasted and they continued to exchange letters.

She made her film debut in Der Evangelimann (1924). In 1924, director Paul Czinner gave her a part in Husbands or Lovers (1924). This was the beginning of their successful professional collaboration as well as their personal relationship. Her most successful silent movie was Fräulein Else (1929).

Bergner and Czinner were both Jews, and after the Nazis came to power, they emigrated to Vienna and then London, where they were married. She learned English and was able to continue her career. In London, she became friendly with G.B. Shaw and J.M. Barrie, who after a long hiatus from writing drafted a play for her; the result, The Boy David (1936), unfortunately was not successful. She also appeared as Gemma Jones in the movie version of Escape Me Never (1935) by Margaret Kennedy, which earned her an Oscar nomination for Best Actress. Her movie The Rise of Catherine the Great (1934) was forbidden in Germany.

During her London years, she sent much of her money to relatives and friends in need, among them Ehrenstein. Bergner's only Hollywood movie, Paris Calling (1941), failed to attract attention. On Broadway, she fared better and was very successful in The Two Mrs. Carrolls. While appearing in it, she encountered a young aspiring actress who stood in the alley outside the theater every night and claimed to have seen every performance; Bergner befriended and later hired her but broke with her after the young actress -- who called herself Martina Lawrence, the name of one of Bergner's twin characters in Stolen Life (1939) -- became over-interested in all aspects of Bergner's life. Bergner later recounted this story to her friend Mary Orr, a writer, who turned it into the short story "The Wisdom of Eve" -- which was the basis for the movie All About Eve (1950).

After the war, Bergner worked in New York for a few years; in 1950, she returned to England. She gave acclaimed Bible readings in Israel in English, German and Hebrew. In Germany, she resumed her stage career, and in 1959 she stunned audiences and critics in Berlin with her performance in Geliebter Lügner, a German version of Jerome Kilty's Dear Liar, a play based on the letters exchanged between G.B. Shaw and actress Stella Campbell. In 1961, she returned to the movies, and in 1970 she made her directorial debut. Her last stage appearance took place in 1973 (Her husband had died in 1972).

In 1978, a volume of her memoirs was published, in which she shared some of her secrets with the public, such as Lehmbruck's obsession with her. In 1979 she received the Ernst Lubitsch Prize and in 1982 the Eleonora Duse Prize. She discussed a possible return to Vienna with Bruno Kreisky, but she died from cancer at her home in London in 1986. In Seglitz (Berlin), a city park was named after her.
BornAugust 22, 1897
DiedMay 12, 1986(88)
BornAugust 22, 1897
DiedMay 12, 1986(88)
IMDbProStarmeter
See rank
  • Nominated for 1 Oscar

Photos39

Elisabeth Bergner in Ariane (1931)
Elisabeth Bergner and Hugh Sinclair in Escape Me Never (1935)
Douglas Fairbanks Jr. and Elisabeth Bergner in The Rise of Catherine the Great (1934)
Elisabeth Bergner and Martin Held in Der Pfingstausflug (1978)
Peggy Ashcroft, Elisabeth Bergner, Lil Dagover, Johanna Hofer, and Françoise Rosay in The Pedestrian (1973)
Basil Rathbone and Elisabeth Bergner in Paris Calling (1941)
Elisabeth Bergner and Irene Vanbrugh in The Rise of Catherine the Great (1934)
Elisabeth Bergner in Stolen Life (1939)
Randolph Scott and Elisabeth Bergner in Paris Calling (1941)
Elisabeth Bergner in Dreaming Lips (1937)
Randolph Scott and Elisabeth Bergner in Paris Calling (1941)
Elisabeth Bergner in Paris Calling (1941)

Known for

Douglas Fairbanks Jr. and Elisabeth Bergner in The Rise of Catherine the Great (1934)
The Rise of Catherine the Great
6.3
  • Catherine
  • 1934
Randolph Scott, Basil Rathbone, and Elisabeth Bergner in Paris Calling (1941)
Paris Calling
6.2
  • Marianne Jannetier
  • 1941
Elisabeth Bergner in Escape Me Never (1935)
Escape Me Never
5.5
  • Gemma Jones
  • 1935
Elisabeth Bergner and Martin Held in Der Pfingstausflug (1978)
Der Pfingstausflug
7.4
  • Margarete Johannsen
  • 1978

Credits

Edit
IMDbPro

Actress

  • Rummelplatzgeschichten
  • Alles aus Liebe
  • Der Garten
  • Feine Gesellschaft - beschränkte Haftung (1982)
    Feine Gesellschaft - beschränkte Haftung
  • Elisabeth Bergner and Martin Held in Der Pfingstausflug (1978)
    Der Pfingstausflug
  • Dangerous Knowledge (1976)
    Dangerous Knowledge
  • Nachtdienst
  • Centre Play (1973)
    Centre Play
  • The Pedestrian (1973)
    The Pedestrian
  • Angela Down, Liza Goddard, and Susan Jameson in Take Three Girls (1969)
    Take Three Girls
  • Thirty-Minute Theatre (1965)
    Thirty-Minute Theatre
  • Mimsy Farmer, Hiram Keller, and John Phillip Law in Strogoff (1970)
    Strogoff
  • Cry of the Banshee (1970)
    Cry of the Banshee
    • (as Elizabeth Bergner)
  • BBC Play of the Month (1965)
    BBC Play of the Month
  • The Winslow Boy (1977)
    A Touch of Venus

Producer

  • Elisabeth Bergner in Doña Juana (1928)
    Doña Juana
  • Elisabeth Bergner, Paul Czinner, Walter Rilla, and Conrad Veidt in The Violinist of Florence (1926)
    The Violinist of Florence
  • Elisabeth Bergner and Emil Jannings in Husbands or Lovers (1924)
    Husbands or Lovers

Personal details

Edit
    • August 22, 1897
    • Drohobycz, Galicia, Austria-Hungary [now Drohobych, Lviv Oblast, Ukraine]
    • May 12, 1986
    • London, England, UK(cancer)
    • Paul CzinnerJanuary 9, 1933 - June 22, 1972 (his death)
  • Other works
    Stage: Appeared in "The Two Mrs. Carrolls" on Broadway, 1943.
  • Publicity listings
    • 2 Print Biographies
    • 5 Articles
    • 1 Magazine Cover Photo

Did you know

Edit
  • Trivia
    As of 2013 she is one of six women who has received a Best Actress Oscar nomination for a performance directed by her spouse, namely for Escape Me Never (1935) direct by Paul Czinner. The other five are Frances McDormand for Fargo (1996) (directed by Joel Coen), Gena Rowlands for A Woman Under the Influence (1974) & Gloria (1980) (both directed by John Cassavetes), Julie Andrews for Victor/Victoria (1982) (directed by Blake Edwards), Joanne Woodward for Rachel, Rachel (1968) (directed by Paul Newman), and Jean Simmons for The Happy Ending (1969) (directed by Richard Brooks). Jules Dassin also directed his future wife Melina Mercouri in a Best Actress Oscar nominated performance (Never on Sunday (1960)), but they weren't married yet at the time of the nomination.
  • Quotes
    I am well paid in London. I do not go to Hollywood because I am afraid of the place. Hollywood and I would not mix. I would be out of my element - a fish out of water. Hollywood is artificial, high pressure, very social. I am none of these things.

Related news

Contribute to this page

Suggest an edit or add missing content
  • Learn more about contributing
Edit page

More to explore

Recently viewed

Please enable browser cookies to use this feature. Learn more.
Get the IMDb App
  • Get the IMDb App
  • Help
  • Site Index
  • IMDbPro
  • Box Office Mojo
  • IMDb Developer
  • Press Room
  • Advertising
  • Jobs
  • Conditions of Use
  • Privacy Policy
  • Your Ads Privacy Choices
IMDb, an Amazon company

© 1990-2023 by IMDb.com, Inc.