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

Lilian Harvey(1906-1968)

  • Actress
  • Stunts
  • Soundtrack
IMDbProStarmeter
See rank
Lilian Harvey
Lilian Harvey was born on January 19th, 1906 in London. Her mother was English and her father was German. When she was eight her family moved to Berlin shortly before the outbreak of WW1. She spent much of the war at school in Switzerland where she broadened her knowledge of languages and classical dance.

After graduating high school in Berlin, she worked in theatre revues before debuting in her first film "Der Fluch" for Robert Land. After many roles in silent films, UFA found great use for her acting, dancing and language skills in many famous light operettas made with the advent of sound. These highly popular films (usually co-starring Willy Fritsch, with whom she became irrevocably associated in the public's mind as the romantic dream-team of the European cinema) were usually made in three different languages at once. The cast would be switched around her for the various takes in German, French and English (Laurence Olivier had his first film role in one of her vehicles).

Her most successful film, 1931's "Der Kongress Tanzt"/"Le congress s'amuse"/"Congress Dances" led to a contract in Hollywood with the Fox Film Company. She dissolved this contract after a few pictures, walking out on a role that was filled by then-unknown Alice Faye and returning to UFA to be with director Paul Martin, with whom she was romantically involved. The Nazi regime had come to power in her absence and Lilian Harvey found it difficult to work under Goebbels.

She was instrumental in helping those persecuted by the Nazis escape until her film popularity waned and she was forced to escape as well. She eventually landed in the USA and spent most of WW2 in Los Angeles working as a volunteer nurse. Her former directors and co-workers like Michael Curtiz and Billy Wilder remained social contacts, but the stigma of having been UFA's biggest star of the early thirties kept her from reigniting her own film career. She did theatre work and continued to work on European stages after the war. She received war reparations in the early sixties and lived on the Riviera until her death on July 27th, 1968.
BornJanuary 19, 1906
DiedJuly 27, 1968(62)
BornJanuary 19, 1906
DiedJuly 27, 1968(62)
IMDbProStarmeter
See rank
  • Awards

Photos119

Lilian Harvey in My Lips Betray (1933)
Lilian Harvey in My Lips Betray (1933)
Lilian Harvey in A Blonde Dream (1932)
Lilian Harvey in Schwarze Rosen (1935)
Lilian Harvey in Schwarze Rosen (1935)
Lilian Harvey in My Lips Betray (1933)
Tala Birell, Tullio Carminati, Lilian Harvey, and Hugh Williams in Let's Live Tonight (1935)
Lew Ayres, Irene Bentley, Marcelle Edwards, Susan Fleming, Lilian Harvey, Mary Howard, Adrian Rosley, Irene Ware, and Barbara Weeks in My Weakness (1933)
Lilian Harvey in Die tolle Lola (1927)
John Boles and Lilian Harvey in My Lips Betray (1933)
Tullio Carminati and Lilian Harvey in Let's Live Tonight (1935)
Lilian Harvey in My Weakness (1933)

Known for

Three from the Filling Station (1930)
Three from the Filling Station
6.5
  • Lilian Cossmann
  • 1930
Tullio Carminati and Lilian Harvey in Let's Live Tonight (1935)
Let's Live Tonight
6.5
  • Kay 'Carlotta' Routledge
  • 1935
Pierre Brasseur, Henri Garat, and Lilian Harvey in Un rêve blond (1932)
Un rêve blond
7.1
  • Joujou
  • 1932
Congress Dances (1931)
Congress Dances
7.0
  • Christel Weinzinger, Gloves-seller
  • 1931

Credits

Edit
IMDbPro

Actress

  • Lilian Harvey in Miquette (1940)
    Miquette
  • Lilian Harvey, Louis Jouvet, and Bernard Lancret in Sérénade (1940)
    Sérénade
  • Willy Fritsch and Lilian Harvey in Frau am Steuer (1939)
    Frau am Steuer
  • Lilian Harvey in Castelli in aria (1939)
    Castelli in aria
  • Lilian Harvey and Viktor Staal in Capriccio (1938)
    Capriccio
  • Willy Birgel, Lilian Harvey, and Rolf Möbius in Fanny Elssler (1937)
    Fanny Elssler
  • Willy Fritsch and Lilian Harvey in Seven Slaps (1937)
    Seven Slaps
  • Black Roses (1936)
    Black Roses
    • (as Lillian Harvey)
  • Les gais lurons (1936)
    Les gais lurons
  • Oskar Sima, Willy Fritsch, Lilian Harvey, and Paul Kemp in Glückskinder (1936)
    Glückskinder
  • Lilian Harvey in Roses noires (1935)
    Roses noires
  • Schwarze Rosen (1935)
    Schwarze Rosen
  • Lilian Harvey in Invitation to the Waltz (1935)
    Invitation to the Waltz
  • Tullio Carminati and Lilian Harvey in Let's Live Tonight (1935)
    Let's Live Tonight
  • Charles Boyer and Lilian Harvey in The Only Girl (1933)
    The Only Girl

Stunts

  • Richard Eichberg and Lee Parry in Die Motorbraut (1925)
    Die Motorbraut

Soundtrack

  • Oskar Pilzer - Die bewegte Geschichte der Wiener Filmateliers
    • (uncredited)
  • Brad Pitt, Til Schweiger, Mélanie Laurent, Eli Roth, Christoph Waltz, and Diane Kruger in Inglourious Basterds (2009)
    Inglourious Basterds
  • Tango Kabaree (2001)
    Tango Kabaree
  • Götz George and Uwe Ochsenknecht in Schtonk (1992)
    Schtonk
  • Lilian Harvey, Louis Jouvet, and Bernard Lancret in Sérénade (1940)
    Sérénade
  • Lilian Harvey and Viktor Staal in Capriccio (1938)
    Capriccio
  • Willy Fritsch and Lilian Harvey in Seven Slaps (1937)
    Seven Slaps
  • Oskar Sima, Willy Fritsch, Lilian Harvey, and Paul Kemp in Glückskinder (1936)
    Glückskinder
  • Tullio Carminati and Lilian Harvey in Let's Live Tonight (1935)
    Let's Live Tonight
  • Charles Boyer and Lilian Harvey in The Only Girl (1933)
    The Only Girl
  • Charles Boyer, Danièle Brégis, and Lilian Harvey in Moi et l'impératrice (1933)
    Moi et l'impératrice
  • Lilian Harvey and Conrad Veidt in Ich und die Kaiserin (1933)
    Ich und die Kaiserin
  • Pierre Brasseur, Henri Garat, and Lilian Harvey in Un rêve blond (1932)
    Un rêve blond
  • Lilian Harvey in A Blonde Dream (1932)
    A Blonde Dream
  • The Congress Dances (1932)
    The Congress Dances

Personal details

Edit
    • January 19, 1906
    • Hornsey, London, England, UK
    • July 27, 1968
    • Antibes, Alpes-Maritimes, France(jaundice)
    • February 7, 1953 - May 28, 1957 (divorced)
  • Other works
    She acted in Noel Coward's play, "Blithe Spirit," at the Ogunquit Playhouse in Ogunquit, Maine with Anton Dolin in the cast.
  • Publicity listings
    • 6 Articles
    • 5 Pictorials
    • 19 Magazine Cover Photos

Did you know

Edit
  • Trivia
    During the war time she got involved in the troops care in France, but when the threat also grew in France, she went via Portugal to the USA where she worked for the Red Cross. She generally refused all film offers - most of them were small support roles. Instead of this she frequently appeared on stage. In 1946 she returned to Europe again.

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.