- Born
- Died
- Birth nameMaria Dolores Eliza Rosanna Gilbert
- Lola Montez, born Maria Dolores Eliza Rosanna Gilbert in 1821, was an Irish adventuress and "Spanish" dancer who achieved international notoriety through her liaison with King Louis I (Ludwig I) of Bavaria. Elizabeth ("Eliza") Gilbert spent much of her girlhood in India but was educated in Scotland and England. At age 17 she eloped with Lieutenant Thomas James; the couple separated five years later, and in 1843 Gilbert launched a career as the dancer Lola Montez. During her travels and performances she reputedly formed liaisons with Franz Liszt and Alexandre Dumas, among many others. In 1846 Montez danced in Munich, and Louis I of Bavaria was so struck by her beauty that he offered her a castle. She accepted, became Baroness Rosenthal and Countess of Lansfeld, and remained as his mistress. From 1851 to 1853 Montez performed in the United States. Her third marriage, to Patrick P. Hull of San Francisco in 1853, ended in divorce soon after she moved to Grass Valley, California. There, among other amusements, she coached young Lotta Crabtree in singing and dancing. Montez settled in New York City after an unsuccessful tour of Australia (1855-56) and gathered a following as a lecturer on such topics as fashion, gallantry, and beautiful women. An apparently genuine religious conversion led her to take up various personal philanthropies. Montez published Anecdotes of Love; Being a True Account of the Most Remarkable Events Connected with the History of Love; in All Ages and among All Nations (1858), The Arts of Beauty, or, Secrets of a Lady's Toilet with Hints to Gentlemen on the Art of Fascination (1858), and Lectures of Lola Montez, Including Her Autobiography (1858). The international notoriety of her heyday persisted long after her death and inspired numerous literary and balletic allusions. By 1860, Lola Montez was showing the tertiary effects of syphilis and her body began to waste away. She died at the age of 39 on 17 January 1861. She is buried in Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn, New York, where her tombstone states: "Mrs. Eliza Gilbert / Died 17 January 1861".- IMDb Mini Biography By: Ulf Kjell Gür
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