POLA
(POH-luh)
Pola
Negri – Polish silent films actress Common clues: Negri
of old films; Old-time actress Negri; Theda contemporary; Negri
of silents Crossword
puzzle frequency:
once a year Video: Pola
Negri – Paradis, 1933
Pola
Negri (December 31, 1894 – August 1, 1987) was a Polish
film actress who achieved notoriety as a femme fatale in silent
films.
Born
Barbara Apolonia Chałupiec in the village of Janowa, Poland,
Negri trained as a dancer and performed ballet until forced by
illness to change her profession. She turned to acting, and by
the end of World War I had established herself as a popular stage
actress in Warsaw and had appeared in several films.
Her
popularity provided her with an opportunity to move to Berlin
where she appeared in several films for director Ernst Lubitsch.
Their films were successful throughout the world, and in 1922
both were offered contracts with Hollywood studios. Negri's
exotic style of glamour proved popular with audiences during the
1920s, and her association with such actors as Charles Chaplin
and Rudolph Valentino ensured she remained in the public eye.
Negri
caused a media sensation after the death in 1926 of Valentino by
announcing that they had planned to marry, and following the
train that carried his body from New York to Los Angeles, posing
for photographers at every stop. At his funeral she fainted
several times, and had arranged for a large floral arrangement
which spelled her name to be placed on Valentino's coffin.
Despite the wide publicity she attracted, many of Valentino's
friends stated that Valentino and Negri had not intended to
marry. They dismissed her actions as a publicity stunt. Negri's
career began to decline. Her style of vamp was beginning to go
out of vogue, and the advent of talking pictures revealed a
accented voice that the public did not warm to.
She
made only a few films after this, and worked mainly in Europe. In
1951, she became a naturalized citizen of the United States. Her
final film appearance was in the 1964 Disney film The
Moon-spinners.
In the same year she received an honorary award from the German
film industry, for her career work.
Negri
lived her remaining years in relative obscurity. She maintained
her flamboyant persona to the end of her life and was often
compared to the Gloria Swanson character Norma Desmond, from the
film Sunset
Boulevard.
She died in San Antonio, Texas from a brain tumour and was
interred in Calvary Cemetery, East Los Angeles.
Pola
Negri has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for her
contribution to Motion Pictures at 6933 Hollywood Boulevard.
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article is licensed under the GNU
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It uses material from the Wikipedia
article "Pola Negri".
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