Mady Christians
Also Known As: Margarete Christians
Biography: From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Marguerita Maria "Mady" Christians (January 19, 1892 – October 28, 1951) was an Austrian actress and naturalized US citizen who had a successful acting career in theatre and film in the United States until she was blacklisted during the McCarthy period. She was born on January 19, 1892 to Rudolph Christians, a well-known German actor, and his wife, Bertha. Her family moved to Berlin when she was one year old, and to New York City in 1912, where her father became the Irving Place Theatre's general manager. Five years later she returned to Europe to study under Max Reinhardt. She appeared in a number of European films prior to the early 1930s. In 1929, she starred in the first full sound film made in Germany It's You I Have Loved. In 1933, she toured the United States in a play called Marching By and was offered a Broadway contract the following year that allowed her, like a number of other German artists, to seek refuge from the Nazi regime in the United States. On Broadway, Christians played Queen Gertrude in Hamlet and Lady Percy in Henry IV, Part I, staged by director Margaret Webster. Webster was part of a small but influential group of lesbian producers, directors, and actors in theater (a group that included Eva Le Gallienne and Cheryl Crawford). Webster and Christians became close friends: according to Webster biographer Milly S. Barranger, it is likely that they also were lovers. She also starred in Lillian Hellman's Watch on the Rhine. She originated the title role in the 1944 play I Remember Mama. Her last movie roles were in All My Sons, based on the play by Arthur Miller, and Letter from an Unknown Woman, both released in 1948. During World War II, Christians was involved in political work on behalf of refugees, rights for workers (especially in theater and film), and Russian War relief, political efforts that would bring her to the attention of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and other anti-communist institutions and organizations. In addition to her political work, Christians also publicly criticized the House Committee on Un-American Activities in early 1941 and likened the Senate Internal Security Subcommittee's investigation of propaganda in US film to Nazi harassment of film and radio artists in the 1930s. In 1950, the FBI's internal security division began investigating Christians, who had been identified as a "concealed communist" by a confidential informant. When Christians' name appeared in Red Channels, the so-called bible of the broadcast blacklist, her career was effectively over.
Department: Acting
Place of Birth: Vienna, Austria-Hungary (now Austria)
Birthday: January 17, 1892
Deathday: October 29, 1951
Adult: No
Gender: Female
Popularity:
Known For:
Letter from an Unknown Woman
Overview: A pianist about to flee from a duel receives a letter from a woman he cannot remember. As she tells the story of her lifelong love for him, he is forced to reinterpret his own past.
Genres: Drama Romance
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1948-04-28
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My Incognito Heart
Overview: Due to a revolution fueled by Fedor Karew, the queen of Gregoria abdicates and travels incognito to Paris with her cousin Vicky. She becomes a cabaret singer and Vicky her chauffeur.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: fr
Release Date: 1931-01-16
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Heimweh
Overview:
Genres: Drama
Original Language: de
Release Date: 1927-10-21
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All My Sons
Overview: During WWII, industrialist Joe Keller commits a crime and frames his business partner Herbert Deever. Years later, his sin comes back to haunt him when his son plans to marry Deever's daughter.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1948-05-01
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The Finances of the Grand Duke
Overview: The likeable and carefree Grand Duke of Abacco is in dire straits. There is no money left to service the State's debt; the main creditor is looking forward to expropriating the entire Duchy. The marriage with Olga, Grand Duchess of Russia, would solve everything, but a crucial letter of hers about the engagement has been stolen. Besides, a bunch of revolutionaries and a dubious businessman have other plans regarding the Grand Duke. With the intrusion of adventurer Philipp Collins into the Grand Duke's affairs, a series of frantic chases, plots and counter-plots begins.
Genres: Comedy Drama
Original Language: de
Release Date: 1924-01-07
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Come and Get It
Overview: An ambitious lumberjack abandons his saloon girl lover so that he can marry into wealth, but years later becomes infatuated with the woman's daughter.
Genres: Drama Romance
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1936-11-06
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Tender Comrade
Overview: Jo Jones, a young defense plant worker whose husband is in the military during World War II, shares a house with three other women in the same situation.
Genres: Drama Romance War
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1944-05-30
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Address Unknown
Overview: When a German art dealer living in the US returns to his native country he finds himself attracted to Nazi propaganda.
Genres: Drama Thriller
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1944-06-01
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Escapade
Overview: A romantic comedy-drama-musical of mistaken identity, infidelity and farce, set in Vienna at the turn of the 20th century.
Genres: Romance Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1935-07-05
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A Wicked Woman
Overview: A woman and her children escape severe poverty and abuse. She successfully betters her family's condition while living with the secret that she killed her abusive husband in order to protect her children from him.
Genres: Drama Romance
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1934-12-07
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The Only Girl
Overview: A dashing marquis bends from his horse when he discovers a lost garter in the woods and falls. During his delirium he is serenaded by a little hairdresser. She is the person who lost the garter to begin with and has only come to get it back having borrowed it from her employer--the empress of France. The marquis mistakenly thinks he was nursed by the empress, herself, and decides to woo her.
Genres: Comedy Music
Original Language: de
Release Date: 1933-02-22
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The Black Hussar
Overview: In 1812, during the French period, large parts of Germany are occupied by the troops of Napoleon. Several paramilitary Freikorps units battle the French forces, among them the Black Brunswickers led by the 'Black Duke' Frederick William of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel. After the War of the Fifth Coalition, the Black Hussars are pursued by Napoleon throughout the country, but frequently take refuge with the noble-minded German people.
Genres: Drama Romance Adventure History Music
Original Language: de
Release Date: 1932-10-12
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The Loves of Pharaoh
Overview: The Ethiopian King offers his daughter to a powerful Pharaoh to secure peace between the two countries.
Genres: History Drama Romance
Original Language: de
Release Date: 1922-02-21
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The Woman I Love
Overview: In World War I France, a pilot falls in love with the wife of his friend and superior officer.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1937-04-15
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Peter Voss, Thief of Millions
Overview:
Genres: Adventure
Original Language: de
Release Date: 1921-01-01
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Manolescu, der Fürst der Diebe
Overview:
Genres: Comedy Crime
Original Language: de
Release Date: 1933-03-17
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Und Nelson spielt
Overview: Rudolf Nelson and the Weintraub Syncoptators lead thru a short musical revue, featuring eccentric dancers, singers, and a small chorus-line.
Genres: Music
Original Language: de
Release Date: 1929-02-26
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Heidi
Overview: Heidi is orphaned and her uncaring maternal Aunt Dete takes her to the mountains to live with her reclusive, grumpy paternal grandfather, Adolph Kramer. Heidi brings her grandfather back into mountain society through her sweet ways and sheer love. When Dete later returns and steals Heidi away to become the companion of a rich man's wheelchair-bound daughter, the grandfather is heartsick to discover his little girl missing and immediately sets out to get her back.
Genres: Drama Family Music
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1937-10-15
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Dich hab’ ich geliebt
Overview:
Genres: Drama
Original Language: de
Release Date: 1929-11-30
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Salon Dora Green
Overview:
Genres: Drama
Original Language: de
Release Date: 1933-02-22
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Love Comes But Once
Overview:
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: de
Release Date: 1930-10-29
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The Waltz Dream
Overview: Austrian actress Mady Christians stars alongside German matinee idol Willy Fritsch in this adaptation of the Oscar Straus operetta about a Prince who, after falling for a Viennese girl, becomes obsessed with the city and its customs.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: de
Release Date: 1926-03-14
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Frederica
Overview: Based on Franz Lehar's operetta, about the first woman whom the great German writer Goethe fell in love with.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: de
Release Date: 1932-11-01
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In the Slums of Berlin
Overview: It was not just the children who were treated badly by the wealthy Weimar republic. Robert Kramer is released from prison but struggles to adjust to civilian life. His father disowns him, his wife has left him for another man. There is no work. He eventually arrives in a shelter for the homeless, and seeks salvation through Emma, a prostitute.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: de
Release Date: 1925-08-28
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The Only Girl
Overview: English-language version of Ich und die Kaiserin. 'Germany, 1890. Duke falls in love with voice which is not that of empress, but of hairdresser.' (British Film Catalogue)
Genres: Music
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1933-06-17
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The Lost Shoe
Overview: One of the first movies made about the fairy tale Cinderella. The film is part of the current German expressionism. Because of that the film ends up being darker than the fairy tale itself.
Genres: Fantasy
Original Language: de
Release Date: 1923-12-05
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Die Königin von Moulin Rouge
Overview: a silent movie by Robert Wiene
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: de
Release Date: 1926-10-04
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Am anderen Ufer
Overview:
Genres: Drama
Original Language: de
Release Date: 1918-05-01
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Die Buddenbrooks
Overview: Four-generation story-saga dealing with the decline of a middle-class Lübeck family. The first adaptation of a Thomas Mann book was also Gerhard Lamprecht’s first major film.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: de
Release Date: 1923-08-30
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Queen Louise
Overview:
Genres: History
Original Language: xx
Release Date: 1927-12-22
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Fräulein Chauffeur
Overview:
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: de
Release Date: 1928-06-19
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Soll und Haben
Overview:
Genres: Drama
Original Language: xx
Release Date: 1924-10-09
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Mensch gegen Mensch
Overview:
Genres: Drama
Original Language: xx
Release Date: 1924-12-02
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In the Valleys of the Southern Rhine
Overview:
Genres: Drama
Original Language: de
Release Date: 1925-01-01
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The Fate of Renate Langen
Overview:
Genres: Drama
Original Language: de
Release Date: 1931-02-11
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Wien, wie es weint und lacht
Overview:
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: de
Release Date: 1926-09-15
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Der Farmer aus Texas
Overview:
Genres: Drama Comedy
Original Language: de
Release Date: 1925-10-21
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A Glass of Water
Overview: A Glass of Water (German: Ein Glas Wasser) is a 1923 German silent historical film directed by Ludwig Berger and starring Mady Christians, Lucie Höflich and Hans Brausewetter. It premiered at the UFA-Palast am Zoo on 1 February 1923. It was based on a play of the same title by Eugène Scribe, set in England during the reign of Queen Anne. The film was very well received both commercially and critically on its release. It is considered one of the milestones of Weimar cinema
Genres: No genres available
Original Language: de
Release Date: 1923-02-01
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Der Sohn der Hagar
Overview:
Genres: Drama
Original Language: de
Release Date: 1927-03-24
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Die Welt will belogen sein
Overview:
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: de
Release Date: 1926-10-28
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The Burning Heart
Overview: A young composer and inventor meets a poverty stricken singer.
Genres: Drama Romance
Original Language: de
Release Date: 1929-02-16
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Seventh Heaven
Overview: A Parisian sewer worker longs for a rise in status and a beautiful wife. He rescues a girl from the police, lives with her in a barren flat on the seventh floor, and then marches away to war.
Genres: Drama Romance
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1937-03-25
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Ship Cafe
Overview: The singing stoker and the vamp.
Genres: Music
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1935-11-09
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Michael
Overview: The relationship between a master painter and his longtime model begins to collapse after the former agrees to paint a portrait for a Russian countess.
Genres: Drama Romance
Original Language: de
Release Date: 1924-09-26
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Nachtschatten
Overview:
Genres: No genres available
Original Language: de
Release Date: 1918-01-01
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A Woman with Style
Overview: A sparkling Ruritanian comedy starring two great actresses: Mady Christians is an ambassador who needs to outwit a rival diplomat and find favor with the princess of Silistria, played by Diana Karenne.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: de
Release Date: 1928-09-12
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The Runaway Princess
Overview: A prince in disguise saves a runaway princess from becoming a forger's dupe.
Genres: Drama Crime
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1929-03-01
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Grand Hotel...!
Overview:
Genres: No genres available
Original Language: de
Release Date: 1927-09-05
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Die geschiedene Frau
Overview:
Genres: No genres available
Original Language: de
Release Date: 1926-10-08
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Der Wetterwart
Overview:
Genres: No genres available
Original Language: de
Release Date: 1923-01-01
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Meine Schwester und ich
Overview:
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: de
Release Date: 1929-08-27
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Nanette macht alles
Overview:
Genres: No genres available
Original Language: de
Release Date: 1926-04-15
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Zopf und Schwert
Overview:
Genres: No genres available
Original Language: de
Release Date: 1926-08-26
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The Duel
Overview:
Genres: No genres available
Original Language: fr
Release Date: 1928-10-10
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Wer unter Euch ohne Sünde ist
Overview:
Genres: No genres available
Original Language: de
Release Date: 1921-02-18
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