Brigitte Helm
Brigitte Helm ( born March 17, 1906 according to other sources March 17, 1908, in Berlin, † June 11, 1996 in Ascona, actually Brigitte Eva Gisela Schittenhelm ) was a German film actress. She is known primarily for her role in the German silent film Metropolis from 1927.
Life
Her father was Edwin John Alexander Schittenhelm (1871-1913), her mother Gertrude Martha Tews ( 1877-1955 ).
Brigitte Helm went to school at Johanna Home, one donated by the landowner Eduard Arnhold orphanage for girls with attached school at the old customs station Werftpfuhl in Hirschfelde (now Werneuchen - Hirschfelde ( Barnim ), Brandenburg ). There she played among others at a private performance of Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream with. When sixteen she wrote to Fritz Lang, as they believe wanted to be a film actress of her talent. In Neubabelsberg they played against long before Elizabeth from Mary Stuart. Impressed, inter alia, of their choice, the role of Elizabeth, the " moving expression " and their ability to improvise, he recommended them to the UFA, and helmet received through this training. After an unsuccessful audition with a different director, Lang, despite numerous concerns, Helm decided to occupy the dual role of Maria / machine man in his film Metropolis.
After training Brigitte Helm graduated in 1925 with the UFA a ten- year deal and played during those ten years, almost exclusively leading roles. Not to be set to roles as a femme fatale, she complained against the Ufa, scored a comparison and henceforth also played other roles. In 1930 she starred in The Singing City, her first sound film. Since it was customary to turn sound films in various languages several times, she was also seen in France and England in the respective versions of their successful German films.
In 1935 she played in her last film with An Ideal Husband; despite efforts by the Ufa they did not renew their contract. She married ( second marriage ) the industrialist Hugo Kunheim ( Chemical Factories Kunheim, Prussian blue ), with whom she moved to Switzerland and had four children. Into the movie business they did not return. In 1996, she died in Ascona.