Celia Lovsky | |
|---|---|
.jpg) Lovsky in the TV seriesOne Step Beyond, episodeMessage from Clara, 1959 | |
| Born | Cäcilia Josefina Lvovský (1897-02-21)February 21, 1897 |
| Died | October 12, 1979(1979-10-12) (aged 82) Los Angeles, California, U.S. |
| Occupation | Actress |
| Years active | 1930–1974 |
| Spouses | |
Celia Lovsky (bornCäcilia Josefina Lvovský, February 21, 1897 – October 12, 1979) was an Austrian-American actress. On the originalStar Trek she played the Vulcan matriarchT'Pau, and onThe Twilight Zone she played the aged daughter of an eternally youthful Hollywood actress.
Lovsky was born inVienna,[1] daughter ofBřetislav Lvovský [cs], a minor Czech opera composer, and his wife Vallee, a cellist.[2] She studied theater, dance, and languages at the Austrian Royal Academy of Arts and Music.[3]: 32
Lovsky married journalist Heinrich Vinzenz Nowak in 1919.[3]: 496 By 1925, they were apparently estranged and she was romantically involved with playwrightArthur Schnitzler.[3]: 32 She later moved toBerlin, where she acted in the surrealist playsDream Theater andDream Play byKarl Kraus.[3]: 39 There, in 1929, she metPeter Lorre, who had seen her in a production of Shakespeare'sOthello near Vienna.[3]: 32 The couple traveled to Paris, London, and the United States. Lovsky was instrumental in bringing Lorre to the attention ofFritz Lang, leading eventually to Lorre's appearance in the filmM (1931) directed by Lang.[3]: 37 They lived together for five years before their marriage.[citation needed] They married in 1934 and divorced in 1940[2] or 1944.[4]
After the couple settled inSanta Monica, California, Lorre had not wished Lovsky to work, believing he should be the breadwinner and she should remain at home. For the rest of Lorre's life, she was his publicist, manager, secretary, financial planner, nurse and confidant.[3]: 87 After their divorce, she started taking roles in American movies and television. She made a name for herself playing roles including the deaf-mute mother ofLon Chaney inMan of a Thousand Faces (1957) withJames Cagney and asApache Princess Saba in the 1955 filmFoxfire starringJane Russell andJeff Chandler.
As she grew older, she was givendowager roles, such as a Spanish matriarch in an episode ofBonanza titled "The Spanish Grant" (1960) andHave Gun Will Travel titled "The Man Who Wouldn't Talk" (1958) (withCharles Bronson), Romany matriarchs, elderly Native American women such as in theWagon Train episode "A Man Called Horse", expatriate Russian princesses, and a role as the widowed mother of Reinhard Schwimmer, one of the victims in the filmThe St. Valentine's Day Massacre (1967). Her final movie appearance was of the "Exchange Leader" inSoylent Green (1973). She delivers the final confirmation toEdward G. Robinson's character Sol about Soylent Green's true ingredient.
One of her television appearances were in theTwilight Zone episode "Queen of the Nile" (1964), in which she played the elderly daughter of a never-aging actress (played byAnn Blyth); another was as the Vulcan matriarchT'Pau who presides at Mr.Spock's wedding in theStar Trek episode "Amok Time" (1967).[5]
On October 12, 1979, Lovsky died at her home in Los Angeles, aged 82.[4]
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