Leopoldine Konstantin
Leopoldine Konstantin (12 March 1886, in Brünn, Moravia, Austria-Hungary – 14 December 1965, in Hietzing, Vienna, Austria) was an Austrian actress.[1][2] She took acting lessons with Alexander Strakosch, whom she married shortly afterwards, and made her debut in the Deutsches Theater in Berlin in 1907. She played in Frank Wedekind's Spring Awakening (1907), Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet (1907), A Winter's Tale (1908), and A Midsummer Night's Dream (1910).
From 1911 she was to be found at the Kammerspielen in Berlin and became known in the Berlin salons. She moved to Vienna in 1916 and by 1924 she was playing the title role in Friedrich Schiller's Mary Stuart.
Starting in 1912 she also played in silent films, initially in title roles. She turned away from this medium when, after the First World War, she was offered increasingly minor parts. In 1923 she had a house built in Westerland for herself and her son Alexander. In 1924 she married Hungarian counsellor and author Géza Herczeg.
From 1933 she returned to film work, and in 1935 she returned to Austria. Divorced in 1938, she moved to the United States via Britain. She spoke no English at that time, and had to take a job as a factory worker until, after intensive language study, she landed a supporting role in Alfred Hitchcock's 1946 film Notorious, in which she played Claude Rains' mother, although she was only three years older than him.
She performed in two television series in 1948 and returned to Vienna. Her last acting work involved sporadic theatre roles and poetry readings on the radio.
Filmography
- 1910: Sumurûn - Tänzerin
- 1912: Gebannt und erlöst (Banned and redeemed) (Short)
- 1912: Die Heldin der schwarzen Berge (The Heroine of the Black Mountains)
- 1913: Schuldig - Tochter Julia Lehr
- 1913: Die Insel der Seligen (The Isle of the Blessed) - Circe
- 1913: Ultimo - Gouvernante
- 1913: Die Hand des Schicksals (The Hand of Fate)
- 1913: Vater und Sohn (Father and Son) (Short)
- 1914: Maria Magdalena - Klara, Anton's Tochter
- 1914: Verhängnisvolles Glück
- 1914: Kleine weiße Sklaven (Little White Slaves) - Schwester Luise Sanden
- 1915: Der Dolch im Strumpfband
- 1915: Die zerbrochene Puppe (The Smashed Doll) (Short)
- 1915: The Dancer
- 1916: Das Wiegenlied (The Lullaby)
- 1916: Der Radiumraub - Räuberin
- 1917: Aus vergessenen Akten (From Forgotten Files) - Täterin
- 1917: The Onyx Head - Geliebte von Deebs
- 1917: Eine Nacht in der Stahlkammer - Kunstschützin Celestine
- 1918: Der Volontär
- 1918: Lola Montez - Lola Montez
- 1919: Der Volontär (The Volunteer) - A táncosnõ
- 1919: Lilli's Marriage - Suse
- 1919: Der Verrat der Gräfin Leonie (The Betrayal of Countess Leonie)
- 1920: Können Gedanken töten? (Can Thoughts Die?) - Frau Luda
- 1920: Christian Wahnschaffe
- 1920: Der Shawl der Kaiserin Katharina II (The Shawl of Empress Catherine II)
- 1920: President Barrada
- 1921: Der Silberkönig (The Silver King)
- 1932: Ein toller Einfall
- 1933: Season in Cairo - Ellinor Blackwell
- 1934: A Precocious Girl - Maria, her mother
- 1934: Es tut sich was um Mitternacht (It's happening at midnight) - Frau Dr. Wegener
- 1934: Liebe dumme Mama - Helene Burkardt
- 1934: Princess Turandot - Kaiserin
- 1935: The Old and the Young King - Königin Sophie Dorothee
- 1935: Fresh Wind from Canada - Frau Olden
- 1936: Mädchenpensionat - Fräulein Leers
- 1937: Und du, mein Schatz, fährst mit (And you, my darling, go with them) - Donna Juana de Villafranca
- 1937: Another World - Lady Brandmore
- 1946: Notorious - Madame Anna Sebastian
- Konstantin in 1913
- Konstantin in 1917 (with Curt Goetz)
References