LISA MONTELL POLISH-AMERICAN ACTRESS BORN 1933 JULY 5

 

LISA MONTELL POLISH-AMERICAN ACTRESS BORN 1933 JULY 5

Born July 5, 1933 in Warsaw, Mazowieckie, Poland

Birth Name Irena Ludmilla Vladimirovna Augustinovich

Mini Bio (1)

Smoulderingly beautiful and a fetching, exotic-eyed vision on the American screen during the 1950s and early 1960s, dark-maned Lisa Montell impressed more, especially to male film-goers, as a lovely diversion midst all the rugged terrain and tropical South Sea hazards than as a formidable actress. Similar in beauty and allure to the stunning Debra Paget and France Nuyen, the "Starlet of Many Faces" had a strong knack for ethnic accents and managed to play a variety of foreign types over her relatively brief time before the camera (Peruvian, Mexican, French, Italian, Burmese, Polynesian). Her film resume, which would include such cult-oriented classics as Daughter of the Sun God (1962), World Without End (1956) and the Roger Corman cheapies Naked Paradise (1957) and She Gods of Shark Reef (1958) were nearly all "B" and "C" grade (or worse) in scope and she eventually tired of the lack of challenge. She abandoned her career at the height of her beauty (around 1962) but found immense personal rewards in later decades as a spiritual exponent of the Bahá'í faith.

Although Lisa was born Irena Ludmilla Vladimiovna Augustinovich in Warsaw, Poland, on July 5, 1933, she was not raised there and did not keep her given name for long. Of Russian-Polish descent, she was born to privilege. She and her family managed to flee safely to the United States just months before the Nazi invasion of Poland on September 1, 1939. Her father, a successful businessman, changed the family name to Montwill and Irena's name was adjusted to Irene. The family moved into a spacious Fifth Avenue apartment in New York City and generously took in Polish refugees (both friends and family) as needed during WWII.

Lisa studied art, voice and dance in Forest Hills and eventually was accepted into the High School of Music and Art in Manhattan. She later transferred to the High School for the Performing Arts where she developed an interest in acting. Following graduation, she attended the University of Miami (Florida) for a semester before her father, whose business involved iron mines in Peru, relocated the family to Lima. While there Lisa again studied drama in American-based acting workshops that were set up there. She received her first professional break in 1953 after being noticed and cast by Hollywood producers searching for local female leads for a film they were shooting in Peru.

The film was called Daughter of the Sun God (1962) and it was set in the Peruvian jungles. Lisa plays a young adventurous blonde explorer on an expedition who is not only threatened by raging waters, desert heat and native ritualistic practices, but by various wildlife as well (crocodiles, pumas and gigantic snakes, to name a few). The film had financial problems and was so poorly made that it was held up nearly a decade before it was finally bought and released to the American market in 1962.

While enjoying a South American jet-set life in Peru, Lisa went on to appear in a handful of other local films before learning of Hollywood's interest in her despite the unsuccessful marketing of her debut film. Following her father's untimely death, Lisa and her mother moved to Los Angeles where the ethnic-looking wannabe found work cast on TV as Eurasian, Latina and Native-American types.

Billed as Irene Montwill, Lisa's first Hollywood film was Warner Bros.' Jump Into Hell (1955), a French Indochina (pre-Vietnam) war picture in which she played a French love interest to European soldier 'Peter Van Eyck'. The studio then put her under a temporary contract and she changed her name to the more exotic moniker of Lisa Montell. Despite more second-lead exposure in the RKO films, Escape to Burma (1955), a tea plantation drama starring Barbara Stanwyck and Robert Ryan, and Pearl of the South Pacific (1955), a tropical South Seas adventure with Virginia Mayo and Dennis Morgan, Lisa was not able to up her status in Hollywood.

After filming the minor western, The Wild Dakotas (1956), she appeared in one of her better-remembered pictures, the cult sci-fi film, World Without End (1956), with Hugh Marlowe and Rod Taylor, which takes place on Earth in the 26th century. She went on to play a small role as a ballet dancer in the Leslie Caron MGM drama, Gaby (1956), and was also one of the Italian Martelli sisters (the others being Anna Maria Alberghetti, Eva Bartok and Lisa Gaye) in the musical comedy, Ten Thousand Bedrooms (1957), starring Dean Martin. On the western front, she appeared, with Chuck Connors, as an Indian maiden in Mark of the Apache (1957). Things moved in a cult-like direction for Lisa with her tropical female roles in Roger Corman's Naked Paradise (1957) and She Gods of Shark Reef (1958), both filmed in the same spot in Hawaii. If nothing else, she got to show off her great figure and underwater swimming skills. Over the years, scores of adventurous guest roles came Lisa's way on TV, notably westerns, including the popular series as The Gene Autry Show (1950), Broken Arrow (1956), Tales of Wells Fargo (1957), Colt .45 (1957), Have Gun - Will Travel (1957), Tenderfoot (1957), Cheyenne (1955), Bat Masterson (1958) and Maverick (1957). Outside the western genre, came a few varied performances in everything from comedy (The Ann Sothern Show (1958)) to hip action adventure (Surfside 6 (1960)).

Once wed to fellow actor David Janti, Lisa's last film was the minor "B" western, The Firebrand (1962), starring Kent Taylor. She retired soon after and devoted herself, exclusively, to educational pursuits as well as her Bahá'í religion. She was elected to the Bahá'í Local Spiritual Assembly of Los Angeles and served as Chairperson. Often a public speaker, she has been outspoken on such issues as poverty and discrimination. She was also quite active in the early stages of the civil rights movement and has spent active time with youth arts programs. She later wrote a book (as Lisa Janti) about her spiritual sojourn and, more recently, became the program director of the Center for Education at the Desert Rose Bahá'í Institute. In 2008, she was a guest attendee at the Western Legends Film Festival.

- IMDb Mini Biography By: Gary Brumburgh / gr-home@pacbell.net

Spouse (1)

David Janti (31 March 1957 - ?) (divorced)

Trivia (5)

Was chairman of the Human Relations Committee in Culver City and also active with the Los Angeles County Commission on Human Relations.

After leaving her career in the early 1960s, Lisa went on the get her masters degree and start her doctoral work.

According to Mike Barnum, who offered up an in-depth interview with Lisa to the February 2010 pages of "Classic Images," Howard Hughes became personally interested in Lisa and her career and wanted to sign her up to an exclusive contract. She deliberately played down her sexuality during their first meeting and he never got in touch again.

As Lisa Janti, she authored the spiritual book, "Bahai: The New Vision".

She auditioned for the role of Lilia in Cecil B. DeMille's biblical epic The Ten Commandments (1956). According to DeMille's casting journals, he was impressed with Montwill's cleverness and diction.

Personal Quotes (1)

At times [my acting career] was a fun thing to do. I enjoyed it and it was a great way to earn a living. At the same time, I don't regret leaving it because I believe we have the life we need in order to learn the things we need to learn.

ANNA HELD ,POLISH-AMERICAN ACTRESS BORN 1872 MARCH 19 - 1918 AUGUST 12

 

ANNA HELD ,POLISH-AMERICAN ACTRESS BORN 

1872 MARCH 19 - 1918 AUGUST 12

Anna Held (19 March 1872 – 12 August 1918) was a Polish stage performer and singer on Broadway. While appearing in London, she had been spotted by impresario Florenz Ziegfeld, who brought her to America as his common-law wife. Her fame seems to have owed more to Ziegfeld's promotional flair than to any intrinsic talent, and she did not gain critical acclaim. But her uninhibited style inspired the long-running series of popular revues, the Ziegfeld Follies.

Early life[edit]

Born in Warsaw, Congress Poland, Russian Empire, Held was named Helene Anna Held, daughter of a German Jewish glove maker, Shimmle (aka Maurice) Held, and his French-Jewish wife, Yvonne Pierre.^[1]

Sources of her year of birth range from 1865–73, but 1872 has been accepted in general. In 1881, anti-Semitic pogroms forced the family to flee to Paris, France. When her father's glovemaking business failed, he found work as a janitor, while her mother operated a kosher restaurant. Held began working in the garment industry, then found work as a singer in Jewish theatres in Paris and, later, after her father's death, London, where her roles included the title role in a production by Jacob Adler of Abraham Goldfaden's Shulamith; she was also in Goldfaden's ill-fated Paris troupe, whose cashier stole their money before they ever played publicly.^[2]

As a young woman in France, Held converted to Roman Catholicism.^[3]

Career[edit]

Early years[edit]

Portrait of Held c. 1908, by Léopold-Émile Reutlinger

Held and her daughter, Lianne

Her vivacious and animated personality proved popular and her career as a stage performer gained momentum as she became known for her risqué songs, flirtatious nature and willingness to show her legs on stage. In 1894, she married the much-older Uruguayan playboy Maximo Carrera, with whom she had a daughter, Lianne (1895–1988), who was also an actress and producer, sometimes billed as Anna Held Jr.^[4]

Touring through Europe, Held was appearing in London in 1896, when she met Florenz Ziegfeld, who asked her to return to New York City with him.^[5] He set about creating a wave of public interest in her, feeding stories to the American press, such as her having had ribs surgically removed. By the time Held and Ziegfeld arrived in New York, she was already the subject of intense public speculation.^[6][2] When she finally performed in a revival of A Parlor Match, the critics were dismissive, but the public approved.^[7]

Broadway success[edit]

Held, in an 1890s publicity photo

Anna Held, by Aimé Dupont

David Monod of Wilfrid Laurier University has suggested that Held succeeded more on image than talent, the illusion she presented to post-Victorian era audiences who were beginning to explore new social freedoms.^{[8]:296–297} From 1897, Held enjoyed several successes on Broadway, including A Parisian Model (1906–1907). These, apart from bolstering Ziegfeld's fortune, made her a millionaire in her own right. Ziegfeld's talent for creating publicity stunts ensured that Held's name remained well known.^[9]

Held influenced the format for what would eventually become the famous Ziegfeld Follies in 1907, and she helped Ziegfeld establish the most lucrative phase of his career. Held could not perform in the first Follies when she become pregnant by Ziegfeld in late 1908. Held's daughter Lianne later claimed in her unpublished memoirs that Ziegfeld forced Held to have an abortion because he did not want her pregnancy interfering with Miss Innocence, a show in which she would star in 1908–09.^[9] The claim was repeated in an autobiography by Held entitled Anna Held and Flo Ziegfeld, however, Richard and Paulette Ziegfeld, (authors of The Ziegfeld Touch) concluded that Held never wrote her memoirs, and Lianne was the real author of the autobiography.^[10]:23 Eve Golden, Held's biographer, wrote that Lianne's abortion claim was likely a lie designed to demonize Ziegfeld, whom Lianne loathed.^[9]

In 1909, Ziegfeld began an affair with the actress Lillian Lorraine; Held remained hopeful that his fascination would pass, and he would return to her, but instead he turned his attentions to another actress, Billie Burke, whom he would marry in 1914.^[11]

Film[edit]

New York entertainment entrepreneur Oliver Morosco cast Held in the lead for Madame la Presidente in 1916. According to an interview she gave to Hector Ames for Motion Picture Classic, she was paid $25,000 for her performance.^[12]

Later years and death[edit]

After Miss Innocence, Held left Broadway. She spent the years of World War I working in vaudeville and touring France, performing for French soldiers and raising money for the war effort. She was considered a war heroine for her contributions, and was highly regarded for the courage she displayed in traveling to the front lines, to be where she could do the most good.^[13]

Held's grave in Gate of Heaven Cemetery

Held's footstone

The year 1917 was one of constant touring for Held; she toured the United States in a production of Follow Me until ill health caused her to close the show in January 1918. She then checked into the Hotel Savoy in New York City where her health continued to decline.^[10]:124 Held had been battling multiple myeloma, a cancer of plasma cells, for a year. News coverage began reporting that it had been caused by her practice of excessive lacing of her corsets to give her a tiny waist.^[14]

According to the Washington Times, Held had been in and out of consciousness for about a week. On 12 August 1918, her doctor had pronounced her dead, and the media was alerted. Approximately two hours later, Held revived, and the media notified she was still alive, only to have Held finally die shortly thereafter.^[15][16]

A Catholic convert,^[17] Held's funeral was held at St. Patrick's Cathedral in Manhattan on 14 August.^[10]:23[18] Florenz Ziegfeld did not attend as he had a phobia about death and never attended funerals. Held is interred at Cemetery of the Gate of Heaven in Hawthorne, New York.^[10]:23

She was survived by her daughter Lianne Carrera, who in 1933, had married, was living in Pennsylvania with a four-year-old daughter (also called Lianne) and running an Inn.^[19]

Legacy[edit]

Luise Rainer in her Academy Award portrayal of Held in The Great Ziegfeld (1936)

• The MGM film The Great Ziegfeld (1936) tells a sanitized version of the Ziegfeld-Held relationship. Luise Rainer won an Academy Award for her performance as Held. Ziegfeld and Burke were played by William Powell and Myrna Loy.^[20]
• In 1978, Columbia Pictures released a made-for-television film on NBC, Ziegfeld: The Man and His Women. Held was portrayed by Barbara Parkins.^[21]
• The American poet Carl Sandburg wrote a memorial poem for Anna Held, An Electric Sign goes Dark, in the collection Smoke and Steel.^[22]
• In 1976, Held's daughter Lianne Carrera opened a museum of her mother's personal and stage items in San Jacinto, California.

This is Anna Held. She was born in Poland in 1872, but fled to France in 1881 to get away from antisemitic pogroms in Poland. She started working as a singer and dancer in clubs in both Paris and London as a teenager.

Her curves and flirtatiousness on stage was a huge hit, which helped her engage the audience as her singing voice wasn't that good. She designed routines and special segments to build her popularity, the way modern artist do unique concerts to differentiate themselves.

She acted a bit, mostly on stage, and was incredibly popular. At 22, she married an Uruguayan man more than double her age, and had a daughter with him. They would divorce in 1908 after 14 years, believed to be because of her booming career.

While in London in 1896 she met Florenz Ziegfeld, who convinced her to come to New York City. She started performing on Broadway, and was again a huge hit. Her talent was again only so good, but Ziegfeld fed the press stories and the public just adored her, and her shows were the talk of the town. She worked with Ziegfeld, and together she helped him establish the famous Ziegfeld Follies in 1907, which were high end models that did very artistic and sexy shows and photo shoots.

Held actually did not perform in the follies, having been pregnant with Ziegfeld baby at the time, but apparently had an abortion. She and Ziegfeld broke up, and her career on Broadway stalled. She went back to France during WWI, and performed for soldiers, raising money for the war effort. She was even declared a French Heroine for her efforts. She died in 1918 at the age of 46, believed to have developed physical issues from her body breaking down cells which ultimately caused cancer directly related to her immensely tight corsets. 

Hope you enjoyed this, if this does well, i may start a new series of former famous people most people have never heard of or know anything about.

Christine Granville was a Polish beauty queen TURNED TO ALLIES SPY

 

Christine Granville was a Polish beauty queen who became

 one of Britain’s most valuable spies. Emma Garman on her tragic death.

Christine Granville was a beauty queen-turned-spy. Prior to her involvement in World War II, she was a model. At the start of the war, Granville became a messenger in Nazi-occupied countries in Europe. Her job was to carry messages through Poland, delivering them to various Allied forces without detection.This proved to be a dangerous responsibility. Granville became famous for rescuing soldiers from execution, escaping gunfire, parachuting, sewing knives into the hems of her skirts, fabricating elaborate stories to get out of tight spots, and charming guards and guard dogs alike. One story tells of how she escaped Nazi police forces by biting her tongue and pretending she was dying of tuberculosis.Granville also used her beauty as an asset, charming various lovers throughout her lengthy career in espionage. She quickly found the eyes of Winston Churchill, who would later make her a member of his personal

espionage unit under the code name “Willing” (a hint at Granville’s sexy and exciting personality).It is even rumored that Granville was the inspiration behind the female lead in the James Bond novel Casino Royale. Alas, Christine was murdered by a crazy ex-lover in London toward the end of her career.[3]