Charlotte Susa (1 March 1898 – 28 July 1976) was a German actress.
Biography
Susa was born Charlotta Wegmüller near
Memel,
East Prussia and first appeared on a stage in 1915 at
Tilsit
Sovetsk (russian: Сове́тск; german: Tilsit; Old Prussian: ''Tilzi''; lt, Tilžė; pl, Tylża) is a town in Kaliningrad Oblast, Russia, located on the south bank of the Neman River which forms the border with Lithuania.
Geography
So ...
. She chose her mother's maiden name "Susa" as her stage name and began a successful career as a singer and actress at different German
opera
Opera is a form of theatre in which music is a fundamental component and dramatic roles are taken by singers. Such a "work" (the literal translation of the Italian word "opera") is typically a collaboration between a composer and a libr ...
and
operetta stages, e.g. at
Brandenburg
Brandenburg (; nds, Brannenborg; dsb, Bramborska ) is a state in the northeast of Germany bordering the states of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Lower Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt, and Saxony, as well as the country of Poland. With an area of 29,480 sq ...
,
Essen,
Düsseldorf
Düsseldorf ( , , ; often in English sources; Low Franconian and Ripuarian language, Ripuarian: ''Düsseldörp'' ; archaic nl, Dusseldorp ) is the capital city of North Rhine-Westphalia, the most populous state of Germany. It is the second- ...
,
Hamburg
(male), (female) en, Hamburger(s),
Hamburgian(s)
, timezone1 = Central (CET)
, utc_offset1 = +1
, timezone1_DST = Central (CEST)
, utc_offset1_DST = +2
, postal ...
and
Cologne
Cologne ( ; german: Köln ; ksh, Kölle ) is the largest city of the German western state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) and the fourth-most populous city of Germany with 1.1 million inhabitants in the city proper and 3.6 millio ...
and later at the
Admiralspalast in Berlin.
Susa gave her debut as a film actress in the German
silent movie ''Der Prinz und die Tänzerin'' in 1926 and became popular for her roles as a
femme fatale. In 1932 she signed a contract with
MGM
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc., also known as Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures and abbreviated as MGM, is an American film, television production, distribution and media company owned by Amazon through MGM Holdings, founded on April 17, 1924 a ...
and moved to the United States to start an international career.
Elizabeth Yeaman wrote in her newspaper column on 15 August 1932:
:"
Lilian Harvey
Lilian Harvey (born Helene Lilian Muriel Pape; 19 January 1906 – 27 July 1968) was an Anglo-German actress and singer, long based in Germany, where she is best known for her role as Christel Weinzinger in Erik Charell's 1931 film ''Der Kongr ...
,
Henry Garat,
Anna Sten, and now Charlotte Susa, comprise a quartet of important foreign talent that soon will be seen in Hollywood pictures. (...) Miss Susa has arrived in New York and soon will reach these shores with an MGM contract. She was born in Lithuania of German parents and has won great fame in Germany. She first went on the stage as a singer, then as a dramatic actress, and three years ago she took up screen work. Who knows, she may be the actress who will take Garbo's place, provided Garbo never returns."
However, Susa did not succeed in Hollywood, returned to Germany soon and canceled the MGM contract in 1934. Her last role in a movie was a minor one in the 1941 comedy ''Der Gasmann'' alongside
Heinz Rühmann
Heinrich Wilhelm "Heinz" Rühmann (; 7 March 1902 – 3 October 1994) was a German film actor who appeared in over 100 films between 1926 and 1993. He is one of the most famous and popular German actors of the 20th century, and is considered a Ge ...
and
Anny Ondra
Anny Ondra (born Anna Sophie Ondráková; 15 May 1903 – 28 February 1987) was a Czech film actress. She began her career in 1920 and appeared in Czech, German, Austrian, French and English films. In 1933, she married German boxing champion M ...
. After that she returned to theater stages.
Susa was married to Paul Cablin, Fritz Malkowsky and after 1939 to
Andrews Engelmann
Andrews Engelmann (23 March 1901 – 25 February 1992) was a Russian-born German actor. He worked primarily in Germany, where he specialised in playing Russian roles, but also appeared in a number of British films during his career. He was born as ...
. She died at Basel in Switzerland at the age of 78.
Filmography
References
External links
*
Charlotte Susa at Virtual History
{{DEFAULTSORT:Susa, Charlotte
1898 births
1976 deaths
German stage actresses
German film actresses
German silent film actresses
People from East Prussia
People from Klaipėda
20th-century German actresses