Manyi Kiss (Born Margit Kiss; 12 March 1911 – 24 March 1971) was a Hungarian actress.

Career

She was born in Magyarlóna,

Kolozs County Kolozs County was an administrative county (comitatus) of the Kingdom of Hungary, of the Eastern Hungarian Kingdom and of the Principality of Transylvania. Its territory is now in north-western Romania (north-western Transylvania). The capital ...

Hungary Hungary ( hu, Magyarország ) is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning of the Pannonian Basin, Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the ...

''(now Luna de Sus,

Romania Romania ( ; ro, România ) is a country located at the crossroads of Central, Eastern, and Southeastern Europe. It borders Bulgaria to the south, Ukraine to the north, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Moldova to the east, and ...

)'', to Lajos Kiss and Zsuzsanna Nagy. She acted from 1926 in

Cluj ; hu, kincses város) , official_name=Cluj-Napoca , native_name= , image_skyline= , subdivision_type1 = County , subdivision_name1 = Cluj County , subdivision_type2 = Status , subdivision_name2 = County seat , settlement_type = City , le ...

''(in Hungarian: Kolozsvár)'', from 1928 in

Miskolc Miskolc ( , , ; Czech language, Czech and sk, Miškovec; german: Mischkolz; yi, script=Latn, Mishkoltz; ro, Mișcolț) is a city in northeastern Hungary, known for its heavy industry. With a population of 161,265 (1 Jan 2014) Miskolc is the ...

and then between 1929 and 1932 in

Szeged Szeged ( , ; see also other alternative names) is the third largest city of Hungary, the largest city and regional centre of the Southern Great Plain and the county seat of Csongrád-Csanád county. The University of Szeged is one of the m ...

. From the beginning of her career she possessed a natural acting style, an excellent knowledge of dance and ability to sing comic roles. From 1932, for a while she performed with her Italian artist husband in circuses abroad. In 1934 she made her debut in

Budapest Budapest (, ; ) is the capital and most populous city of Hungary. It is the ninth-largest city in the European Union by population within city limits and the second-largest city on the Danube river; the city has an estimated population ...

but was not contracted to any theatre. She was acting at the Pódium Cabaret. In 1940, the Capital Operetta Theatre contracted her, but she also performed at the Hungarian Theatre, the Andrássy Avenue Theatre, the Erzsébetvárosi Theatre, the Márkus Park Theatre and the Vidám Theatre. She joined the

Vígszínház The Comedy Theater of Budapest ( hu, Vígszínház) is a theater in Budapest. Starting in the turn of the 19th and 20th century as an opposition to the conservative National Theater, it became a pioneer institution of Hungarian drama, and one of ...

in 1943, by which time she had become one of the Budapest's favourite performers. After World War II she performed in numerous Budapest venues, but only contracted for individual roles out of necessity – as politically she became ''persona non grata'' under the communist regime – someone had seen her sing to soldiers at the front. In 1954 she worked with the Madách Theatre. In that decade she concentrated on dramatic roles, e.g., in

Brecht Eugen Berthold Friedrich Brecht (10 February 1898 – 14 August 1956), known professionally as Bertolt Brecht, was a German theatre practitioner, playwright, and poet. Coming of age during the Weimar Republic, he had his first successes as a p ...

Mother Courage and Her Children ''Mother Courage and Her Children'' (german: Mutter Courage und ihre Kinder, links=no) is a play written in 1939 by the German dramatist and poet Bertolt Brecht (1898–1956), with significant contributions from Margarete Steffin. Four theatrica ...

. From then on, her ouvre expanded to include grotesque, tragi-comic and dramatic heroic roles with unfettered style and extraordinary range and accuracy. Her colleagues noted the brevity with which she was able to master a role in very little time at all. The Madách Theatre contract ended her career with some well-deserved honours from the state:

Jászai Mari Award The Jászai Mari Award is a state award, which was created by the Hungarian government in 1953 as an award for theatrical arts. The award was named in honour of the Hungarian actress Mari Jászai. It originally ran, from 1955 to 1976, and was aw ...

(1954),

Kossuth Prize The Kossuth Prize ( hu, Kossuth-díj) is a state-sponsored award in Hungary, named after the Hungarian politician and revolutionist Lajos Kossuth. The Prize was established in 1948 (on occasion of the centenary of the March 15th revolution, the ...

(1957) an outstanding award (1962) and an artistic excellence award (1964). Her colleagues only learnt of her terminal illness during her final days. She died in Budapest.

Main roles

Her repertoire included Kálmán's '' Die Csárdásfürstin'';

Chekhov Anton Pavlovich Chekhov (; 29 January 1860 Old Style date 17 January. – 15 July 1904 Old Style date 2 July.) was a Russian playwright and short-story writer who is considered to be one of the greatest writers of all time. His career ...

's '' Three Sisters''; Molière's '' Les Femmes Savantes''; Goodrich- Hackett's ''

The Diary of Anne Frank ''The Diary of a Young Girl'', also known as ''The Diary of Anne Frank'', is a book of the writings from the Dutch-language diary kept by Anne Frank while she was in hiding for two years with her family during the Nazi occupation of the Netherl ...

''; and Shaffer's ''

Black Comedy Black comedy, also known as dark comedy, morbid humor, or gallows humor, is a style of comedy that makes light of subject matter that is generally considered taboo, particularly subjects that are normally considered serious or painful to discu ...

''.

Film roles

She performed in 81 films and TV series from the middle 1930s to 1971.

Selected filmography

* ''

Cafe Moscow ''Cafe Moscow'' (Hungarian:''Café Moszkva'') is a 1936 Hungarian adventure film directed by Steve Sekely and starring Anna Tõkés, Gyula Csortos and Ferenc Kiss (actor), Ferenc Kiss. Art direction was by József Pán. It is also known by the al ...

'' (1936) * ''

Cserebere ''Cserebere'' is a 1940 Hungarian comedy film directed by László Cserépy and starring Kálmán Latabár, Bella Bordy and Manyi Kiss. Main cast * Bella Bordy ... Zsolnay Vera * László Szilassy ... Kerekes István * Manyi Kiss ... Panni, ...

'' (1940) * '' Mattie the Goose-Boy'' (1950) * ''

Professor Hannibal ''Professor Hannibal'' (Hungarian: ''Hannibál tanár úr'') is a 1956 Hungarian drama film directed by Zoltán Fábri and starring Ernő Szabó, Zoltán Greguss and Manyi Kiss. The film is based on a novel by Ferenc Móra set in Budapest duri ...

'' (1956) * ''Sziget a szárazföldön'' (1969), R:

Judit Elek Judit Elek (born 10 November 1937) is a Hungarian film director and screenwriter. She directed 16 films between 1962 and 2006. Her film '' Mária-nap'' was screened in the Un Certain Regard section at the 1984 Cannes Film Festival. Filmograph ...

External links

Kiss Manyi's statue in the park of the National Theatre
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Kiss, Manyi 1911 births 1971 deaths Hungarian stage actresses Hungarian film actresses 20th-century Hungarian actresses Burials at Farkasréti Cemetery