Rose Luise Maria Stradner (July 31, 1913 – September 27, 1958) was an Austrian stage and film actress, who starred opposite
Edward G. Robinson
Edward G. Robinson (born Emanuel Goldenberg; December 12, 1893January 26, 1973) was a Romanian-American actor of stage and screen, who was popular during the Hollywood's Golden Age. He appeared in 30 Broadway plays and more than 100 films duri ...
,
James Stewart
James Maitland Stewart (May 20, 1908 – July 2, 1997) was an American actor and military pilot. Known for his distinctive drawl and everyman screen persona, Stewart's film career spanned 80 films from 1935 to 1991. With the strong morality h ...
,
Gregory Peck
Eldred Gregory Peck (April 5, 1916 – June 12, 2003) was an American actor and one of the most popular film stars from the 1940s to the 1970s. In 1999, the American Film Institute named Peck the 12th-greatest male star of Classic Hollywood ...
, and other leading men of her era. She was married to the film director
Joseph L. Mankiewicz
Joseph Leo Mankiewicz (; February 11, 1909 – February 5, 1993) was an American film director, screenwriter, and producer. Mankiewicz had a long Hollywood career, and won both the Academy Award for Best Director and the Academy Award for Best ...
.
Life and career
Stradner was born in Vienna, Austria on July 31, 1913. While still an infant, she moved with her parents to Trieste and Isonzo, where her father was stationed as an engineer in charge of troop transportation during
World War I
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
. Post-war, she was sent to a convent after returning with her parents to Vienna. After completing her education, during which she learned English, performed in student plays and became an accomplished pianist, she became a pupil of Austrian theatrical producer and film director
Max Reinhardt
Max Reinhardt (; born Maximilian Goldmann; 9 September 1873 – 30 October 1943) was an Austrian-born Theatre director, theatre and film director, theater manager, intendant, and theatrical producer. With his innovative stage productions, he i ...
. Trained by him, she was subsequently hired by a Hollywood studio after executives saw photographs of her.
With Reinhardt's guidance, she made her stage debut in 1937.
In 1937, she made her Hollywood film debut opposite
Edward G. Robinson
Edward G. Robinson (born Emanuel Goldenberg; December 12, 1893January 26, 1973) was a Romanian-American actor of stage and screen, who was popular during the Hollywood's Golden Age. He appeared in 30 Broadway plays and more than 100 films duri ...
and
James Stewart
James Maitland Stewart (May 20, 1908 – July 2, 1997) was an American actor and military pilot. Known for his distinctive drawl and everyman screen persona, Stewart's film career spanned 80 films from 1935 to 1991. With the strong morality h ...
in ''
The Last Gangster
''The Last Gangster'' (also called ''Another Public Enemy'') is a 1937 American crime drama film directed by Edward Ludwig and starring Edward G. Robinson and James Stewart. The supporting cast features Rose Stradner, Lionel Stander and John Ca ...
'', in which she played the wife of Robinson's character, Joe Krozac. Washington's ''Evening Star'' said of her, in an image caption in its November 10 edition that same year: "Rose Stradner is being hailed by the
M-G-M
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 ...
people as the studio's greatest discovery since
Garbo, as they seem to feel she is going places in the cinema."
Announcing in 1939 that she had signed a long-term contract with
Columbia Pictures
Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc. is an American film production studio that is a member of the Sony Pictures Motion Picture Group, a division of Sony Pictures Entertainment, which is one of the Big Five studios and a subsidiary of the mu ...
, Washington's ''Evening Star'' called her "one of the great dramatic stars of the European stage", adding that as "a prominent member of the Max Reinhardt school of the theater, "Miss Stradner has appeared in more than 50 dramas, ranging from Shakespeare, Ibsen and Moliere to noted modern day playwrights
ncluding.... 'Dinner at Eight,' 'An American Tragedy,' ... 'Faust,' 'Cymbeline,' 'As You Like It,' 'Romeo and Juliet,' 'Hamlet,' 'St. Joan,' and others."
She married writer/director
Joseph L. Mankiewicz
Joseph Leo Mankiewicz (; February 11, 1909 – February 5, 1993) was an American film director, screenwriter, and producer. Mankiewicz had a long Hollywood career, and won both the Academy Award for Best Director and the Academy Award for Best ...
, younger brother of writer
Herman Mankiewicz
Herman Jacob Mankiewicz (; November 7, 1897 – March 5, 1953) was an American screenwriter who, with Orson Welles, wrote the screenplay for ''Citizen Kane'' (1941). Both Mankiewicz and Welles would go on to receive the Academy Award for Best Or ...
, in 1939.
Her final movie role was starring opposite Gregory Peck in 1944's ''The Keys of the Kingdom.''
Death
On September 27, 1958, Stradner committed suicide at her summer home in
Mount Kisco, New York
Mount Kisco is a Administrative divisions of New York#Village, village and Administrative divisions of New York#Town, town in Westchester County, New York, United States. The town of Mount Kisco is coterminous municipality, coterminous with the vil ...
by overdosing on sleeping pills. She was 45 years old. According to Rochester's ''Democrat and Chronicle'':
["Director's Wife Found Dead", ''Democrat and Chronicle'', September 28, 1958.]
Police said a nearly indecipherable note was found in her hand.... A caretaker found the body lying on the floor next to a writing table. Police listed the death tentatively as natural pending an autopsy. Mankiewicz, also a writer and director, said he had last seen his wife Friday night eptember 26when he left heir homefor New York to work on a forthcoming Broadway play. She appeared in good spirits at the time, he added. Miss Stradner wed the film executive in 1939.
She was laid to rest at the Kensico Cemetery in
Valhalla
In Norse mythology Valhalla (;) is the anglicised name for non, Valhǫll ("hall of the slain").Orchard (1997:171–172) It is described as a majestic hall located in Asgard and presided over by the god Odin. Half of those who die in combat e ...
.
Selected filmography
* ''
Wedding at Lake Wolfgang
A wedding is a ceremony where two people are united in marriage. Wedding traditions and customs vary greatly between cultures, ethnic groups, religions, countries, and social classes. Most wedding ceremonies involve an exchange of marriage vo ...
'' (1933)
* ''
So Ended a Great Love
''So Ended a Great Love'' (German: ''So endete eine Liebe'') is a 1934 German historical romance film directed by Karl Hartl and starring Paula Wessely, Willi Forst and Gustaf Gründgens.Bock & Bergfelder p.185
The film's sets were designed by the ...
'' (1934)
* ''
A Night of Change
''A Night of Change'' (german: Nacht der Verwandlung) is a 1935 German drama film directed by Hans Deppe and starring Gustav Fröhlich, Heinrich George, and Rose Stradner. It was made at the Grunewald Studios in Berlin.Klaus p.147 The film's sets ...
'' (1935)
* ''
Hundred Days
The Hundred Days (french: les Cent-Jours ), also known as the War of the Seventh Coalition, marked the period between Napoleon's return from eleven months of exile on the island of Elba to Paris on20 March 1815 and the second restoration ...
'' (1935)
* ''
Dinner Is Served'' (1936)
* ''
City of Anatol
''City of Anatol'' (german: Stadt Anatol) is a 1936 German drama film directed by Viktor Tourjansky and starring Gustav Fröhlich, Brigitte Horney and Fritz Kampers. It is based on a 1932 novel ''City of Anatol'' by Bernhard Kellermann. The film ...
'' (1936)
* ''
The Postman from Longjumeau
''The Postman from Longjumeau'' (German: ''Der Postillon von Lonjumeau'') is a 1936 Austrian-Swiss musical comedy film directed by Carl Lamac and starring Carl Esmond, Rose Stradner and Alfred Neugebauer. The film is known by several alternative t ...
'' (1936)
* ''
The Last Gangster
''The Last Gangster'' (also called ''Another Public Enemy'') is a 1937 American crime drama film directed by Edward Ludwig and starring Edward G. Robinson and James Stewart. The supporting cast features Rose Stradner, Lionel Stander and John Ca ...
'' (1937)
* ''
Blind Alley
"Blind Alley" is a science fiction short story by American writer Isaac Asimov. It was first published in the March 1945 issue of ''Astounding Science Fiction'', and later included in the collection ''The Early Asimov'' (1972).
Although the sto ...
'' (1939)
* ''
The Keys of the Kingdom
''The Keys of the Kingdom'' is a 1941 novel by A. J. Cronin. Spanning six decades, it tells the story of Father Francis Chisholm, an unconventional Scottish Catholic priest who struggles to establish a mission in China. Beset by tragedy in h ...
'' (1944)
References
Bibliography
* Barton, Ruth. ''Hedy Lamarr: The Most Beautiful Woman in Film''. University Press of Kentucky, 2010.
* Eyman, Scott. ''Lion Of Hollywood: The Life And Legend Of Louis B. Mayer''. Simon and Schuster, 2005.
External links
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Stradner, Rose
1913 births
1958 suicides
Austrian film actresses
Actresses from Vienna
20th-century Austrian actresses
Drug-related suicides in New York (state)
Mankiewicz family
Austrian emigrants to the United States
Burials at Kensico Cemetery