Pola (Barabara Apolonia) Negri (Khalupetz) American film star of the silent film era Date of Birth: 03.01.1894 Country: USA

Biography of Pola Negri

Pola Negri, born Barbara Apolonia Chałupecs, was an American film star during the silent film era. She was born in Poland and her father was a Gypsy violinist who later abandoned the family. In her autobiography, "Memoirs of a Star," she portrayed a romanticized version of her childhood.

Negri initially trained at the Imperial Ballet School but had to give up her career as a dancer due to tuberculosis. After recovering, she enrolled in the Imperial Academy of Dramatic Arts in Warsaw and made her debut in the theater. In 1914, she entered the film industry and quickly became one of Poland's leading stars.

In 1917, Negri moved to Berlin, where she worked for five years and appeared in films such as "Carmen" (1918), "Passion/Madame Dubarry" (1919), and "Die Bergkatze" (1921), all directed by Ernst Lubitsch. She then signed a contract with Paramount Pictures and moved to Hollywood, which was dominated by Gloria Swanson at the time. Their rivalry escalated to the point that producer Adolf Zukor transferred all of Swanson's productions to New York.

This scandal, along with Negri's passionate affair with Rudolph Valentino and a brief engagement with Charlie Chaplin, contributed to her popularity. In 1926, she sent 4,000 roses to Valentino's funeral and lost consciousness at his grave. However, she soon recovered enough to marry Georgian Prince Serge Mdivani, although the marriage ended in divorce.

On-screen, Negri often portrayed exotic, passionate, and mysterious women in films such as "Forbidden Paradise" (1924) and "Hotel Imperial" (1927). However, her performances proclaiming the superiority of German culture eventually alienated many of her fans. Distributors refused to feature her name on posters, and her stylized acting and strong Polish accent ended her Hollywood career with the advent of sound in cinema.

Negri returned to Europe, where she found a fan in Adolf Hitler, who reportedly watched her film "Mazurka" (1935), a melodrama about maternal love, at least once a week. When Joseph Goebbels suspected her of being Jewish and removed her from filmmaking, Hitler overturned the decision. Negri later won a defamation lawsuit against a French magazine that labeled her as Hitler's lover.

After the fall of France, Negri arrived in Hollywood with no money and only starred in one unsuccessful film. She obtained American citizenship in 1951 but made only one more screen appearance in 1964.