Grethe Weiser

Biography

Grethe Weiser (born in Hannover, Germany, as Mathilde Ella Dorothea Margarethe Nowka) was a singer, comedian, film and stage actress. She grew up in Kotsche and Dresden and went to the private school Höhere Töchter. At the age of 18 she married Josef Weiser, with whom she had a son in 1922. The family moved to Berlin, where Mr. Weiser opened a cabaret for his wife. There Grethe studied acting and singing, played first at the famous Wintergarten and at the Cabaret der Komiker. Soon she became one of the best German Couplet and Chansonnette singers. Her first silent movie was "Männer vor der Ehe" (1927), where she played a mate. Later her husband decided to leave Germany because he was Jewish and so not destroy the career of his wife. After the divorce in 1934 she met film producer Hermann Schwerin and he became her companion. Most of her films were comedies, happy humor films and full of heart. In 1960 she played on stage in Hamburg and in Berlin an der Komödie am Hebbel and at the Renaissance Theater. In 1968 she got an award called "Verdienstkreuz" from the German President. She made more than 140 movies and some of her greatest were The Divine Jetta (1937) ("The Divine Jetta") (1937), Die große Liebe (1942) ("The Great Love")(1942) in which she met the great Zarah Leander and became her life long friend, Gabriela (1950) with Zarah Leander, Fanfaren der Liebe (1951) ("Fanfares of Love") (1951) which was remade in the USA with Marilyn Monroe as "Some Like It Hot", Der Onkel aus Amerika (1953) ("Uncle from America") (1953) opposite Hans Moser, and Casino de Paris (1957).