Hertha von Walther

Biography

The actress Hertha von Walther was born as Hertha Stern und Walther von Monbary in Hildesheim. At the age of 17 she ran away from the boarding school and went to an acting school in Leipzig. There she made first experiences as an extra at the theater and at the opera. She went to Max Reinhardt in Berlin one year later and with it she managed her breakthrough on the stage. Because she couldn't earn a fortune at the theater she also took on small well paid parts for movies. To her earliest performances belong "Destinée", "Herzog Ferrantes Ende, "Am Rande der Grossstadt" and "Tragödie der Liebe", where she played together with Marlene Dietrich as an extra. Her first great movie success came in 1924 with "Der Berg des Schicksals", at Luis Trenker's side. She played for the first time for director Georg Wilhelm Pabst in the international successful production "Die freudlose Gasse". In the following years she acted under his direction time and again, so in the well-known movies "Geheimnisse einer Seele, "Die Liebe der Jeanne Ney" and "Abwege". But also other directors like Friedrich Zelnik, Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau, Richard Oswald, Paul Czinner and Fritz Lang esteemed the actress who was often called on for dubious roles. To her other well-known silent movies belong the worldwide success "Faust", "Die Weber", "Svengali", "Dr. Bessels Verwandlung", "Spione" and "Die Ehe". In the sound film era joined many other great movies her filmographie, among them "Der Greifer", Alfred Hitchcock's "Murder - Mary/Sir John greift ein", the classic "M", directed by Fritz Lang, "Die Koffer des Herrn O.F." and "Der Tiger von Eschnapur". Her family insisted on not to play in movies during her short-lasting marriage with director Paul May. Therefore she only appeared again on the screen in 1938 with "Sergeant Berry" and "Ich verweigere die Aussage". In the war time she went on tour for troops care. When the Gestapo tried to sign her on as an agent she fled to Portugal, later to Brazil. There she lived together with her second husband in a mine area. She went back to Germany in 1960 and played at the theater at the present, later she also appeared in movies again. Her last movies were "Jonathan" , "Das Schlangenei" and "Satan ist auf Gottes Seite".