Luise Ullrich

Biography

Louise Ullrich was born in Vienna, the daughter of a major in the Austro/Hungarian Army. She studied at the Kunstakademie, and, while still a teenager, was contracted for two years by the Wiener Volkstheater where she enjoyed her first success on the stage. In late 1932, Louise received an engagement from the Lessing Theater in Berlin to co-star opposite Werner Krauss in 'Rauhnacht'. During one of her performances she was spotted by actor and film-maker Luis Trenker who cast her in the leading role of Erika in Der Rebell (1932). While Louise was inevitably secondary to both star and scenery, the picture did provide a stepping stone to further opportunities. In the Max Ophüls-directed Playing at Love (1933) she had second billing behind established star Magda Schneider (mother of Romy) and the following year appeared in the title role of Erich Waschneck's Regine (1935). Other prestigious films with budding star Louise were to come: Viktoria (1935), a romance based on a novel by Knut Hamsun; and Annelie (1941), a family movie which earned the film studio Ufa the then record sum of six and a half million Reichsmark and garnered Ullrich the Coppa Volpi award in Venice. Her films also established her as an actress of stature - not of the conventional leading lady variety, not particularly ornamental or even especially beautiful - but of the ideal 'girl next door' type: tomboyish, spirited, charming and witty. Alternatively -- as in 'Annelie' -- she would embody the archetypal mother figure (resonating significantly with wartime filmgoers) or a weak-willed , sad wife (as in the title role of Henrik Ibsen's Nora (1944)). Audiences and critics alike applauded her performances and Louis B. Mayer even offered her a contract at MGM in 1938 which Louise declined. Instead, she traveled to South America where she met her future husband, Count Wulf Dietrich zu Castell, director of Munich-Riem airport. After the war, Louise Ullrich made a seamless transition to character roles, dividing her time between stage and screen. One of her notable film appearances during this time was as Cornelie in Harald Braun's Keepers of the Night (1949). Though she had misgivings about the maudlin sentimentality and melodramatics of the screenplay (stating in her autobiography that it wouldn't have mattered to her whether she got the part or not!), the critic Gunter Groll praised her performance as more mature and defined while always retaining her distinguishing genuine qualities. In the 1960's, she made a number of television appearances (including a series by Rainer Werner Fassbinder, in which she played a strong-willed grandmother) and in 1973 published her memoirs. Louise Ullrich spent most of her remaining years writing and painting. One of her last works was an Australian travel memoir, published in 1985. The popular actress died of cancer in January that year.