Maria Orska
actress
- Born:
- 1893-03-16, Nikolayev, Kherson Governorate, Russian Empire [now Mykolaiv, Ukraine]
- Died:
- 1930-05-16, Vienna, Austria
- Professions:
- actress
Biography
A daughter of the Black-Sea port Nikolayev, Maria Orska first drew breath on 16 March 1893 while the city still flew the double-headed eagle of the Russian Empire. Within two decades she had slipped into the flickering darkness of cinema, bewitching early Weimar audiences as the calculating countess of Dämon und Mensch (1915), the tormented lover of Die letzte Stunde (1921) and the feral seductress of Die Bestie im Menschen (1921). Her meteoric rise ended in Vienna, where she died on 16 May 1930, leaving only the glow of nitrate to remember her by.
