Míla Reymonová

Biography

Mila Reymonová (turned into Raymonova in English) was born in Prague as Milena Reymonová. Her father worked in a bank and her mother was a violin player and music and literature teacher. From an early age she studied violin with Stepán Suchý, Jindrich Feld, Jan Marák and Otakar Sevcik, and also trained in singing as a mezzo-soprano, becoming a child prodigy concert player in European venues. She also went onstage at the Prague National Theater in operettas, and appeared in a few films in Prague and Germany starting with a small role in Kariéra Pavla Camrdy (1931). She played both as actress and violinist in Adjutant to His Highness (1933). She recorded violin records and was a frequent guest of Czech radio. In 1936 she performed in the operetta by Lamacove Na Tý Louce Zelený (The Green Field) and in 1937 she starred in the comedy Tri vejce do skla (1937) (Three Eggs in a Glass), which was the last film she made in her home country. Escaping from Nazi domination because of her Jewish ascendant, in 1938 she emigrated to the US and later to England, where she got the UK citizenship and got married, was cast in a few stage plays like "The Last Stone" and in a couple of films, A Canterbury Tale (1944) and Candlelight in Algeria (1943). She kept traveling between the States and England.