Sari Maritza

Biography

Dora Patricia Nathan was born in Tientsin, China, the daughter of British Army Major Walter Nathan and his Austrian wife, Eveline Gustava Detring. She received her school education in England, Germany, Austria, and Switzerland, and was, therefore, linguistically well-equipped to appear in films in England as well as on the continent. Her stage name was an amalgamation of two popular contemporary operettas: Sari (also known as 'The Gypsy Violinist') and Countess Maritza, both composed by Emmerich Kalman. Sari made her screen debut in her mother's native Vienna, and then went on to film in Budapest, Berlin, and London. Most of her films were low-budget efforts, such as 'Monte Carlo Madness', which was made by UFA simultaneously in English and in German (as Bombs Over Monte Carlo (1931)). In this, she played a queen. Ironically, the New York Times commented in a June 4, 1932 review about the 'vivacious Continental actress', that her "English is fluent and she looks far more attractive than she does in Forgotten Commandments". Forgotten Commandments (1932) was a patchwork which re-used left-over footage from Cecil B. DeMille's Biblical epic The Ten Commandments (1923), and had Maritza playing a vamp. A New York Times review (June 21, 1932) indicated that, although the make-up "was not in her favour", she gave a "competent performance". The connection between UFA and Paramount was significant in launching Sari Maritza's brief Hollywood career. Paramount, always experimenting with continental actresses in the hope of finding another Greta Garbo or Marlene Dietrich, invented a fictitious, exotic background for her, although she was first, and foremost, British. Usually cast in femme fatale roles, neither the quality of her subsequent films, nor her performances, suggested major star potential. Sari married Paramount Studios exec Sam Katz in 1934. Four years later, they divorced. Sari would, in later years, acknowledge that she was British not Austrian. She added that she quit films because she realized she couldn't act. She worked for a lens manufacturer during World War II. Her second husband was an Air Force navigator.