Zita Johan

 Zita Johan was born in 1904 in Austria-Hungary and she made her stage debut in 1924 in New York City and continued successfully in theater until she was lured by Hollywood to play in D.W. Griffith's final film, "The Struggle" in 1931. Despite the film's negative reviews and lack of box office buzz, Zita was cast in Howard Hawks' "Tiger Shark"at Warner Brothers with Edward G. Robinson and Richard Arlen which did well and lead to her being cast in "The Mummy" which and the role for which she is she is best known.

Carl Laemmle at Universal comissioned a search for an Egyptian-themed horror film to follow on the success of "Dracula" and "Frankenstein". John L. Balderstein wrote the script inspired by the unearthing of Tutankhamun's tomb in 1922 which he had covered as a journalist. Karl Freund, the cinematographer on Fritz Lang's "Metropolis" and "Dracula", was set to direct and he cast Zita who believed in reincarnation which is integral to the story and she named her character 'Ank-esen-amin' after Tutankhamun's only wife whose body was never found. Boris Karloff played 'Imhotep', the unearthed mummy who comes alive and sets out to kill and mummify his love's reincarnated body and to bring her back using The Scroll of Thoth.

"The Mummy" also starred David Manners, Aryhur Byron, Edward Van Sloan, Bramwell Fletcher (who is in the first twelve minutes), Noble Johnson, and Kathryn Byron. The film is bogged down by a lengthy flashback , but is excellent otherwise being well paced and produced. Jack Pierce spent hours applying the make-up on Karloff for the prologue in which Imhotep comes to life and it is that image which is an ontegral part of Universal's horror films. Reception for the film was mixed although it was a modest box office success and it ade Zita a star.

She refused to appear in "Thirteen Women" finding it to be a tawdry melodrama but she made four more films, "Luxury Liner" in 1932, "The Man Who Dared" and "The Sin of Nora Moran" both 1933, and "Grand Canary" in 1934 before returning to New York. Zita had been married to John Houseman whom she persuaded to follow her into theater and films. They divorced in 1933. She was married to John McCormick from 1935-1938 and to Bernard Edward Shedd from 1941 to an unknown date in the 1950s.

During WWII she raised money for war related charities and produced plays for American soldiers. She later worked with disturbed children and gave acting lessons.

Zita Johann died in 1998 at age 89 in Nyack, NY.