Maria Corda

Maria Corda was a Hungarian actress and a star of the silent film era in Germany and Austria (image from 1927). Maria was born on May 4, 1898 in Deva, Hungary. She began her acting career in the theatres of Budapest in the early days of World War I and soon after the break-up of Austria-Hungary she also began to work in the film industry. Her first role was in “Se ki, Se Be” in 1919, directed by the Hungarian director, Korda Sandor, who would come to be known as Alexander Korda. She married Sandor in 1919, who was then the leading director in Hungary's fledgling film industry. He featured her in three films that year “White Rose” (Fehér rózsa), “Ave Caesar!” and “Number 111” (A 111-es), all of which he directed. Maria soon became a star of the Austrian silent screen, directed by her husband in such epic films as “Samson und Delila” (1922) and Michael Curtiz's “Die Sklavenkönigin” (1924). Her popularity was so big that Austrian investors refused their grant for the movie "Die letzten Tage von Pompeji" (1926) if the leading part wouldn't be recasted with her in it. In 1926, the couple moved to Berlin where their success as a team – he directing, Maria starring – soon won them enough attention that Maria was offered a contract by First National, a Hollywood studio, and her husband was signed (a kind of package deal). They sailed to America that year, and settled in Beverly Hills, California. Unfortunately, Maria could not duplicate her European success in Hollywood. She appeared in Korda's early productions there, most notably “The Private Life of Helen of Troy” (1927), but none of the films were very successful. By the time of Korda's divorce from Maria in 1932, sound pictures had arrived and her career was on the wane. She moved to New York, where she wrote a number of novels. The later years of her life were spent in the vicinity of Geneva in Switzerland, passing away on February 2, 1976 (aged 78).

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