Celia Lovsky

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Celia Lovsky (February 21, 1897-October 12, 1979) was an Austrian-American actress. She was born Caecilie Lvovsky in Vienna, daughter of Bretislav Lvovsky (1857-1910), a minor Czech opera composer. Her birthday is given by various sources as February 12 and February 21. She studied theater at the Austrian Royal Academy of Arts and Music.

She later moved to Berlin, where she met Peter Lorre, who would later become her husband. The couple traveled to Paris, London, and the United States. Celia was instrumental in bringing Lorre to the attention of Fritz Lang, leading eventually to Lorre's debut film M (1931 film). They were married until 1945, remaining close friends for the rest of their lives.

After the couple settled in Santa Monica, California, Lorre had not wished Lovsky to work, believing he should be the breadwinner and she should remain at home. However, after their divorce, she started taking roles in American movies and television. She was never able to assume more than character roles due to her inability to overcome a heavy Austro-Hungarian accent. She made a name for herself playing slightly exotic roles such as the deaf-mute mother of Lon Chaney in The Man of a Thousand Faces with James Cagney and Apache Princess Saba in the Jane Russell film Foxfire. As she grew older, she was given a lot of dignified dowager roles, such as Romany matriarchs and expatriate Russian princesses, and a brief but memorable role as the widowed mother of Reinhard Schwimmer, one of the victims of the St. Valentines Day Massacre in the 1967 film of the same name, where her age and accent were perfectly suited to the role.

Her most famous role may be that of T'Pau on the episode of the original Star Trek, "Amok Time". She was one of only a few credited actors in any Star Trek movie or episode to have been born in the 19th century. Ian Wolfe, (Mr. AtoZ and Septimus) was also born in the 19th century, on November 4, 1896.

[edit] Further reading

• Youngkin, Stephen D. (2005). The Lost One: A Life of Peter Lorre. University Press of Kentucky. ISBN 0-813-12360-7. 

[edit] External links

• Celia Lovsky article at Memory Alpha, a Star Trek wiki
• Celia Lovsky at the Internet Movie Database
• The Lost One: A Life of Peter Lorre -- Website describing biography of Lorre, with many early photographs of Celia.