Brigitte Horney

Brigitte Horney
Born 29 March 1911
Berlin, Germany
Died 27 July 1988 (aged 77)
Hamburg, Germany
Occupation Actress
Years active 1930–83
Spouse(s) Konstantin Irmen-Tschet (1940–53?)
Hanns Swarzenski (1953–85) (his death)

Brigitte Horney (29 March 1911 in Berlin – 27 July 1988 in Hamburg) was a German theatre and film actress. Best remembered was her role as Empress Katherine the Great in the 1943 version of the UFA film version of Baron Munchhausen, directed by Josef von Báky, with Hans Albers in the title role.

Life and work

Brigitte Horney was the daughter of noted psychoanalyst Karen Horney and grew up in Dahlem. She was, for more than a decade, engaged with Berlin's Volksbühne. When she accepted the starring role in the highly popular film Liebe, Tod und Teufel (Love, Death and the Devil, 1934), a new star was born with the Leitmotif song "So oder so ist das Leben".

Horney was a good friend of the actor Joachim Gottschalk and appeared in four films with him. Although Gottschalk had fallen from favor with Nazi officials, Horney attended Gottschalk's funeral (Germany, 1941), regardless of the political and career implications of doing so.

After the Second World War she became an American citizen, but continued to visit Germany frequently, where she had a house in Bavaria. She married the eminent Jewish art historian Hans Swarzenski, a leading authority on German Romanesque manuscripts. She continued to work in films and television (i.e. Oliver Twist) until her death in 1988.

Selected filmography

Film

Television

External links