Manyi Kiss

The native form of this personal name is Kiss Manyi. This article uses the Western name order.

Manyi Kiss (March 12, 1911 – March 24, 1971) was a Hungarian actress.

Manyi Kiss

Career

Born in Magyarlona, she acted from 1926 in Cluj, Romania, from 1928 in Miskolc and then between 1929 and 1932 in Szeged, Hungary. From the beginning of her career she possessed a natural acting style, an excellent knowledge of dance and ability to sing comic roles. From 1932, for a while she performed with her Italian artist husband in circuses abroad. In 1934 she made her debut in Budapest but was not contracted to any theatre. She was acting at the Podium Cabaret. In 1940, the Capital Operetta Theatre contracted her, but she also performed at the Hungarian Theatre, the Andrassy Avenue Theatre, the Erzsebetvarosi Theatre, the Markus Park Theatre and the Vidam Theatre. She joined the Vígszínház in 1943, by which time she had become one of the Budapest's favourite performers.

After World War II she performed in numerous Budapest venues, but only contracted for individual roles out of necessity - as politically she become persona non grata under the communist regime - someone had seen her sing to soldiers at the front. In 1954 she worked with the Madách Theatre. In that decade she concentrated on dramatic roles, e.g., in Brecht's Mother Courage and Her Children. From then on, her ouvre expanded to include gotesque, tragi-comic and dramatic heroic roles with unfettered style and extraordinary range and accuracy. Her colleagues noted the brevity with which she was able to master a role in very little time at all. The Madách Theatre contract ended her career with some well-deserved honours from the state: Jaszai prizem (1954), Kossuth prize (1957) an outstanding award (1962) and an artistic excellence award (1964).

Her colleagues only learnt of her terminal illness during her final days. She died in Budapest.

Main roles

Her repertoire included Kálmán's Die Csárdásfürstin; Chekhov's Three Sisters; Molière's The Wise Women; Goodrich-Hackett's The Diary of Anne Frank; and Shaffer's Black Comedy.

Film roles

She performed in 30 films from the late 1930s to the early 1970s.

Selected filmography

External links