Trivia

As of 2013 she is one of six women who has received a Best Actress Oscar nomination for a performance directed by her spouse, namely for Escape Me Never (1935) direct by Paul Czinner. The other five are Frances McDormand for Fargo. Secuestro voluntario (1996) (directed by Joel Coen), Gena Rowlands for Neurosis de mujer (1974) & Gloria (1980) (both directed by John Cassavetes), Julie Andrews for Victor/Victoria (1982) (directed by Blake Edwards), Joanne Woodward for Raquel, Raquel (1968) (directed by Paul Newman), and Jean Simmons for El amargo fin (1969) (directed by Richard Brooks). Jules Dassin also directed his future wife Melina Mercouri in a Best Actress Oscar nominated performance (Nunca en domingo (1960)), but they weren't married yet at the time of the nomination.

An incident with a fan / aspiring actress in 1943-44, while she was performing in the hit play "The Two Mrs. Carrolls" on Broadway, inspired Mary Orr to write her short story "The Wisdom of Eve". The story was ultimately filmed as La malvada (1950).

Griffith Jones, who starred with her in Escape Me Never (1935), named his daughter, Gemma Jones, after Bergner's character in that film.

She and Bette Davis overlapped in two ways: Davis starred in Una vida robada (1946), a remake of Stolen Life (1939), in which Bergner starred; and Davis starred in La malvada (1950), which was based on an incident that actually happened to Bergner.

Elisabeth Bergner was also able to go on in Germany from her earlier successes. From 1958 on she also appeared sporadically in cinema and TV productions.

In London she created successful productions, among others "Escape Me Never - Verlass mich nie wieder" (1935) - for which she was nominated for 1935's Best Actress Academy Award, "As You Like It" (1936) and "Stolen Life - Träumende Augen" (1938).

In 1923 she made her film debut with the production "Der Evangelimann" (23). One year later she worked together with director Paul Czinner for the first time, they got married in 1933.

Already at the age of fourteen she studied at a private acting school and one year later she attended the Viennese conservatory.

After a movie in the USA called "Paris Calling" (1941) she devoted exclusively to the theater where she still was one of the greatest stars.

She exclusively shot movies only for Paul Czinner till 1938, in these years she appeared in movies like "Nju" (1924), "Der Geiger von Florenz" (1926), "Fräulein Else" (1929) - her biggest silent movie success as well as the sound films "Ariane" (1931), "Der träumende Mund" (1932) and "Katharina die Grosse" (1934) - a movie, which already came into being in England, her new home after the emigration.

Although it is inaccurate to say she is actually a character in Peter Handke's "anti-play" "The Ride Across Lake Constance," her name is used as a designation of a character, as are the names of other celebrated actors of the German cinema, Erich von Stroheim, Heinrich George, Emil Jannings, Henny Porten and the twins Alice Kessler and Ellen Kessler.

She made her theater debut in Innsbruck in 1915 and in 1921 she went to Berlin where she achieved her breakthrough with the movie "Wie es Euch gefällt". Because of this success Elisabeth Bergner became the celebrated theater star of Berlin.

Bergner was also reputedly the inspiration for the character of Dora Martin in the novel Mephisto by Klaus Mann.

She repeated her stage role of Rosalind, opposite Laurence Olivier's Orlando, in the 1936 film As You Like It, the first sound film version of Shakespeare's play, and the first sound film of any Shakespeare play filmed in England.

In 1980, Austria awarded her the Cross of Merit for Science and Art, and, in 1982, she won the Eleonora Duse Prize Asolo.