Biography

Pola Negri was born in Lipno, Poland, and moved to Warsaw as a child. Living in poverty with her mother, a teenage Pola auditioned and was accepted to the Imperial Ballet. Due to an illness that ended her dancing career, she soon switched to the Warsaw Imperial Academy of Dramatic Arts and became an actress. By 17 she was a star on the Warsaw stage, but World War I would soon change the theater scene. Without the theater, Pola turned to films. With her new career in pictures and her stage success in "Sumurun", she went to Berlin and was teamed with German director Ernst Lubitsch. The Lubitsch-Negri combination was very successful and the roles that Pola played were earthy, exotic, strong women. One of her films, Passion (1919), was optioned and retitled "Passion" for exhibition in America. The film was such a success that by 1922 she and Lubitsch were both given contracts to work in Hollywood. While her first few films showed some success, they were overshadowed by her reported romances with such stars as Charles Chaplin and Rudolph Valentino. Paradis défendu (1924), made with Lubitsch, and Hotel Imperial (1927) were two of her more successful films. However, three things conspired to end her career in Hollywood: (1) The perception that her mourning for Rudolph Valentino was insincere, though Negri did describe him as the love of her life; (2) The Hays Office codes that would not allow her to show the very traits that made her a sex-siren in Europe; (3) Her thick Polish accent would not play in the sound pictures that were coming into vogue.

Pola Negri returned to Europe and eventually made films for UFA, which was under Nazi management. In 1941 she returned to America penniless. She made Hi Diddle Diddle (1943) and became an American citizen in 1951. Her next and last movie was La baie aux émeraudes (1964).

She died of pneumonia in San Antonio, TX, in 1987.

- IMDb mini biography by: Tony Fontana <tony.fontana@spacebbs.com>

Pola Negri was born Apolonia Chalupec in Janowa, Poland, on January 3, 1897, the sole child of three to survive infancy in a middle class family. When her Slovakian father was arrested by the Russians and sent to a Siberian prison camp, she and her Polish mother became impoverished. Moving to Warsaw in 1902, she was to spend her formative years in dire poverty. As a teenager, Pola auditioned for the St. Petersburg Imperial Ballet. She was accepted. As a ballerina she showed great promise until she contracted tuberculosis and was forced to cut short her dance career. Devastated that her dreams would no longer be fulfilled and wanting to escape poverty, Pola auditioned for the Warsaw Imperial Academy of Dramatic Arts and became a theatre actress. A stage star, her life changed again with the advent of World War I. Once again, she and her mother were plunged into poverty so she turned to film to make a go of it. Her first role was in the film, "Die Bestie" in 1915.

By the time the war ended she had starred in the Polish production of "Slave of Sin" in 1918. Her film career was becoming established. Her next film, later that year, was the highly acclaimed "Madame Du Barry" in 1919. It became an absolute sensation in Europe. The film was later released in the US as "Passion". The film was so well-received that she was given a contract to make films in Hollywood. Her USA career was off and running. In 1923 she landed the role of Maritana in "The Spanish Dancer". The film was popular with the public, who also liked"Bella Donna" and "The Cheat", made that same year. Negri's vamp roles were highly popular and she was a direct rival of Theda Bara. She made a spectacle of herself when, during the funeral of Rudolph Valentino, she threw herself on his coffin. Former fans felt she was acting in public and began to turn away from her.

The Hays Office, which regulated film content, would not allow her to portray the vamp roles that had made her famous elsewhere. Then the "talkie" revolution started. With her heavy accent, her dialogue did not come across well. She decided to return to Europe to spark her flagging career but returned to the US in 1941 owing to World War II. She made "Hi Diddle Diddle" (1943) and became a US citizen in 1951. Her final film was as Madame Habib in 1964's La baie aux émeraudes (1964). Retiring to San Antonio, Texas she died on August 1, 1987 at the age of 90 from pneumonia related to a brain tumor for which she had refused treatment.

- IMDb mini biography by: Denny Jackson