Biography

Star of stage in Europe, she became just another "Another Garbo," like Anna Sten and others, whose importation to 1930's Hollywood led to movie stardom nary a whit. Her most often-seen performance is her brief role as the governess to the Empress's very young son in "The Song of Bernadette", who takes what is believed to be miraculous water from the grotto. She eventually went to Eastern Europe and into oblivion.

- IMDb mini biography by: Bill Takacs <kinephile@aol.com>

Natalie Bierl (1907, Bucharest - Romania; 1958, Landsthul - Germany), nickname Talusha, was born to a German couple, the mother a Baroness of Polish descent, and the father a German businessman who was temporarily in Bucharest overseeing his company. During WWI she was in Berlin, and studying at a private school. 5' 6" tall and blonde, she had a brief film appearance in 1926, and then a stage career in Germany and Austria, substituting for a character that had been played by Marlene Dietrich. During WWII she became a "Second Garbo" in Hollywood, due to her sort of cold, glamorous beauty. She played in crime thrillers and early women-in-prison genre films, but various characters of hers were linked with the anti-Nazi war effort: a courageous Russian in Le défilé de la mort (1943), Madame Bouchard of the French Resistance in Voyage sans retour (1944), the Nazi Doctor Elise Bork in Jungle Queen (1945), and Yvette Aubert, the French adventurer and entertainer, in Femmes dans la nuit (1948), who plays along with an extreme Nazi unit in Shanghai until she saves the world from a weapon of mass destruction with the sacrifice of her life. Possibly during the production of this film, in mid-1948, Tala decided to return to Germany and take up residence with her mother who was by then living in Munich. In 1951 she was appointed by the Special Service Headquarters of the U.S. Army in Nuremberg to organize theatrical productions in Germany, France, and Austria for the G.I.s. stationed there. Her title was Field Entertainment Supervisor, and sometimes took part herself in shows at military clubs in Munich and Nuremberg, and Orléans (France). She later moved to Berlin with the title Command Entertainment Director and put on shows for U.S. troops and refugees from Eastern Europe. She retired in 1957 for health reasons, and died shortly after. She is buried in the family tomb, in Marquartstein, Bavaria, Germany.

- IMDb mini biography by: Artemis-9