Anny Ondra

Anny Ondra
Ondra c. 1926
Born	Anna Sophie Ondráková (1903-05-15)15 May 1903 Tarnów, Galicia, Austria–Hungary (now Poland)
Died	28 February 1987(1987-02-28) (aged 83) Hollenstedt, West Germany
Resting place	Saint Andreas Friedhof, Hollenstedt, West Germany
Nationality	Czech
Years active	1919–1951
Spouse	Max Schmeling (1933–1987)
Partner	Karel Lamač

Anny Ondra (born Anna Sophie Ondráková; 15 May 1903 – 28 February 1987) was an Austrian (German) and Czech film actress. She began her career in 1920 and appeared in Czech, German, Austrian, French and English films. In 1933, she married German boxing champion Max Schmeling.

Life

Ondra was born in Tarnów to Czech parents, Bohumír Ondrák, an officer in the Austro-Hungarian Army, and Anna Ondráková (née Mracek). She had two brothers, Tomáš and Jindřich. She spent her childhood in Tarnów, Pula and Prague. At seventeen she acted in the theatre and in her first film, which was directed by her then boyfriend, director and actor Karel Lamač.^[1] When her family learned of it, they had a shouting match in which the teenager received a beating from her father - to be an actress, soon after the First World War, was socially almost at the level of being a beggar. Anna had been educated at a convent school and her father had found an official government position for her. Anna preferred a film career and began to live with Karel Lamač. "I swim like a fish, ride like a cowboy, and I would do it all if the film required it," summarised the nineteen-year-old. After some years she wanted to start a family, but Lamač did not want to marry. So, after a three-year romance, on 6 July 1933 in Bad Saarow, Ondra married German boxer Max Schmeling. Schmeling had acquired the summer house in Bad Saarow belonging to the expressionist painter Bruno Krauskopf, who had fled exile from the Nazis, in 1933. Ondra and Schmeling appeared together in the film Knock-out (1935).

Wedding of Anny Ondra and Max Schmeling (1933)

Throughout their marriage, the Nazi regime tried to exploit the fame and popularity of Ondra and Schmeling. They were often seen in photos with Joseph Goebbels and Adolf Hitler - Schmeling portrayed as a German superman (he was heavyweight champion of the world between 1930 and 1932) and Ondra as a blonde Aryan, despite her Slavic origins. However, they never collaborated: Schmeling refused to accept honours from the German state and even secretly helped to hide two Jewish children, saving their lives; in Nazi Germany this was a capital offence. After the war, they were penalised financially for collaboration, and an arrest warrant was issued in Czechoslovakia. Nazi propaganda was taken literally and Schmeling never visited Ondra's homeland.

After the war, they were left without funds and assets. In 1949 they moved to Hollenstedt near Hamburg, and in the 1950s Schmeling began working for The Coca-Cola Company.

Their marriage was a happy one, although childless: Ondra miscarried after a car accident in 1936, and it was to be her only pregnancy. Later, Ondra sponsored the granddaughter of her friend Hermann Gronen, born in 1942, who was married to Rosa Gronen (née Schmeling) in his first marriage. Max Schmeling gave the granddaughter Rosa Maria Gronen (today Winters) a pair of boxing gloves at her christening.

Ondra and Schmeling were married until her death in 1987. Lamač remained her friend throughout his lifetime. He died in her arms in 1952 in Hamburg.

Plaque marking Max Schmeling's and Anny Ondra's house in Berlin

Ondra was buried in the Saint Andreas Friedhof cemetery in Hollenstedt, West Germany. Schmeling died in 2005 and was buried next to her.^[2]

Film career

Her breakthrough was in the 1920 film Gilly in Prague for the First Time, and she acted in Czech and Austrian films in the 1920s, including Pratermizzi (1926).^[3] With the films Eve's Daughters (1928) and Sinful and Sweet (1929) she conquered the German market.

In Blackmail (1929)

Test take for Blackmail

She also appeared in some British dramas, most notably Alfred Hitchcock's The Manxman and Blackmail (both 1929); in the latter, her character is the first “Hitchcock blonde". Blackmail was started as a silent film; in the course of production, however, it was decided to make it the first English sound film. A minute-long test film where Ondra speaks English has survived, in which Hitchcock teases her to get an emotional response by asking if she is a "bad woman" and if she slept with men, making her laugh out of embarrassment.^[4] Ondra's accent was considered unacceptable, but Hitchcock didn't want to do without her as an actress, so he had her part dubbed by British actress Joan Barry. Barry thus became the first voice actress and Anny Ondra the first foreign-language dubbed actress in film history, the dubbing taking place in an unusual way: Ondra moved her lips, Barry spoke the text outside the picture.

After returning to Germany, Ondra formed the production company Ondra-Lamač-Films with Karel Lamač, which lasted until 1936.^[5] Lamač directed her in several silent films, acted with her in films directed by other filmmakers, and continued to work together after her marriage to Max Schmeling.^[6] She played her first self-spoken sound film role alongside Sig Arno in Fairground People (1930).

Ondra made some forty more films in the sound era, the last in 1957, and in total over 90 films.

Ondra was portrayed by Britt Ekland in the television movie Ring of Passion (1978), wherein the character was named Amy Ondra Schmeling. She was also portrayed by Peta Wilson in the docudrama Joe and Max (2002) and by Susanne Wuest in Max Schmeling (2010).

Selected filmography

Year	Title	Role	Language	Notes
1920	Gilly in Prague for the First Time	Girl	Silent
1920	Lady with the Small Foot	Dandy's friend	Silent
1921	The Poisoned Light	Grant's daughter Anny	Silent
1922	Look After Your Daughters		Silent
	Gypsy Love		Silent
	Lead Us Not into Temptation		Silent
1923	The Kidnapping of Fux the Banker	Fux's daughter Daisy	Silent
1924	White Paradise	Nina Mirelová	Silent
1925	Chyt'te ho!	Lilly Wardová	Silent	with Karel Lamač
1926	The Countess from Podskalí	Liduška	Silent
	Trude		Silent
	Never the Twain	Zuzka Pestová / Lili Weberová	Silent
1927	Die Pratermizzi	Pratermizzi	Silent
	Pantáta Bezoušek	Melanka	Silent
	Hotel Erzherzogin Viktoria	Steffi Haidegger	Silent
	Anicko, vrat se!	Anicka Karesová	Silent
	Květ ze Šumavy	Dáňa	Silent
	The Lovers of an Old Criminal	Fifi Hrazánková	Silent	with Vlasta Burian
1928	Eve's Daughters	Nina Laval / Anny de Lavais	Silent
	God's Clay	Angela Clifford	Silent	Directed by Graham Cutts
	Glorious Youth	Eileen	Silent	Directed by Graham Cutts
	The First Kiss	Anny Cord	Silent
	Suzy Saxophone	Anni von Aspen	Silent
1929	The Manxman	Kate Cregeen	Silent	Directed by Alfred Hitchcock
	Sinful and Sweet	Musette	Silent
	Blackmail	Alice White	English	Directed by Alfred Hitchcock
	The Girl with the Whip	Anny Nebenkrug	Silent
1930	The Caviar Princess	Annemarie	Silent
	Das Mädel aus U.S.A.	Annemarie	German
	Fairground People	Anny Flock	German
	Eine Freundin, so goldig wie Du	Anny	German
1931	Him and His Sister	Anny Brabcová	Czech	with Vlasta Burian
	Er und seine Schwester	Anny Spatz	German	with Vlasta Burian
	Die Fledermaus	Adele	German	with Iván Petrovich and Georg Alexander
1932	Mamsell Nitouche	Mamsell Nitouche	German	with Georg Alexander
	A Night in Paradise	Monika Böhnicke	German	with Hermann Thimig
	La Chauve-Souris [fr]	Arlette	French	with Iván Petrovich
	Une nuit au paradis	Monique Béchue	French
	Faut-il les marier ?	Anny	French	with Jean-Pierre Aumont
	Die grausame Freundin	Welgunda	German
	Kiki	Kiki	German	with Hermann Thimig
	Kiki	Kiki	French	with Pierre Richard-Willm
	Baby	Baby	German	with Anton Walbrook
1933	Baby	Baby	French	with Pierre Richard-Willm
	The Ideal Schoolmaster	Věra Matysová	Czech
	Daughter of the Regiment	Mary Dreizehn	German
	La fille du régiment	Mary	French	with Pierre Richard-Willm
	Fräulein Hoffmanns Erzählungen	Anita Limann	German	with Mathias Wieman
	The Love Hotel	Hanne Boll	German	with Mathias Wieman
1934	The Switched Bride	Virginia Vanderloo / Colly	German	with Anton Walbrook
	L'amour en cage	La baronne de Rèze / Anny	French
	Little Dorrit	Amy Dorrit	German	with Mathias Wieman
	Polish Blood	Helena Zaremba	German	with Hans Moser and Iván Petrovich
	Polská krev	Helena Zarembová	Czech
1935	Knockout	Marianne Plümke	German	with her husband Max Schmeling
	Großreinemachen	Bessie	German	with Wolf Albach-Retty
	The Young Count	Billy	German	with Hans Söhnker
1936	Donogoo Tonka	Josette	German	Directed by Reinhold Schünzel
	Flitterwochen	Ingeborg	German	with Hans Söhnker
1937	A Girl from the Chorus	Henriette Lange	German
	Vor Liebe wird gewarnt	Anny Palme	German
	Cause for Divorce	Anny	German
	Důvod k rozvodu	Anny Plavcova	Czech
	The Irresistible Man	Claudette Renier	German	with Hans Söhnker
1938	Fools in the Snow	Dorothee Heinemann	German
1941	The Gasman	Erika Knittel	German	with Heinz Rühmann
1943	Heaven, We Inherit a Castle	Karla Schreyvogel	German
1951	You Have to be Beautiful	Rode de Lila	German	with Sonja Ziemann
1957	The Zurich Engagement	Anny Ondra	German	with Liselotte Pulver

Awards

• She was given the Honorary German Film Award in 1970.

References

1. Canning, Mike (December 2008). "At The Movies: Holiday Season Brings a New Spate of Dramas". Hill Rag. Archived from the original on 2008-12-08.
2. "Boxing legend Max Schmeling dies at 99". USA Today. Berlin: The Associated Press. February 4, 2005.
3. Die Pratermizzi (1926). Retrieved 2024-11-19 – via m.imdb.com.
4. "Blackmail Test Take (1929) - Alfred Hitchcock". Archived from the original on 2021-12-12.
5. Canning, Mike (December 2008). "At The Movies: Holiday Season Brings a New Spate of Dramas". Hill Rag. Archived from the original on 2009-03-25.
6. "Funny Ladies 1". La Cineteca del Friuli. 2002.

Bibliography

• Jürgen Kasten (1999), "Ondra, Anny", Neue Deutsche Biographie (in German), vol. 19, Berlin: Duncker & Humblot, p. 540; (full text online)

External links

• Anny Ondra at IMDb
• Anny Ondra at the BFI's Screenonline
• Virtual History - Tobacco Cards of Ondra
• Alfred Hitchcock and Anny Ondra in Sound Test for Blackmail on YouTube
• Max Schmeling foundation - Max-Schmeling-Stiftung
• Max Schmeling - film on Internet Movie Database
• Anny Ondra at Find a Grave