Lili Damita

Lili Damita (born Liliane Marie-Madeleine Carré;<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> 10 July 1904 – 21 March 1994) was a French-American actress, singer, and dancer who appeared in 33 films between 1922 and 1937.

Early life and education

Lili Damita was born in Blaye, France, on 10 July 1904. Her father was an officer.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> She was educated in convents and ballet schools in her native France, as well as Spain and Portugal. At 14, she was enrolled as a dancer at the Paris Opera.<ref name=hs>Template:Cite book</ref>

Early career in revue, modeling and German film

As a teenager, she was performing in popular music halls, eventually appearing in the Revue at the Casino de Paris.<ref>Lil Damita, allmovie.com. Retrieved on 22 October 2016.</ref> She worked as a photographic model. Offered a role in film as a prize for winning a magazine beauty competition in 1921, she appeared in several silent films before being offered her first leading role in Das Spielzeug von Paris (1925) by Hungarian-born director Michael Curtiz.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> She was an instant success, and Curtiz directed her in two more films: Fiaker Nr. 13 (1926) and Der goldene Schmetterling (1926).<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Damita continued appearing next in German productions directed by Robert Wiene (Die große Abenteuerin; 1928),<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> G.W. Pabst (Man spielt nicht mit der Liebe; 1926) and British director Graham Cutts (The Queen Was in the Parlour; 1927).Template:Citation needed

Hollywood career

In 1928, Damita was invited to Hollywood by Samuel Goldwyn and made her American film debut in The Rescue. She was leased out to various studios, appearing with stars and leading men such as Maurice Chevalier, Laurence Olivier, James Cagney, Gary Cooper and Cary Grant. Her films included box office successes The Cock-Eyed World (1929),<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> the semi-silent The Bridge of San Luis Rey (1929) and This Is the Night (1932).<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Personal life

File:Damita & Flynn.jpg

Damita and husband Errol Flynn at Los Angeles airport, 1941

Following a lengthy affair with Curtiz,<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> and a relationship with Prince Louis Ferdinand, grandson of Kaiser Wilhelm II,<ref>Template:Citation</ref> she married the then-unknown actor Errol Flynn in 1935 and retired from the screen. Flynn soon became one of Hollywood's biggest box office attractions, and in 1941 they had a son, Sean Flynn. The couple had an acrimonious divorce in 1942. According to her ex husband's memoir My Wicked, Wicked Ways, Damita was unstable and violent throughout the tumultuous relationship. She is portrayed by Barbara Hershey in the 1985 TV movie based on the book.

In 1962, while living in Palm Beach, Florida, Damita married Allen Loomis, a retired Fort Dodge, Iowa, dairy product manufacturer, and spent part of each year living there.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> They divorced in the mid-80s.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

During the Cambodian Civil War (Khmer Rouge reign), her son Sean Flynn was working as a freelance photo journalist under contract to Time magazine when he and fellow journalist Dana Stone was reported missing on the road south of Phnom Penh, Cambodia, on 6 April 1970.<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref> Although Damita spent an enormous amount of money searching for her son, he was never found, and in 1984 he was declared legally dead.

Death

Damita died of Alzheimer's disease on 21 March 1994, in Palm Beach, Florida, aged 89.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> She was interred in the Oakland Cemetery in Fort Dodge, Iowa, her last husband's hometown.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

Selected filmography

File:Lili Damita and Victor McLaglen.jpg

Promotional photo of Damita and Victor McLaglen for The Cock-Eyed World (1929)

File:The Bridge of San Luis Rey (1929) 1.jpg

The Bridge of San Luis Rey (1929)

File:Lili Damita-Gary Cooper in Fighting Caravans.jpg

Damita and Gary Cooper in Fighting Caravans (1931)

File:Fighting Caravans (1931) 2.jpg

With Ernest Torrence, Gary Cooper, and Tully Marshall in Fighting Caravans (1931)

File:Lili Damita and Lester Vail.jpg

With Lester Vail in The Woman Between (1931)

File:Thelma Todd, Roland Young, Lili Damita.jpg

Thelma Todd, Roland Young, Lili Damita in This Is the Night (1932)

File:This is the Night.jpg

Charles Ruggles, Cary Grant, Lili Damita and Roland Young in This Is the Night (1932)

Year	Film	Role	Notes
1922	Maman Pierre
1922	La belle au bois dormant
1922	L'Empereur des pauvres	Riquette
1922	La fille sauvage	Henriette Villedieu
1923	Corsica
1924	Une femme dans la nuit
1924	The Clairvoyant	Suzanne
1925	Prince Charming
1925	Das Spielzeug von Paris	Célimène aka Susana Armard
1926	Fiaker Nr. 13 (Cab No. 13)	Lilian
1926	Geheimnisse einer Seele (Secrets of a Soul)		Uncredited
1926	Der goldene Schmetterling (The Golden Butterfly)	Lilian
1926	Man spielt nicht mit der Liebe (One Does Not Play with Love)	Calixta	Lost film
1927	The Queen Was in the Parlour	Prinzessin Nadya von Kraya
1927	Die berühmte Frau (The Famous Woman)	Sonja Litowskaja
1928	Die große Abenteuerin (The Great Adventuress)
1928	Scandal in Paris
1929	The Rescue	Lady Edith Travers	Incomplete film
1929	The Bridge of San Luis Rey	Camila (La Perichole)	Filmed as both silent and part-talkie, only the silent version of this film survives
1929	The Cock-Eyed World	Mariana Elenita
1930	Let Us Be Gay (Soyons gais)	Kitty	alternate language version
1931	The Bachelor Father (Le père célibataire)	Viviette	alternate language version
1931	Fighting Caravans	Felice
1931	The Woman Between	Julie Whitcomb
1931	Friends and Lovers	Mrs. Alva Sangrito
1932	This Is the Night	Germaine
1932	One Hour with You (Une heure près de toi)	Mitzi Olivier	alternate language version
1932	The Match King	Marta Molnar
1933	Goldie Gets Along	Goldie LaFarge
1934	A Man Has Been Stolen	Annette
1935	Brewster's Millions	Rosalie La Rue
1935	Frisco Kid	Belle Morra
1936	The Devil on Horseback	Diane Corday
1937	Escadrille of Chance	Edwige

Selected stage musicals

• On Dit Ça, Paris (1923)
• Sons o'Guns, New York (1929/30)
• Here's How, London (1934)

Bibliography

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External links

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• Photographs and literature
• Grave of Lili Damita
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