Celia Lovsky

Who was Celia Lovsky?

Celia Lovsky was an Austrian American actress. She was born Cäcilie Lvovsky in Vienna, daughter of Břetislav Lvovsky, a minor Czech opera composer. She studied theater, dance, and languages at the Austrian Royal Academy of Arts and Music.

She later moved to Berlin, where she acted in the surrealist plays Dream Theater and Dream Play by Karl Kraus. There she met Peter Lorre, who had seen her in a production of Shakespeare's Othello near Vienna. The couple traveled to Paris, London, and the United States. Lovsky was instrumental in bringing Lorre to the attention of Fritz Lang, leading eventually to Lorre's debut film M in 1931. They lived together for five years before their marriage, and stayed married until 1945, remaining close friends for the rest of Lorre's lifetime.

After the couple settled in Santa Monica, California, Lorre had not wished Lovsky to work, believing he should be the breadwinner and she should remain at home. For the rest of Lorre's life, she was his publicist, manager, secretary, financial planner, nurse and confidant. However, after their divorce, she started taking roles in American movies and television. She made a name for herself playing slightly exotic roles such as the deaf-mute mother of Lon Chaney in Man of a Thousand Faces with James Cagney and Apache Princess Saba in the Jane Russell film Foxfire.