Lya Mara

Who was Lya Mara?

Lya Mara was one of the biggest stars of the German silent cinema.

Lya Mara was born Aleksandra Gudowicz in a Polish family in Riga, Livonia. As a young girl she wanted to become a chemist, as then famous Maria Skłodowska-Curie. Just before World War I, in 1913 Lya Mara moved with her family to Warsaw, as Poland and Latvia were part of the Russian Empire. She began her acting career as a dancer.

In Warsaw, Lya Mara played her first small part in a short fiction silent film under a characteristically simplified title We want husband and soon after in another film Bestia directed by a Polish director of older generation Alexander Hertz. Another Polish actress Pola Negri, who later made an extraordinary career in Germany and in America, was the star of this film. Soon after that film Pola Negri left for Berlin and Lya Mara followed her steps. It was a time of World War I and Poland occupied since 1915 by the Germans, became a part of the German Empire.

Lya Mara's first film in Germany was Halkas Gelöbnis directed by an Austrian director Alfred Halm, who also scripted her another film Jadwiga. Both films were produced by young and energetic director-producer Frederic Zelnik. Lya Mara married him in 1918.