Pola Illéry

Who was Pola Illéry?

Pola Illéry was a Romanian silent- and early talking-film actress.

She was born Paula Iliescu in Corabia, Romania, to a middle-class Jewish family. Illéry appeared in a few French films made during the 1920s and 1930s, most notably René Clair's Under the Roofs of Paris and in Parada Paramount, the Romanian-language version of Paramount on Parade made in Paris by Paramount Pictures. She is believed to have made her last film appearance in 1940 in Tobie est un ange.

With the rise of Nazism, she emigrated to America to evade religious persecution. During World War II she worked as a Red Cross volunteer nurse. In 1946 she became a naturalized citizen and the following year she married Daniel Alpert, a marriage that produced four children and lasted for 52 years until his death in 1999. Pola moved to Scranton, Pennsylvania in 1954 and lived out her days raising her family, being a housewife, and was active in her synagogue. She died there on February 15, 2012, at age 103 and was survived by six grandchildren and three great grandchildren..

She is interred at Washburn Street Cemetery in Scranton.