Lilli Palmer(1914-1986)
- Actress
- Writer
- Soundtrack
A charming, elegant, and exceedingly popular international film star
with a gentle, understated beauty, actress Lilli Palmer was born as Lilli Marie Peiser on May 24, 1914, in Posen, Prussia. She was the daughter of Rose Lissman, an Austrian Jewish actress, and Alfred Peiser, a German Jewish
surgeon. In addition to her native German,
she grew up becoming fluent in French and English as well. Of her two
sisters, older sister Irene Prador became
an actress and singer in her own right. Lilli studied drama in Berlin
and made her theatrical debut there in 1932 at age 18. Within a short
time, however, the family was forced to flee their native homeland with
the rise of Hitler and settled in Paris. Eventually Lilli moved to
England to rebuild the career she had started on stage and film.
She made her British movie debut co-starring in the "B" mystery drama
Crime Unlimited (1935), playing
the distaff member of a syndicate of jewel thieves who becomes a
romantic pawn for a policeman
(Esmond Knight) who has infiltrated the
crime ring as a plant. Throughout the rest of the decade she upped the
value of her name in both "A" and "B" material, notably
Alfred Hitchcock's
Secret Agent (1936),
Silent Barriers (1937) and
The Man with 100 Faces (1938) where she provided
the usual element of feminine mystery.
Lilli's career took a major upswing during the early to mid 1940s.
Several of her pictures centered around the omnipresent war,
particularly Thunder Rock (1942),
her film career-maker), which starred
Michael Redgrave as an anti-fascist
journalist who retreats to Canada, and
Notorious Gentleman (1945),
with Rex Harrison as a idle bounder
who sees the error of his ways and becomes a war sacrifice. This was
Lilli's first movie with husband Harrison; they married in 1943 and she
bore him a son, Carey Harrison,
the following year. Carey grew up to became a writer and director.
The family moved to America in 1945 to further their careers. Rex and
Lilli became a prominent acting couple, appearing together on the early
50s Broadway stage with "Bell, Book and Candle" (1950), "Venus
Observed" (1952) and "The Love of Four Colonels" (1953), the last
mentioned directed by Harrison. In movies, they co-starred in the murky
crimer
The Long Dark Hall (1951) and
the vastly superior
The Four Poster (1952), which
later gave rise to the musical adaptation "I Do! I Do!". Lilli was
award the Venice Film Festival Award for this performance and
represented herself well with other handsome male acting partners,
notably Gary Cooper in her debut
American film
Cloak and Dagger (1946) and
John Garfield in the classic
boxing film Body and Soul (1947),
leaving audiences enthralled with one of its newer foreign imports. At
one point, she was given her own own (short-lived) TV show to host,
The Lilli Palmer Show (1951).
Somewhat typecast by this time as heartless cads and opportunists on
film, "Sexy Rexy", as husband Harrison was known in the tabloids,
developed quite a reputation off-camera as well. A particularly
disastrous romance with actress
Carole Landis led to that actress's tragic
suicide in 1948. Lilli took the high road and came off the better for
it in the public's eye. She eventually called it quits, however, with
both Harrison and Hollywood and returned to Europe in 1954. In 1956
Lilli filmed
Between Time and Eternity (1956)
[Between Time and Eternity] and fell in love with handsome Argentine
co-star Carlos Thompson, who had
developed matinée idol status in Germany. They married in September of
1957, several months after her divorce from Harrison became final. This
marriage endured.
Lilli matured gracefully in films, the epitome of poise and class, but
she lost any potential for top stardom after leaving Hollywood. She
made international productions for the rest of her career, primarily
German and French, but they did not live up to her early successes and
were not seen all that much outside of Europe. She managed to work,
however, opposite a "Who's Who" of European male stars of the time,
including Curd Jürgens,
James Mason,
Louis Jourdan,
Jean Gabin,
Jean Marais,
Jean Sorel,
Gérard Philipe and
Klaus Kinski. Of those few movies she made
in Hollywood, she played the prickly wife of
Clark Gable, who has a May-December affair
with young Carroll Baker in
But Not for Me (1959); was a
sparkling and witty standout in the ensemble cast of
The Pleasure of His Company (1961);
and proved quite moving in the
William Holden spy thriller
The Counterfeit Traitor (1962).
On TV here, she was touchingly effective as Mrs. Frank in a production
of
The Diary of Anne Frank (1967)
with Max von Sydow, and enjoyed
one of her last roles in the acclaimed miniseries
Peter the Great (1986).
The final decade and a half played out rather routinely with supporting
roles in such films as diverse as
Oedipus the King (1968),
De Sade (1969), and
The Boys from Brazil (1978).
She demonstrated her writing talents with her popular bestselling
biography "Change Lobsters and Dance" in 1975, and later published a
novel "The Red Raven" in 1978. Dying of cancer in 1986 at age 71 in Los
Angeles, Lilli's surviving second husband Thompson, who had abandoned
acting in the late 60s and turned to turned TV writing/producing,
committed suicide four years later back in his native Argentina.
with a gentle, understated beauty, actress Lilli Palmer was born as Lilli Marie Peiser on May 24, 1914, in Posen, Prussia. She was the daughter of Rose Lissman, an Austrian Jewish actress, and Alfred Peiser, a German Jewish
surgeon. In addition to her native German,
she grew up becoming fluent in French and English as well. Of her two
sisters, older sister Irene Prador became
an actress and singer in her own right. Lilli studied drama in Berlin
and made her theatrical debut there in 1932 at age 18. Within a short
time, however, the family was forced to flee their native homeland with
the rise of Hitler and settled in Paris. Eventually Lilli moved to
England to rebuild the career she had started on stage and film.
She made her British movie debut co-starring in the "B" mystery drama
Crime Unlimited (1935), playing
the distaff member of a syndicate of jewel thieves who becomes a
romantic pawn for a policeman
(Esmond Knight) who has infiltrated the
crime ring as a plant. Throughout the rest of the decade she upped the
value of her name in both "A" and "B" material, notably
Alfred Hitchcock's
Secret Agent (1936),
Silent Barriers (1937) and
The Man with 100 Faces (1938) where she provided
the usual element of feminine mystery.
Lilli's career took a major upswing during the early to mid 1940s.
Several of her pictures centered around the omnipresent war,
particularly Thunder Rock (1942),
her film career-maker), which starred
Michael Redgrave as an anti-fascist
journalist who retreats to Canada, and
Notorious Gentleman (1945),
with Rex Harrison as a idle bounder
who sees the error of his ways and becomes a war sacrifice. This was
Lilli's first movie with husband Harrison; they married in 1943 and she
bore him a son, Carey Harrison,
the following year. Carey grew up to became a writer and director.
The family moved to America in 1945 to further their careers. Rex and
Lilli became a prominent acting couple, appearing together on the early
50s Broadway stage with "Bell, Book and Candle" (1950), "Venus
Observed" (1952) and "The Love of Four Colonels" (1953), the last
mentioned directed by Harrison. In movies, they co-starred in the murky
crimer
The Long Dark Hall (1951) and
the vastly superior
The Four Poster (1952), which
later gave rise to the musical adaptation "I Do! I Do!". Lilli was
award the Venice Film Festival Award for this performance and
represented herself well with other handsome male acting partners,
notably Gary Cooper in her debut
American film
Cloak and Dagger (1946) and
John Garfield in the classic
boxing film Body and Soul (1947),
leaving audiences enthralled with one of its newer foreign imports. At
one point, she was given her own own (short-lived) TV show to host,
The Lilli Palmer Show (1951).
Somewhat typecast by this time as heartless cads and opportunists on
film, "Sexy Rexy", as husband Harrison was known in the tabloids,
developed quite a reputation off-camera as well. A particularly
disastrous romance with actress
Carole Landis led to that actress's tragic
suicide in 1948. Lilli took the high road and came off the better for
it in the public's eye. She eventually called it quits, however, with
both Harrison and Hollywood and returned to Europe in 1954. In 1956
Lilli filmed
Between Time and Eternity (1956)
[Between Time and Eternity] and fell in love with handsome Argentine
co-star Carlos Thompson, who had
developed matinée idol status in Germany. They married in September of
1957, several months after her divorce from Harrison became final. This
marriage endured.
Lilli matured gracefully in films, the epitome of poise and class, but
she lost any potential for top stardom after leaving Hollywood. She
made international productions for the rest of her career, primarily
German and French, but they did not live up to her early successes and
were not seen all that much outside of Europe. She managed to work,
however, opposite a "Who's Who" of European male stars of the time,
including Curd Jürgens,
James Mason,
Louis Jourdan,
Jean Gabin,
Jean Marais,
Jean Sorel,
Gérard Philipe and
Klaus Kinski. Of those few movies she made
in Hollywood, she played the prickly wife of
Clark Gable, who has a May-December affair
with young Carroll Baker in
But Not for Me (1959); was a
sparkling and witty standout in the ensemble cast of
The Pleasure of His Company (1961);
and proved quite moving in the
William Holden spy thriller
The Counterfeit Traitor (1962).
On TV here, she was touchingly effective as Mrs. Frank in a production
of
The Diary of Anne Frank (1967)
with Max von Sydow, and enjoyed
one of her last roles in the acclaimed miniseries
Peter the Great (1986).
The final decade and a half played out rather routinely with supporting
roles in such films as diverse as
Oedipus the King (1968),
De Sade (1969), and
The Boys from Brazil (1978).
She demonstrated her writing talents with her popular bestselling
biography "Change Lobsters and Dance" in 1975, and later published a
novel "The Red Raven" in 1978. Dying of cancer in 1986 at age 71 in Los
Angeles, Lilli's surviving second husband Thompson, who had abandoned
acting in the late 60s and turned to turned TV writing/producing,
committed suicide four years later back in his native Argentina.