Jugo, Jenny

ACTOR (AUSTRIAN EMPIRE)
BORN 14 Jun 1904, Mürzzuschlag, Steiermark - DIED 30 Sep 2001, Königsdorf, Bayern
BIRTH NAME Walter, Eugenie Anna
GRAVE LOCATION Graz, Steiermark: Katholischer Friedhof St. Peter, Petersgasse 67 (A--265)

Jenny Jugo was the daughter of an engineer who may have been a factory owner. She was born as Eugenie Anna Walter and she was educated at the Klosterschule in Graz. When she was sixteen years old she married the actor Emo Jugo in Fiume. She followed him to Berlin to 1922 but they soon split up. In Berlin she was approached by Ben Blumenthal from Paramount who recommended her to Erich Pommer to do a screen test. In 1924 she obtained a contract for three years with UFA, but her success was limited. She joined the smaller company Phoebus and only after she switched to comical parts things went better. Success came next to Werner Krauss in the satirical "Die Hose" (1927), based on the work of Carl Sternheim and directed by Hans Behrendt. She returned to UFA. Around this time her former husband died.

When the era of the silent movie ended her career seemed to be over, but after she took acting as well as singing lessons she was successful in comedies by Erich Engel. After the nazis came to power many actors had to leave Germany but in 1934 her star was rising. In 1936 the actor Friedrich Benfer became her second husband. She was one of Hitler's favourite actresses and Magda Goebbels frequently invited her to the Goebbels home at Schwanenwerder, not far from her own home at Sacrow near Potsdam. But according to his diary, in 1937 Goebbels didn't like it when she asked for highter payment for her movie parts.

In 1941 she split up with Benfer after she had started an affair with producer Eberhard Klagemann. Klagemann lost his production company in 1942 when Goebbels attempted to nationalize the German film production. In 1943 a housekeeper denounced her after she made defeatist statements. The Gestapo searched her house in Sacrow (near Potsdam) and found items that she had hamstered. Goebbels considered to make an example of her and ban her from working, but in the end she only had to pay a fine. At the end of the war she fled to Tegernsee. In Bavaria she suffered from depressions and after she tried to kill herself she started an affair with the 26-year old Jochen von Langenn. Klagemann was in Sacrow at the time.

In 1949 she played the title part in "Träum' nicht, Annette", directed by Klagemann and Helmut Weiss. Her last movie was "Königskinder" (1949), directed by Helmut Käutner. In 1949 she withdrew from the movie business and she bought a farm in Schönrain near Bad Heilbrunn in Bavaria where she lived with Klagemann. She divorced Benfer only in 1957 after he found a new partner and Benfer supported them financially. As a result of bad medical treatment she was bound to a wheelchair from 1975 onwards. Klagemann died in 1990 and she and Benfer married again, but in 1992 their second marriage ended. She died in 2001 and was buried in the family grave in Graz.

Related persons
• cooperated with Engel, Erich
• owned work of Utrillo, Maurice

Images

Jenny Jugo.
(1941-1944)
Picture by Foto Quick

 

The grave of Jenny Jugo at the St. Peter Stadtfriedhof, Graz.
Picture by Androom (17 Aug 2009)

 

Jenny Jugo.
(1937-1938)
Picture by Foto Sandau, Berlin

 

Sources
Jenny Jugo
https://www.filmmuseum-potsdam.de/media/de/6850_8321_JUGOLiebeserklrungAltendorf.pdf


Juhnke, Harald

Published: 07 Mar 2010
Last update: 06 Mar 2024