Lenya, Lotte (1898-1981)

Lenya, Lotte

ACTOR (AUSTRIA)

BORN 18 Oct 1898, Wien: Linzerstrasse 87, Penzing - DIED 28 Nov 1981, New York City, New York
BIRTH NAME Blamauer, Karoline Wilhelmine Charlotte
CAUSE OF DEATH cancer
GRAVE LOCATION Haverstraw, New York: Mount Repose Cemetery

Lotte Lenya was born Karoline Blamauer. She was the daughter of a coachman and a washerwoman. In 1914 she left Vienna for Zürich to study ballet. In Zürich she met the young Elisabeth Bergner and the famous Frank Wedekind. She moved to Berlin where she became a popular actress and singer. In 1924 she met Kurt Weill and she married him in 1926. Ze performed in the premiere of his "Dreigroschenoper".

In 1932 she met Otto Pasetti and she lived with him for a while. In 1933 Lenya and Weill both left Germany after the nazis came to power. They divorced in that same year, but they left together for the USA in 1935 and in 1937 they married again. This time the marriage lasted until Weill's death in 1950. In 1941 they moved to a house in New City, 50 km north of New York City. During the Second World War she could be heard on Voice of America. After Weill's death she appeared at Broadway and she became a successful film actress. In 1951 she married the author George Davis, who died in 1957 in Berlin of a heart attack.

In 1956 she won a Tony Award for Supporting Actress in "The Threepenny Opera" and her part in "The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone" (1961) earned her an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress. In 1963 she played Rosa Klebb in "From Russia with Love". In 1962 she married the much younger artist Russell Detweiller, who died in 1969 after a fall under the influence of alcohol. She buried him next to Kurt Weill on Mount Repose Cemetery in Haverstraw. In 1971 she married the film maker Richard Siemanowski, but they never lived together and they divorced in 1973. After her own death in 1981 she was buried next to Kurt Weill.

Related persons
• knew Bergner, Elisabeth

Events

31/8/1928	Premiere of the "Dreigroschenoper" by Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill in Berlin. The performance took place at the Theater am Schiffbauerdamm. Harold Paulsen was Macheath, Lotte Lenya was Jenny and Erich Ponto was Bettler Peachum. Erich Engel was the director. [Brecht, Bertolt][Engel, Erich][Ponto, Erich]
7/1/1930	Premiere of Paul Kornfeld's "Jud Süss" at the Theater am Schiffbauerdamm in Berlin. It was directed by Leopold Jessner and Caspar Neher was responsible for the stage design. The cast included Ernst Deutsch, Erich Ponto, Otto Wernicke, Hilde Körber, Lotte Lenya and Eleonora von Mendelssohn. [Körber, Hilde][Ponto, Erich]
1/12/1981	Lotte Lenya is buried next to Kurt Weill at Mout Repose Cemetery