Brigitte Helm

Brigitte Helm (born Brigitte Gisela Eva Schittenhelm, 17 March 1908 – 11 June 1996) was a German actress, best remembered for her dual role as Maria and her double named Futura, in Fritz Lang's 1927 silent film, Metropolis.

Early life

Brigitte Gisela Eva Schittenhelm was born on 17 March 1908 in Berlin, the daughter of Gretchen Gertrud Martha Schittenhelm (née Tews) and Edwin Alexander Johannes Schittenhelm.

Helm took an interest in acting as a child, and by age 12 was taking the lead in school plays.

Career

Helm's first movie role was that of Maria in Metropolis, which she began work on while only 17 years old. She signed a ten-year contract with UFA in 1925. After Metropolis, Helm made over 30 other films, including talking pictures, before retiring in 1935. Her other appearances include The Love of Jeanne Ney (1927), Alraune (1928), L'Argent (1928), Gloria (1931), The Blue Danube (1932), L'Atlantide (1932), and Gold (1934). Helm was considered for the title role in Bride of Frankenstein before Elsa Lanchester was given the role.

Personal life

Helm was involved in several traffic accidents, and was briefly imprisoned. According to the Nazi Party's Press Chief Obergruppenführer Otto Dietrich's book, The Hitler I Knew, Adolf Hitler saw that manslaughter charges against her from an automobile accident were dropped.

Helm married her second husband, Dr. Hugo Kunheim, an industrialist, after her film contract expired in 1935. Helm stated that she retired from films because she was "...disgusted with the Nazi takeover of the film industry..." In 1935, she moved to Switzerland, where she had four children with Kunheim. In her later years, she refused to grant any interviews concerning her film career.

Helm died, 11 June 1996, in Ascona, Switzerland.

Selected filmography

• Metropolis (1927), director: Fritz Lang
• At the Edge of the World, (Am Rande der Welt, 1927), director: Karl Grune
• The Love of Jeanne Ney (Die Liebe der Jeanne Ney, 1927), director: G.W. Pabst
• Alraune (1928), director: Henrik Galeen; title role
• The Devious Path also known as Abwege (1928) director: G.W. Pabst
• Yacht of the Seven Sins (Die Yacht der sieben Sünden, 1928), directors: Jacob Fleck, Luise Fleck
• L'Argent (1928), director: Marcel L'Herbier
• Scandal in Baden-Baden (Skandal in Baden-Baden, 1929), director: Erich Waschneck
• Manolescu (1929), director: Victor Tourjansky
• The Wonderful Lies of Nina Petrovna (Die wunderbare Lüge der Nina Petrowna, 1929), director: Hanns Schwarz
• The Singing City (Die singende Stadt, 1930), director Carmine Gallone
• Alraune (1930), director: Richard Oswald; title role
• Gloria (1931), director: Hans Behrendt
• Gloria (1931), director: Yvan Noé
• In the Employ of the Secret Service (Im Geheimdienst, 1931), director: Gustav Ucicky
• The Blue Danube (1932), director: Herbert Wilcox
• The Countess of Monte Cristo (Die Gräfin von Monte-Christo, 1932), director: Karl Hartl
• The Mistress of Atlantis (Die Herrin von Atlantis, 1932) director: G.W. Pabst
• Three on a Honeymoon (Hochzeitsreise zu dritt, 1932), director: Erich Schmidt
• Honeymoon Trip (Voyage de noces, 1933), directors: Germain Fried, Joe May, Erich Schmidt
• The Marathon Runner (Der Läufer von Marathon, 1933), director: Ewald André Dupont
• Spies at Work (Spione am Werk, 1933), director: Gerhard Lamprecht
• The Star of Valencia (L'Étoile de Valencia, 1933), director: Serge de Poligny
• Goodbye, Beautiful Days (1933), director: André Beucler
• Happy Days in Aranjuez (Die schönen Tage von Aranjuez, 1933), director: Johannes Meyer
• Inge and the Millions (Inge und die Millionen, 1933), director: Erich Engel
• Gold (1934), director: Karl Hartl
• The Island (Die Insel, 1934), director: Hans Steinhoff
• Count Woronzeff (Fürst Woronzeff, 1934), director: Arthur Robison
• An Ideal Husband (Ein idealer Gatte, 1935), director: Herbert Selpin

References

Notes

Further reading

• Semler, Daniel (2008). Brigitte Helm: Der Vamp des deutschen Films. Munich: Belleville. ISBN 978-3936298567.

External links

• Brigitte Helm at IMDb
• Virtual History - Tobacco cards
• German Brigitte Helm Memorial page Archived 2016-12-21 at the Wayback Machine
• Brigitte Helm at Find a Grave