Lída Baarová

Lída Baarová
Born	Ludmila Babková September 7, 1914(1914-09-07) Prague, Austria-Hungary
Died	October 27, 2000(2000-10-27) (aged 86) Salzburg, Austria
Years active	1931-1970
Spouse	Jan Kopecky (1949-1956) Kurt Lundvall (1958-1980)

Lída Baarová (7 September 1914 – 27 October 2000) was a Czech actress and mistress of Joseph Goebbels, Hitler's propaganda minister.

Biography

Born Ludmila Babková, she studied acting at Prague Conservatory and got her first movie role in a Czech film at the age of 17. Her mother appeared in several theatre plays and her younger sister, Zorka Janů, also was a movie actress. After being discovered by talent scouts for the German movie studios, Baarova left Prague for Berlin.

Career

In Berlin she met Gustav Fröhlich, a German actor, and starred in several films with him. In 1935, following her successful appearance in the German film Barcarole, she received several job offers from Hollywood studios. She turned them down, but later regretted it and claimed to her biographer, Josef Škvorecký: "I could have been as famous as Marlene Dietrich."

After her engagement to Fröhlich, they moved to Schwanenwerder on the outskirts of Berlin, where their house on the (later named) Karl-Marx-Strasse 8 was close to the residence of Joseph Goebbels on Inselstrasse 8. Goebbels was the propaganda minister in Adolf Hitler's regime, with a decisive voice in German movie production. Baarová met Goebbels in 1936, while working for Ufa films. Gradually, they became closer and started a relationship that lasted over two years. Their love affair caused serious complications between Goebbels and his wife Magda. Mrs Goebbels eventually decided to ask Hitler for permission to divorce Goebbels. The Führer intervened on 16 August, 1938. Baarová was told by Count Helldorf, the Police President of Berlin, that she has to quit her relationship with Goebbels and leave the Germany, on direct Hitler's order. She fled to Prague in 1939 and, in 1942, to Italy, where she starred in such movies as Grazia (1943), La Fornarina (1944), Vivere ancora (1945), and others. After American troops occupied Italy, she returned to Prague, where she dated her old friend Hans Albers, another of Germany's movie idols. In April 1945, Lída Baarová left Prague for Germany, to join Albers in his country house on the shores of Lake Starnberg. On the way, she was taken into custody by the American military police, imprisoned in Munich, and later extradited to Czechoslovakia.

The post-war years

In Czechoslovakia, 1945 Baarová was taken into custdody on suspicion of collaboration with the Germans during the war but was released after 18 months of custody due to lack of evidence.She has never been convicted or sentenced. While in custody, she was often visited by Jan Kopecký who, like many others, was infatuated with her. Kopecký was a close relative of a prominent politician in the post-war government of Czechoslovakia and hoped he could arrange Baarova's release from custody. Kopecký's prominent relative did not approve of this and Kopecký himself faced persecution. This was one of the reasons why Jan Kopecký and Lída Baarová decided to emigrate in 1948. Prior that they married in 27.06.1947 and formed an itinerant troupe playing marionettes before they escaped to Austria. From there, Kopecký immigrated to Argentina, leaving Lída behind to recuperate in the sanatorium of Dr. Lundwall.

In Austria, Lída attempted a comeback, but Anton Walbrook withdrew from a film where he was cast with her. To escape the resulting negative media, she left for Argentina, where she lived in extreme poverty. She decided to return to Italy. Her husband stayed in Argentina and they were divorced in 1956. Back in Italy, she appeared in several films, including Fellini's I Vitelloni (1953), where she played the wife of a rich merchant. In 1958, she moved to Salzburg, where she performed in a theater. She married Swedish physician Kurt Lundwall in 1969 (d. 1972).

After the fall of the Berlin wall

In the 1990s Baarová reappeared on the cultural scene of the Czech Republic. She published her autobiography and a movie, Lída Baarová's Bittersweet Memories, appeared in 1995 and won an award at the 1996 Art Film Festival in Trenčianske Teplice, Slovakia.

Lída Baarová suffered from Parkinson's disease and died in 2000 in Salzburg, while living alone on the estate she inherited after the death of her second husband, Dr. Lundwall. If she ever felt guilt about her past, she rigorously suppressed it. "There's no doubt that Goebbels was an interesting character," she observed in 1997, "a charming and intelligent man and a very good storyteller. You could guarantee that he would keep a party going with his little asides and jokes."

Her ashes were interred in Prague's Strašnice cemetery, where she rests with her parents and sister Zorka Janů.

Filmography

• Obraceni Ferdyše Pištory (Conversion of Fred Pištora, 1931)
• Kariéra Pavla Čamrdy (Pavel Čamrda's Career, 1931)
• Zapadlí vlastenci (Forgotten Patriots, 1932)
• Lelíček ve službách Sherlocka Holmese (Lelíček in Sherlock Holmes' Service, 1932)
• Šenkýřka u divoké krásky (Waitress at the Wild Beauty's Bar, 1932)
• Růžové kombiné (The Pink Slip, 1932)
• Malostranští mušketýři (Prague's Musketeers, 1932)
• Funebrák (The Undertaker, 1932)
• Jsem děvče s čertem v těle (Funky Girl, 1933)
• Madla z cihelny (The Brickmaker's Daughter, 1933)
• Okénko (The Window, 1933)
• Sedmá velmoc (The Seventh Superpower, 1933)
• Její lékař (The Physician, 1933)
• Pokušení paní Antonie (Antonia's Temptation, 1934)
• Pán na roztrhání (A Popular Guy, 1934)
• Na růžích ustláno (Easy Life, 1934)
• Zlatá Kateřina (Golden Kate, 1934)
• Dokud máš maminku (As Long as your Mother is Alive, 1934)
• Grandhotel Nevada, (Grand Hotel Nevada, 1934)
• Einer zuviel an Bord (The Fifth-Wheel, 1935)
• Leutnant Bobby, der Teufelskerl, (Lieutenant Bobby, the Daredevil, 1935)
• Barcarole (Boatman's Song, 1935)
• Verräter (Traitor, 1936)
• Die Stunde der Versuchung (The Hour of Temptation, 1936)
• Švadlenka (The Seamstress, 1936)
• Komediantská princezna (Gypsy Princess, 1936)
• Unter Ausschluss der Öffentlichkeit (Private Show, 1937)
• Patrioten (Patriots, 1937)
• Lidé na kře (People on the Floating Ice, 1937)
• Panenství (Virginity, 1937)
• Die Kronzeugin (The Chief Witness, 1937)
• Die Fledermaus (The Bat, 1937)
• Der Spieler - Roman eines Schwindlers (Gambler's Story, 1938)
• Liebeslegende (Love Story, 1938) (Was banned by censors (due to the Goebbels-affaire), came in the cinemas in 1950)
• Maskovaná milenka (Masked Paramour, 1939)
• Ohnivé léto (Fiery Summer, 1939)
• Artur a Leontýna (Arthur and Leontine, 1940)
• Život je krásný (Life Is Beautiful, 1940)
• Dívka v modrém (Girl in Blue, 1940)
• Za tichých nocí (In the Still of the Night, 1941)
• Paličova dcera (Arsonist's Daughter, 1941)
• Turbína (Turbine, 1941)
• Grazia (The Charming Beauty, 1943)
• Ti conosco, mascherina! (Masked Girl, Recognized!, 1943)
• Il Cappello da prete (Priest's Hat, 1944)
• L' Ippocampo (The Sea-Horse, 1944)
• Vivere ancora (Still Alive, 1944)
• La Bisarca (1950)
• Gli amanti di Ravello (The Lovers of Ravello, 1950)
• Carne inquieta (Restless, 1952)
• La vendetta di una pazza (Revenge of a Crazy Girl, 1952)
• I Vitelloni (The Loafers, 1953)
• Pietà per chi cade (Compassion, 1953)
• Gli innocenti pagano (What Price Innocence? 1953)
• Miedo (The Fear, 1956)
• La Mestiza (The Mestiza, 1956)
• Viaje de novios (Honeymoon, 1956)
• Todos somos necesarios (We All Matter, 1956)
• Rapsodia de sangre (Ecstasy, 1957)
• El Batallón de las sombras (The Forgotten Ones, 1957)
• Retorno a la verdad (The Truth Will Set You Free, 1957)
• Il Cielo brucia (The Sky Burns, 1957)
• Života sladké hořkosti Lídy Baarové (Lída Baarová's Bittersweet Memories, 1995)

See also

• Zorka Janů
• Otakar Vávra

References

• Lída Baarová, L. (1992). Života sladké hořkosti. Ostrava, Czech Republic: Sfinga.
• Josef Frais, J. (1998). Trojhvězdí nesmrtelných. Prague, Czech Republic: Formát.
• Motl, S. (2002). Prokleti Lidy Baarove. Praha: Rybka Publishers.
• Škvorecký, J. (1983). Útěky: Vlastní životopis Lídy Baarové, jak jej vyprávela Josefu Škvoreckému. Toronto, Canada: Sixty-Eight Publishers.
• Vávra, O. (1996). Podivný život režiséra: Obrazy vzpominek. Praha: Prostor.

External links

• Lída Baarová at the Internet Movie Database
• Photographs and bibliography
• Lida Baarova at Find-A-Grave