Ingrid Pitt facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Ingrid Pitt
Publicity photo from Where Eagles Dare (1968)
Born	Ingoushka Petrov (1937-11-21)21 November 1937 Częstochowa, Poland
Died	23 November 2010(2010-11-23) (aged 73) London, England
Occupation	Actress, writer
Years active	1964–2010
Spouse(s)	Laud Roland Pitt Jr. (divorced) George Pinches (1972–?; divorced) Tony Rudlin (m. 1999)
Children	1

Ingrid Pitt (born Ingoushka Petrov; 21 November 1937 – 23 November 2010) was a Polish-British actress and writer. She was best known for her roles in horror films during the 1970s.

Early Life and Escape

Ingoushka Petrov was born in Warsaw, Poland. During World War II, she and her mother were held in the Stutthof concentration camp in Poland. They managed to escape from the camp.

In the 1950s, Ingrid married an American soldier, Laud Roland Pitt Jr., and moved to California. After her marriage ended, she returned to Europe. She later took the stage name "Ingrid Pitt," using her former husband's last name. She then went to Hollywood to try and start an acting career.

The Nazi German Stutthof concentration camp in Poland. Ingrid Pitt and her family were held here during the Holocaust. It is now a memorial museum.

Acting Adventures

In the early 1960s, Ingrid Pitt was part of the Berliner Ensemble, a famous theater group in Germany. She made her first film appearance in 1965 in Doctor Zhivago. In 1968, she played a British spy named Heidi Schmidt in the movie Where Eagles Dare, acting alongside Richard Burton and Clint Eastwood.

Ingrid Pitt also appeared in the popular science fiction series Doctor Who. She played Queen Galleia of Atlantis in "The Time Monster" in 1972. She returned to Doctor Who in 1984 as Dr. Solow in "Warriors of the Deep".

Her work with Hammer Film Productions, a famous horror movie studio, made her a cult figure (meaning she had a very dedicated fan base). She starred as Carmilla in The Vampire Lovers (1970), a film about vampires. She also played the main role in Countess Dracula (1971), which was based on stories about Countess Elizabeth Báthory. Ingrid Pitt also appeared in other horror films like The House That Dripped Blood (1971) and had a small part in The Wicker Man (1973).

Ingrid Pitt in The House That Dripped Blood

In the 1980s, Pitt acted in more mainstream films and television shows. She often played villain characters. She once said, "Being the anti-hero is great – they are always roles you can get your teeth into." Some of her other films include Who Dares Wins (1982) and Wild Geese II (1985).

Ingrid Pitt also started her own theater company and performed in plays like Dial M for Murder. She appeared in many TV series in the United Kingdom and the United States, such as Ironside.

In 1998, she narrated parts of the album Cruelty and the Beast for the band Cradle of Filth. She did this while acting as Countess Elizabeth Báthory, the character she played in Countess Dracula. In 2003, Pitt voiced Lady Violator in Dominator, which was the United Kingdom's first computer-generated imagery (CGI) animated film.

Ingrid Pitt (right) in Beyond the Rave

Writing Adventures

Ingrid Pitt was also a writer. Her first novel, Cuckoo Run (1980), was a spy story. She described it as being like a "female James Bond".

In 1984, she wrote a novel about the Perón era in Argentina, a country where she lived for some years.

Ingrid Pitt and her husband, Tony Rudlin, were asked to write a Doctor Who adventure. The story was called The Macro Men and was about the Philadelphia Experiment, an urban legend about a U.S. Navy experiment. This story was later released as an audio play in 2010, just before Ingrid Pitt passed away.

In 1999, her autobiography, Life's a Scream, was published. An autobiography is a book written by a person about their own life. Her book shared her difficult experiences from her early life, including being in a Nazi concentration camp and escaping from East Berlin.

Ingrid Pitt wrote many other books, including The Ingrid Pitt Bedside Companion for Ghosthunters (2003). She also wrote columns for various magazines and websites, often sharing her thoughts on different topics.

Personal Life

Ingrid Pitt was married three times and had one daughter, Steffanie Pitt-Blake, who is also an actress. She also had one granddaughter, Sofia Blake.

Ingrid had a great interest in World War II aircraft. She even had a student's pilot license and a black belt in karate.

Death

Ingrid Pitt passed away from congestive heart failure in a London hospital on 23 November 2010, two days after her 73rd birthday.

Legacy Project

Before she died, Ingrid Pitt finished narrating Ingrid Pitt: Beyond the Forest (2011). This was an animated short film about her experiences during the Holocaust. The film was created with the help of famous animators and writers, and it tells her important story.

Filmography

See also

In Spanish: Ingrid Pitt para niños