Lil Dagover facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Lil Dagover
Dagover in 1919, photo by Alexander Binder
Born	Marie Antonia Siegelinde Martha Seubert (1887-09-30)30 September 1887 Madiun, Java, Dutch East Indies
Died	23 January 1980(1980-01-23) (aged 92) Munich, West Germany
Occupation	Actress
Years active	1913–1979
Spouse(s)	Fritz Daghofer ​ ​ (m. 1907; div. 1919)​ Georg Witt ​ ​ (m. 1926; died 1973)​
Children	Eva Marie Daghofer (1909–1982)

Lil Dagover was a famous German actress. She was born Marie Antonia Siegelinde Martha Seubert on September 30, 1887. Her acting career lasted a very long time, from 1913 to 1979. She became one of the most well-known and loved film actresses in Germany during the Weimar Republic era.

Early Life and Beginnings

Lil Dagover was born in Madiun, Java, which was then part of the Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia). Her parents were German. Her father, Adolf Karl Ludwig Moritz Seubert, worked as a forest ranger for the Dutch government.

When she was 10, her mother passed away. Lil then moved back to Germany and lived with relatives in Tübingen. She went to special boarding schools in Baden-Baden, Weimar, and Geneva, Switzerland.

By age 13, she had lost both her parents. She spent her teenage years with friends and family. After finishing school, she decided to become a stage actress. She performed in many big cities across Europe. In 1907, she married an actor named Fritz Gustav Josef Daghofer. They had a daughter, Eva, in 1909, but they divorced ten years later in 1919. Eva later married Hungarian director Géza von Radványi.

Marie Seubert started using a new professional name, "Lil Dagover." It was a changed version of her husband's last name, Daghofer.

Becoming a Film Star

Lil Dagover around 1912−13

Lil Dagover first appeared in a movie in 1913. Through her marriage to Fritz Daghofer, she met important film directors like Robert Wiene and Fritz Lang.

Fritz Lang gave Dagover a big role in his 1919 movie Harakiri. This movie helped her become famous. The next year, she worked with Robert Wiene in the classic horror film Das Kabinett des Doktor Caligari (The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari). This movie is known for its unique, dream-like style. She starred alongside actors Werner Krauss and Conrad Veidt.

Lang directed Dagover in three more movies: Die Spinnen (1919), Der Müde Tod (1921), and Dr. Mabuse der Spieler (1922).

Lil Dagover as Jane Olsen in The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920)

By the early 1920s, Lil Dagover was one of the most popular movie stars in Germany. She worked with other famous directors like F. W. Murnau. In 1925, she started acting on stage, directed by Max Reinhardt. She performed at the Deutsches Theater in Berlin and at the Salzburg Festival.

In 1926, she married film producer Georg Witt. He produced many of her future movies. They stayed married until his death in 1973.

Lil Dagover made over 40 films in Germany during the 1920s. She also acted in movies made in Sweden and France. Her last silent film was the French movie Monte Cristo in 1929.

Movies with Sound and World War II

Lil Dagover in May 1932

When movies started having sound (called "talkies"), Lil Dagover mostly acted in German films. She made only one American movie, The Woman from Monte Carlo (1932), which was filmed in the United States.

After she returned to Germany, the Third Reich (the time when the Nazis were in power) began in 1933. Lil Dagover tried to stay out of politics. During World War II, she usually appeared in popular musical movies and comedies. However, she did receive an award called the State Actress award in 1937. In 1944, she was given the War Merits Cross for entertaining soldiers on the Eastern Front in 1943 and on the German-controlled Channel Islands in 1944.

Even though her movies were not political, Lil Dagover was a very popular actress during this time. She was known to have been a guest at dinners with Adolf Hitler on several occasions.

Later Career and Legacy

After World War II ended, Lil Dagover continued to act in West German films. In 1948, she appeared in Gaspary's Sons, a drama about a German family during the Nazi era.

One of her most famous films after the war was Buddenbrooks (1959). It was based on a famous novel by Thomas Mann.

In the 1960s, Dagover started acting in many West German television shows, as well as continuing her film work. In 1973, she starred in The Pedestrian. This movie was nominated for an Academy Award and won a Golden Globe for Best Foreign-Language Film. It was directed by Austrian actor Maximilian Schell.

Lil Dagover's very last movie role was in 1979, when she was 91 years old. It was in the drama Tales from the Vienna Woods, also directed by Maximilian Schell.

In 1962, Lil Dagover received the Bundesfilmpreis, a German film award. She also won the Bambi award in 1964 and the Cross of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany in 1967.

In 1979, she wrote her autobiography, called Ich war die Dame (which means I Was The Lady). Lil Dagover passed away on January 24, 1980, at the age of 92, in Munich, West Germany. She was buried in the Waldfriedhof Grünwald cemetery, near Munich.

Filmography

Images for kids

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  Grave of Lil Dagover and husband Georg Witt at the Waldfriedhof Grünwald cemetery in Grünwald

See also

In Spanish: Lil Dagover para niños