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Lili Damita
Lili Damita from Stars of the Photoplay.jpg
Stars of the Photoplay, 1930
Born
Liliane Marie-Madeleine Carré

(1904-07-10)10 July 1904
Blaye, France
Died 21 March 1994(1994-03-21) (aged 89)
Resting place Oakland Cemetery, Fort Dodge, Iowa
Other names Lily Damita
Lily Deslys
Years active 1922–1937
Spouse(s)
(m. 1935; div. 1942)
Allen Loomis
(m. 1962; div. 1983)
Children Sean Flynn

Lili Damita (born Liliane Marie-Madeleine Carré; 10 July 1904 – 21 March 1994) was a French-American actress and singer who appeared in 33 films between 1922 and 1937.

Early life and education

Lili Damita was born in Blaye, France, on 10 July 1904. Her father was an officer. She was educated in convents and ballet schools in her native France, as well as Spain and Portugal. At 14, she was enrolled as a dancer at the Opéra de Paris.

Early career in revue, modeling and German film

As a teenager, she was performing in popular music halls, eventually appearing in the Revue at the Casino de Paris. She worked as a photographic model. Offered a role in film as a prize for winning a magazine beauty competition in 1921, she appeared in several silent films before being offered her first leading role in Das Spielzeug von Paris (1925) by Hungarian-born director Michael Curtiz. She was an instant success, and Curtiz directed her in two more films: Fiaker Nr. 13 (1926) and Der goldene Schmetterling (1926). Damita continued appearing next in German productions directed by Robert Wiene (Die große Abenteuerin; 1928), G.W. Pabst (Man spielt nicht mit der Liebe; 1926) and British director Graham Cutts (The Queen Was in the Parlour; 1927).

Hollywood career

In 1928, Damita was invited to Hollywood by Samuel Goldwyn and made her American film debut in The Rescue. She was leased out to various studios, appearing with stars and leading men such as Maurice Chevalier, Laurence Olivier, James Cagney, Gary Cooper and Cary Grant. Her films included box office successes The Cock-Eyed World (1929), the semi-silent The Bridge of San Luis Rey (1929) and This Is the Night (1932).

Personal life

Damita & Flynn
Damita and husband Errol Flynn at Los Angeles airport, 1941

Following a lengthy affair with Curtiz, and a relationship with Prince Louis Ferdinand, grandson of Kaiser Wilhelm II, she married the then-unknown actor Errol Flynn in 1935 and retired from the screen. Flynn soon became one of Hollywood's biggest box office attractions, and in 1941 they had a son, Sean Flynn. The couple had an acrimonious divorce in 1942. According to her ex husband's memoir My Wicked, Wicked Ways, Damita was unstable and violent throughout the tumultuous relationship. She is portrayed by Barbara Hershey in the 1985 TV movie based on the book.

In 1962, while living in Palm Beach, Florida, Damita married Allen Loomis, a retired Fort Dodge, Iowa, dairy product manufacturer, and spent part of each year living there. They divorced in the mid-80s.

During the Cambodian Civil War (Khmer Rouge reign), her son Sean Flynn was working as a freelance photo journalist under contract to Time magazine when he and fellow journalist Dana Stone went missing on the road south of Phnom Penh, Cambodia, on 6 April 1970. Although Damita spent an enormous amount of money searching for her son, he was never found, and in 1984 he was declared legally dead.

Death

Damita died of Alzheimer's disease on 21 March 1994, in Palm Beach, Florida, aged 89. She was interred in the Oakland Cemetery in Fort Dodge, Iowa, her last husband's hometown.

Selected filmography

Lili Damita and Victor McLaglen
Promotional photo of Damita and Victor McLaglen for The Cock-Eyed World (1929)
The Bridge of San Luis Rey (1929) 1
The Bridge of San Luis Rey (1929)
Lili Damita-Gary Cooper in Fighting Caravans
Damita and Gary Cooper in Fighting Caravans (1931)
Fighting Caravans (1931) 2
With Ernest Torrence, Gary Cooper, and Tully Marshall in Fighting Caravans (1931)
Lili Damita and Lester Vail
With Lester Vail in The Woman Between (1931)
Thelma Todd, Roland Young, Lili Damita
Thelma Todd, Roland Young, Lili Damita in This Is the Night (1932)
This is the Night
Charles Ruggles, Cary Grant, Lili Damita and Roland Young in This Is the Night (1932)
Year Film Role Notes
1922 Maman Pierre
1922 La belle au bois dormant
1922 L'Empereur des pauvres Riquette
1922 La fille sauvage Henriette Villedieu
1923 Corsica
1924 Une femme dans la nuit
1924 The Clairvoyant Suzanne
1925 Prince Charming
1925 Das Spielzeug von Paris Célimène aka Susana Armard
1926 Fiaker Nr. 13
(Cab No. 13)
Lilian
1926 Geheimnisse einer Seele
(Secrets of a Soul)
Uncredited
1926 Der goldene Schmetterling
(The Golden Butterfly)
Lilian
1926 Man spielt nicht mit der Liebe
(One Does Not Play with Love)
Calixta Lost film
1927 The Queen Was in the Parlour Prinzessin Nadya von Kraya
1927 Die berühmte Frau
(The Famous Woman)
Sonja Litowskaja
1928 Die große Abenteuerin
(The Great Adventuress)
1928 Scandal in Paris
1929 The Rescue Lady Edith Travers Incomplete film
1929 The Bridge of San Luis Rey Camila (La Perichole) Filmed as both silent and part-talkie, only the silent version of this film survives
1929 The Cock-Eyed World Mariana Elenita
1930 Let Us Be Gay
(Soyons gais)
Kitty
1931 The Bachelor Father
(Le père célibataire)
alternate language version
1931 Fighting Caravans Felice
1931 The Woman Between Julie Whitcomb
1931 Friends and Lovers Mrs. Alva Sangrito
1932 This Is the Night Germaine
1932 One Hour with You
(Une heure près de toi)
Mitzi Olivier alternate language version
1932 The Match King Marta Molnar
1933 Goldie Gets Along Goldie LaFarge
1934 A Man Has Been Stolen Annette
1935 Brewster's Millions Rosalie La Rue
1935 Frisco Kid Belle Morra
1936 The Devil on Horseback Diane Corday
1937 Escadrille of Chance Edwige

Selected stage musicals

  • On Dit Ça, Paris (1923)
  • Sons o'Guns, New York (1929/30)
  • Here's How, London (1934)

See also

Kids robot.svg In Spanish: Lili Damita para niños

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