Pola Negri, Polish theater and film actress, international star of silent cinema – portrait photography

This collection includes photographs and documents on Pola Negri (Apolonia Chalupec), a Polish stage and film actress and singer. She achieved worldwide fame during the silent and golden eras of Hollywood and European film for her tragedienne and femme fatale roles and was acknowledged as a sex symbol. Negri signed with Paramount in 1922, making her the first European actress in history to be contracted in Hollywood. She spent much of the 1920s working in the United States appearing in numerous films for Paramount, establishing herself as one of the most popular actresses in American silent film. In the 1930s, during the emergence of sound film, Negri returned to Europe, where she appeared in multiple films for Pathé Films and UFA, and also began a career as a recording artist. She made only two films after 1940, her last screen credit being in Walt Disney’s The Moon-Spinners (1964). She became a naturalized U.S. citizen in 1951, and spent the rest of her life in San Antonio, Texas.