Franciska Gaal
{{short description|Hungarian cabaret artist and film actress (1903–1972)}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Franciska Gaal
| image = Image:Konig4.jpeg
| imagesize =
| caption = Franciska Gaal
| birth_date = {{Birth date|df=yes|1903|02|01}}
| birth_place = Budapest, Austro-Hungarian Empire
| death_date = {{Death date and age|df=yes|1972|08|13|1903|02|01}}{{Cite web|url=https://archivum.mtva.hu/photobank/item/MTI-FOTO-N2JlVTB0MkxhRkxRUGFkS2pRTm9JU0JXT1lqRG5mZTJ5V0ppQ1YvQTJtaz0|title=Színház - Gaál Franciska színésznő|website=Archivum.mtva.hu|access-date=5 February 2022}}
| death_place = New York City, United States
| othername = Szidónia Silberspitz, Fanny Zilverstitch
| occupation = Actress
| yearsactive = 1921–1946 (film)
| spouse = Sándor Lestyán (1922–?)[http://www.szoloskislak.hu/index.php/gaal-franciska] {{dead link|date=February 2022}}
Francis Dajkovich (1934–1965) (his death){{cite web|url=https://www.myheritage.com/names/francis_dajkovich|title=Francis Dajkovich|website=Myheritage.com|access-date=5 February 2022}}
}}
File:1940, original program for movie The Buccaneer, playing in a local cinema in Prilep, Macedonia (Kingdom of Yugoslavia).jpg, playing in a local cinema in Prilep, Macedonia (Kingdom of Yugoslavia)]]
Franciska Gaal (born Franciska Silberspitz, 1 February 1903{{Cite web |url=https://www.ancestry.com/search/categories/img_passlists/?name=Francziska_De+Dajkovich&location=2&name_x=1_1&priority=usa |title=May 1947 Passenger list listing her age 44 |date= |website=Ancestry.com |archive-url= |archive-date= |access-date=}} – 13 August 1972) was a Hungarian cabaret artist and film actress of Jewish heritage. Gaal starred in a popular series of European romantic comedies during the 1930s. After attracting interest in Hollywood she moved there and made three films.
Early years
Born in Budapest, Gaal was the last of the 13 children of a Jewish family. She studied at the Stage Academy in Budapest in 1919, and by 1920, she appeared in theaters in this city.{{cite book |last1=Bock |first1=Hans-Michael |last2=Bergfelder |first2=Tim |title=The Concise Cinegraph: Encyclopaedia of German Cinema |date=2009 |publisher=Berghahn Books |isbn=9780857455659 |page=144 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_Z4kDAAAQBAJ&q=%22Franciska+Silberspitz%22&pg=PA144 |accessdate=29 August 2018 |language=en}}
Early career
Gaal debuted in film in {{lang|hu|Máté gazda és a törpék}} (1919). She was groomed by Joe Pasternak as a singer to become a popular stage and cabaret performer in Central Europe in the 1920s and 1930s. She made her first film appearances in some Hungarian silent films of the early 1920s, but her cinema career didn't ignite until the arrival of sound film.
Hollywood
After appearing in several films made in Hungary, Germany and Austria, two of which were directed by Henry Koster, she came to Hollywood to star in Cecil B. De Mille's epic adventure film The Buccaneer (1938). She followed this with the comedy The Girl Downstairs (also 1938) with Franchot Tone, a remake of her Austrian success Catherine the Last. In 1939, Gaal co-starred with Bing Crosby in the musical Paris Honeymoon.{{cite book |last1=Waldman |first1=Harry |last2=Slide |first2=Anthony |title=Hollywood and the Foreign Touch: A Dictionary of Foreign Filmmakers and Their Films from America, 1910-1995 |date=1996 |publisher=Scarecrow Press |isbn=9780810831926 |pages=113–114 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Vo8Zh1r99SsC&q=%22based+on+a+Hungarian+story%2C+opposite+Franchot+Tone.%22&pg=PA114 |accessdate=29 August 2018 |language=en}}
Later life
She returned to Hungary in 1940 for unknown reasons{{Cite book |last=Hales |first=Barbara |title=Rethinking Jewishness in Weimar Cinema |last2=Weinstein |first2=Valerie |publisher=Berghahn Books, Incorporated |year=2020 |isbn=9781789208733 |pages=201}}{{Cite book |title=The Concise Cinegraph: Encyclopaedia of German Cinema |publisher=Berghahn Books |year=2009 |isbn=9781571816559 |editor-last=Bock |editor-first=Hans-Michael |pages=144}} and remained there for the duration of World War II.
In 1946, she began work on the Soviet-backed Renee XIV with Johannes Heesters and Theo Lingen, but filming was halted during production and never was completed. She returned to the United States in 1947 with her husband Francis de Dajkovich (died in 1965), a Budapest-born attorney, but her return attracted little interest in Hollywood.Bock & Bergfelder, p. 144. In 1951, she replaced Eva Gabor in The Happy Time on Broadway.
Death
Filmography
| class="wikitable" | |||
| Year
! Title ! Role ! Notes | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| 1920 | A bostonville-i kaland | ||
| rowspan=2 | 1921 | New-York express kábel | Reporter | |
| A cornevillei harangok | Serpolette, cselédlány | ||
| 1932 | Paprika | Ilona von Takacs | |
| rowspan=3 | 1933 | Greetings and Kisses, Veronika | Veronika | |
| Scandal in Budapest | Eva Balogh | ||
| Romance in Budapest | Eva Balogh | ||
| rowspan=3 | 1934 | A Precocious Girl | Lucie Carell, nicknamed Csibi | |
| Spring Parade | Marika | ||
| Peter | 17-year old Eva | ||
| 1935 | Little Mother | Marie Bonnard | |
| rowspan=2 | 1936 | Catherine the Last | Katharina, Küchenmädchen | |
| Fräulein Lilli | Fräulein Lilli | ||
| rowspan=2 | 1938 | The Buccaneer | Gretchen | |
| The Girl Downstairs | Katerina Linz | ||
| 1939 | Paris Honeymoon | Manya | |
| 1946 | Renee XIV | uncompleted |
References
{{Reflist}}
Bibliography
- Bock, Hans-Michael & Bergfelder, Tim. The Concise CineGraph. Encyclopedia of German Cinema. Berghahn Books, 2009.
External links
- {{IMDb name|id=0299898|name=Franciska Gaal}}
- [http://film.virtual-history.com/person.php?personid=1226 Photographs of Franciska Gaal]
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gaal, Franciska}}
Category:20th-century Hungarian Jews
Category:Hungarian film actresses
Category:Hungarian silent film actresses
Category:Hungarian stage actresses
Category:Hungarian emigrants to the United States