27 November, 1981 [9][10], During World War II, Lenya did a number of stage performances, recordings and radio performances, including for the Voice of America. [2] In the German-speaking and classical music world, she is best remembered for her performances of the songs of her first husband, Kurt Weill. She is buried next to Weill at Mount Repose Cemetery in Haverstraw, New York. She died of cancer on November 27, 1981, in New York. During this period she also recorded a number of vocal tracks composed by her husband. The Columbia (OL 5630) issue released in the U.S. in 1964. Cause of death: Cancer - Nov 27 1981 - New York City, Kurt Weill, George Davis, Russell Detweiller, Richard Siemanowski, Reich Refugees during Holocaust 1933-1945, England & Wales, Marriage Index, 1837-2005, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lotte_Lenya, "born as: Karoline Wilhelmine Charlotte Blamauer". Well-known theater actress, and wife of Kurt Weill, Lotte Lenya (18 October 1898 – 27 November 1981) was famous for her role as Rosa Klebb in From Russia With Love, a 1963 film. James Bond Wiki is a FANDOM Movies Community. Records ‘Lotte Lenya sings Kurt Weill’ (1955) in Hamburg for Philips (B 07 039); released in the U.S. by Columbia (ML 5056) in November 1955 as ‘Lotte Lenya Sings Berlin Theater Songs of Kurt Weill’. [10] After Weill's death in 1950, she was coaxed back to the stage. She also played the murderous and sadistic Rosa Klebb in the James Bond movie From Russia with Love (1963). [15], In 1966, Lenya originated the role of Fräulein Schneider in the original Broadway cast of the musical Cabaret. Young Lenya was fond of dancing. Her role as Vivien Leigh's earthy friend Contessa Magda Terribili-Gonzales in the screen version of Tennessee Williams' The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone (1961) brought Lenya an Academy Award nomination as Best Supporting Actress. She liked to claim (only half-seriously) that the people who admired her performance in "From Russia With Love" were quite unaware of her earlier career as a singer and Brechtian interpreter, and that those who had admired this earlier work were unaware of her movies. The Michael Kunze play, Lenya, is about Brecht's favorite singer, Lotte Lenya. She married Weill in 1926 and appeared in the controversial Brecht–Weill work Mahagonny (“Little Mahagonny”) at the Baden-Baden Festival in 1927. He was married to Lotte Lenya. In 1922, Lenya was seen by her future husband, German-Jewish composer Kurt Weill, during an audition for his first stage score Zaubernacht, but because of his position behind the piano, she did not see him. Lenya appears in the Pabst 1931 German film version of the Brecht/Weill play with music, The Threepenny Opera, recreating the role that brought her fame in 1928, Jenny. She was present in the studio when Louis Armstrong recorded Brecht-Weill's "Mack the Knife". But she returned to Kurt Weill in 1935 and they both emigrated via England to the USA where they got married again. During the last years of the Weimar Republic, she was busy in film and theatre, and especially in Brecht-Weill plays. Armstrong added Lenya's name into the lyrics, in place of one of the characters in the play. In 1979, two years before her death, Lotte Lenya was inducted into the American Theater Hall of Fame. She gained additional fame after she appeared as Rosa Klebb, former head of operations for SMERSH/KGB, and now a sadistic Spectre agent with poisonous knife in her shoe, in From Russia with Love (1963). Lotte Lenya, original name Karoline Blamauer, (born October 18, 1898, Vienna, Austria—died November 27, 1981, New York, New York, U.S.), Austrian actress-singer who popularized much of the music of her first husband, the composer Kurt Weill, and appeared frequently in the musical dramas of Weill and his longtime collaborator Bertolt Brecht. Here, Green and Weill wrote the screenplay and music for the controversial Broadway play Johnny Johnson, which was titled after the most frequently occurring name on the American casualty list of World War I. We have created a browser extension. Lotte Lenya was a Tony Award-winning and Academy award-nominated actress and singer who is best remembered for her supporting role as Rosa Klebb in the classic Bond film From Russia with Love (1963).She was born Karoline Wilhelmine Charlotte Blaumauer on October 18, 1898, in Vienna, Austria (at that time Austro-Hungarian Empire), into a working class family. She made several recordings of Weill's songs. In 1945 Lenya performed in the poorly received "Firebrand of Florence" and after the minimal success of this production, took a sabbatical from the stage to become reunited with her husband, Weill, with whom she remained until his death in 1950. When she was invited to join the cast she regretfully declined as her great friend and voice coach who also auditioned for a role was not cast. [10], In 1956, she won a Tony Award for her role as Jenny in Marc Blitzstein's English version of The Threepenny Opera, the only time an off-Broadway performance has been so honored. During the last years of the Weimar Republic, she was busy in film and theatre, and especially in Brecht-Weill plays. Despite this movie hit Lotte Lenya concentrated to the stage again exclusively. [11][12][13], She founded the Kurt Weill Foundation for Music,[14] to administer incomes and issues regarding rights, and to spread knowledge about Weill's work. 1922-1981. Daughter of Franz Blamauer and Johanna Blamauer Won Broadway's 1956 Tony Award as Best Supporting or Featured Actress (Musical) for "TheThreepenny Opera.'" Lotte Lenya [3] [Note 1], With the rise of Nazism in Germany, many artists were not appreciated, and although not Jewish, she left the country, having become estranged from Weill. Announcing our NEW encyclopedia for Kids! She made several recordings of Weill's songs. In 1921 she moved to Berlin and blended in the city's cosmopolitan cultural milieu. During this period Lenya had a love affair with playwright Paul Green. When she was to sing the soprano part in Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny and The Seven Deadly Sins, the part needed transposition to substantially lower keys. Fleeing Nazi Germany, Lenya and Weill went to Paris in 1933, where she appeared in Die sieben Todsünden (1933; “The Seven Deadly Sins”), a ballet-drama written for her by Brecht and Weill. Lenya went on to record a number of songs from her time in Berlin, as well as songs from the American stage. Lotte Lenya (18 October 1898 – 27 November 1981) was an Austrian singer, diseuse, and actress, long based in the United States. [citation needed], Lenya and Weill settled in New York City on 10 September 1935. Lenya studied ballet and drama in Zurich from 1914 to 1920, was a member of the corps de ballet at the Zürich Stadttheater, and played in Shakespeare in Berlin in the 1920s. Lotte Lenya was the inspiration behind Weill's most popular hit 'Mack the Knife'. [15], She is mentioned in the Fascinating Aïda song "Lieder", which originally described her as German, but was corrected for later performances. Donovan's 1968 song "Laléna" was inspired by Lenya. It will enhance any encyclopedic page you visit with the magic of the WIKI 2 technology. She made her stage debut in Zurich and she remained active there till 1921. Be on the lookout for your Britannica newsletter to get trusted stories delivered right to your inbox. She accepted the part of Jenny in the first performance of The Threepenny Opera (Die Dreigroschenoper) in 1928, and the part became her breakthrough role. Lotte Lenya, original name Karoline Blamauer, (born October 18, 1898, Vienna, Austria—died November 27, 1981, New York, New York, U.S.), Austrian actress-singer who popularized much of the music of her first husband, the composer Kurt Weill, and appeared frequently in the musical dramas of Weill and his longtime collaborator Bertolt Brecht. During the war period and again following her husband's death, Lenya made a name for herself in New York, getting involved in Broadway shows such as "Barefoot in Athens". Her Tony Award, however, came for her 1954 appearance in Weill's The Threepenny Opera, a show in which she also had been featured when it premiered in Germany in 1928. They remarried in 1937. [11], In 1956 she won a Tony Award for her role as Jenny in Marc Blitzstein's English version of The Threepenny Opera, the only time an Off-Broadway performance has been so honored. (They would later divorce and remarry.). [11], Sprechstimme was used in some famous songs in the Brecht-Weill plays but now Lenya used it even more to compensate for the shortcomings of her voice. Lenya set up a foundation to look after the royalties from her late husbands compositions and musicals. [12] She was present in the studio when Louis Armstrong recorded Brecht-Weill's "Mack the Knife". She had an important role in one of her husband's shows when she starred in the operetta The Firebrand of Florence, which opened on Broadway on March 22, 1945, but was a failure, running only 43 performances. [8][9], During World War II, Lenya did a number of stage performances, recordings, and radio performances, including for the Voice of America. They married in 1926, and later divorced in 1933, only to reconcile in September 1935 after emigrating to the United States. The pair remained together for just two years before they separated. She would later earn a role in the 1966 Kander and Ebb musical "Cabaret" as the composers insisted they were greatly inspired by her late husband. Recorded "Six Songs by Kurt Weill" (1943) for Bost Records (BA 8) in New York. She appeared on Broadway in Barefoot in Athens and married editor George Davis. She made several recordings of Weill's songs. Lenya was aware of this as a problem; in other contexts, she was very careful about fully respecting her late husband's score. https://jamesbond.fandom.com/wiki/Lotte_Lenya?oldid=64676. Vienna-Penzing, Austria-Hungary [now Austria], Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, View agent, publicist, legal and company contact details on IMDbPro. In 1957 she won a Tony award for her role as Jenny, performed in English, in a Broadway production of 'The Threepenny Opera'.Lotte Lenya shot to international fame with her portrayal of Contessa Magda Terbilli-Gozales, Vivien Leigh's friend in The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone (1961). Some good would come out of her audition for the production: her rendezvous and later marriage to the incredible composer, Weill. It ran 95 performances. This movie became popular as well. In Swizerland she studied classical dance, singing and acting and made her stage debut at the Schauspielhaus.

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