Wera Engels

Wera Engels

Born: May 12, 1909
Died: November 16, 1988
in Kiel, Germany
Wera Engels was a daughter of a German Admiral and Governor of the then German colony Tsing-tau-China. After successful leading roles in productions of the well-established German UFA-studios in Babelsberg as well as in France, Engels was invited to Hollywood. Producers saw her as a cheap alternative to Greta Garbo and Marlene Dietrich. She was contracted with RKO.

Engels was given roles under Walter Futter and M.H. Hoffman. She and the silent movie super star Mary Pickford became best friends. By 1935 she returned to Germany, but left soon thereafter, because of the decline of the German movie industry caused by the Nazi propaganda machine. Back in Hollywood, she dated Gary Cooper for a while but married the Lithuanian-born actor/writer Ivan Lebedeff. After Lebedeff's death in 1953 of Angina pectoris, she moved back to Europe, where she stayed with several friends in London and Stockholm before she went back to Germany. She lived the rest of her life with Erna Hoffmann (widow of Heinrich Hoffmann, Hitler's friend and personal photographer) in the Munich area.

She died on November 16, 1988 (age 79) in Munich, Germany.

Movies for Wera Engels...

Talking About Jacqueline
Title: Talking About Jacqueline
Character: Jacqueline Topelius
Released: April 15, 1937
Type: Movie
Since her father died, rich and carefree Jacqueline Topelius makes magazine covers and causes social gossip with her flirtatious adventures around Europe, leaving a string of admirers behind without much concern. Her sister June, living in Paris, is all the contrary but they love each other just the same. Everything changes when Jacqueline meets Dr. Michael Thomas, who rejects her at first. Now she must choose, and also face the consequences her past life may have on their future together.
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Stjenka Rasin
Title: Stjenka Rasin
Character: Prinzessin Dolgoruki
Released: May 1, 1936
Type: Movie
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Hong Kong Nights
Title: Hong Kong Nights
Character: Trina Vidor
Released: December 23, 1935
Type: Movie
Customs agents track a ring of arms smugglers into Hong Kong.
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The Great Impersonation
Title: The Great Impersonation
Character: Princess Stephanie Elderstrom
Released: December 8, 1935
Type: Movie
The second of the three film versions of the E. Phillips Oppenheim espionage thriller set largely in an old dark house where a tremulous wife wonders if her husband is really his double, a dastardly German spy.
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Together We Live
Title: Together We Live
Character: Sonia
Released: August 16, 1935
Type: Movie
A ham-handed cautionary fable against communism, the film concerns a group of Civil War veterans who are appalled by the burgeoning radical movement in America.
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Sweepstake Annie
Title: Sweepstake Annie
Character: Baroness Yvonne Baritska
Released: January 29, 1935
Type: Movie
A young woman who works in the movie business buys a sweepstakes ticket that turns out to be a winner. Her stroke of luck changes her life around--and not necessarily for the better.
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Fugitive Road
Title: Fugitive Road
Character: Sonya Valinoff
Released: August 22, 1934
Type: Movie
An Austrian officer must face up to the good and evil aspects of his own personality as he becomes involved in a war.
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The Great Jasper
Title: The Great Jasper
Character: Norma McGowd
Released: March 3, 1933
Type: Movie
Generational saga about a failed streetcar conductor, who finds success as an Atlantic City fortune teller, and his son. Drama.
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Lucky children
Title: Lucky children
Released: December 6, 1931
Type: Movie
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Scent of the Woman in Black
Title: Scent of the Woman in Black
Character: Edith Rance
Released: November 6, 1931
Type: Movie
The story takes place on the Riviera, where the title character may or may not be involved in various shades of skullduggery, including murder.
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English as it is spoken
Title: English as it is spoken
Released: June 12, 1931
Type: Movie
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The Gripper
Title: The Gripper
Character: Mabel
Released: September 10, 1930
Type: Movie
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Befehl zur Ehe
Title: Befehl zur Ehe
Released: October 13, 1928
Type: Movie
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Das Spreewaldmädel
Title: Das Spreewaldmädel
Released: April 18, 1928
Type: Movie
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Hast Du geliebt am schönen Rhein?
Title: Hast Du geliebt am schönen Rhein?
Character: Ellen Shiffer
Released: November 7, 1927
Type: Movie
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Lützow's Wild Hunt
Title: Lützow's Wild Hunt
Released: February 21, 1927
Type: Movie
Film by Richard Oswald.
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Mädchenhandel - Eine internationale Gefahr
Title: Mädchenhandel - Eine internationale Gefahr
Character: Irene Wendtland
Released: January 7, 1927
Type: Movie
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Fighting the White Slave Traffic
Title: Fighting the White Slave Traffic
Character: Irene Wendtland
Released: January 1, 1927
Type: Movie
A young woman in Berlin is offered a job at a night club in Budapest. There she is abducted and brought to a brothel in Athens.