A prominent German film actress born on 30 September 1887 at Madiven,
Java, the daughter of a forest ranger in the service of the Dutch
authorities. Sent at the age of ten to Baden-Baden to study, she later
entered the cinema thanks to her marriage in 1917 to the actor Fritz
Dagover who was 25 years her senior. They divorced in 1919 but not
before he had introduced her to director
Robert Wiene and other notables of German
cinema. She made her screen debut in
Fritz Lang's
Harakiri (1919). Immediately after she
appeared in Wiene's classic expressionist film, "The Cabinet of Dr.
Caligari" (aka
The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920)).
Apart from three trips -- one to Sweden in 1927, another to France in
1928-9 and one to Hollywood in 1931 -- most of Lil Dagover's career and
fate was linked to that of the German cinema, where her role was
usually that of the frail, menaced heroine. She continued to star in a
great number of films during the Nazi era. Among her best performances
were her roles in
Congress Dances (1931), in
Gerhard Lamprecht's
The Higher Command (1935) and in
Veit Harlan's
The Kreutzer Sonata (1937). She
also acted in the Deutsches Theatre Berlin, the Salzburg Festival, at
forces shows and at war theaters. At one time, she was reported to have
been a close friend of
Adolf Hitler. In
1944, she received the War Merits Cross. Dagover continued her career
in post-war Germany, playing many supporting parts until the late
1970s.
Tales from the Vienna Woods(1979)as Helene
Die Standarte(1977)as Erzherzogin
End of the Game(1975)as Gastmann's Mother
Tatort(1970)as Mutter Koenen
Old Song(1930)
Der große Zauberer - Max Reinhardt(1973)as Self
Seniorenclub(1968)as Self - Gast
Gut gefragt ist halb gewonnen(1964)as Self
Compression(1995)as Self
'Der Müde Tod': Die Restaurierung eines frühen(2016)
From Caligari to Hitler: German Cinema in the Age of the Masses(2014)as Self
Caligari - Wie der Horror ins Kino kam(2014)as Jane Olsen
Cinemassacre's Monster Madness(2007)as Jane Olsen
