Lien Deyers
| Lien Deyers | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Born |
Nicolina Dijjers Spanier 5 November 1909 Amsterdam, Netherlands |
| Died | after March 1982 United States |
| Nationality | Dutch |
| Occupation | Actor |
| Years active | 1928-1937 |
Lien Deyers, stage name of Nicolina Dijjers Spanier, (5 November 1909 in Amsterdam – after March 1982), was a screen actress from the Netherlands, who worked in the German film-industry. She was the first Dutch actress to rise to some international fame.
Lien Deyers was born in Amsterdam as Nicolina Spanier, daughter of Nathan Spanier, piano teacher (1857-1916), and Johanna Liefjes, seamstress (1888-1918). She had a half-brother, Andries Liefjes (1906-1960), a child from a previous relationship of Liefjes. After Spanier’s death mrs. Liefjes married the hotel-owner Egbert Dijjers (1874-1948) and the family moved to The Hague. In 1931 Lien officially changed her name to Dijjers Spanier but would occasionally also use the name Dijjers Liefjes. At several times she stated her year of birth being 1910 or 1911. In interviews she’d never mention Spanier or Liefjes.
At the early age of five her potential was noted by Amsterdam theatre owner and film producer David Sluizer, but she did not enter the film business. She lived her childhood years in Amsterdam and later The Hague until her stepfather, owner of a big hotel in The Hague, married the Austrian actress Lotte Erol. Lien then traveled between The Hague, Vienna (where the family mostly lived) and Lausanne, where she went to a private school and became fluent in French. In August 1926 the Austrian weekly Mein Film staged a competition for new young screen talent and Lien submitted her photograph. Together with twenty other contestants she was chosen for a screen-test by director Hans Otto, which she won. Subsequently, during an autograph session in the Mein Film offices in 1927, she was introduced to the well-known Austrian director Fritz Lang, who happened to be in need of a young blonde for a role in his new movie Spione, written by his wife, the playwright Thea von Harbou. Lang had her travel to Berlin for a screentest and she was indeed given a secondary but racy role in Spione. She was billed as Lien Deyers because Dijjers was frequently misspelled or mispronounced in German speaking countries.
Lang had her sign a six-year contract and assigned her to the huge UFA studios in Berlin. The contract soon turned out to be mere slavery, and Deyers sought a court decision to end it. In November 1928 the court ruled in her favour, a verdict welcomed by hundreds of Berlin-based actors with similar contracts. In turn Lang appealed and was granted a 10,000 Reichs-mark pay-off, to be fulfilled in monthly payments. Deyers and Lang had already grown to dislike each other during the shooting of Spione.
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