Katalin Karády
| Katalin Karády | |
|---|---|
Katalin Karády in 1940
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| Born |
Katalin Mária Kanczler 8 December 1910 Budapest, Hungary |
| Died | 8 February 1990 (aged 79) New York City |
| Resting place | Farkasréti Cemetery, Budapest |
| Nationality | Hungarian |
| Occupation | Actress, singer |
| Years active | 1939–1969 |
| Spouse(s) | Rezső Varga (divorced) |
| Awards | Righteous Among the Nations |
Katalin Karády (8 December 1910 – 8 February 1990) was a Hungarian actress and singer. A leading actress in Hungarian movies made between 1939–1945, she is best known outside Hungary as an awardee of the Righteous among the Nations honorific for rescuing a number of Hungarian Jews.
Katalin Karády was born as Katalin Kanczler, on 8 December 1910 in Budapest. She spent her childhood in Kőbánya district with seven siblings in great poverty. Her parents were Rozália Lőrinc and Ferenc Kanczler, a shoemaker, who Katalin remembered as an aggressive person. Helped by a charity organization, she spent five years in Switzerland and the Netherlands. After returning home, she studied in a Women's Marketing school, already famed for her beauty. With the language knowledge from previous years, her simple clothing and vigorous demand for cleanness she already stood out from her classmates. After her father's death in 1931 she married Rezső Varga, a customs official, 30 years older than herself, but they divorced after a few months.
She started acting in 1936, taking classes from Ernő Tarnay, and Artúr Bárdos. After gaining the attention of journalist Zoltán Egyed in a bar in Buda (who also proposed the name Karády) she was introduced to Ilona Aczél, a former actress, in whose acting school she learned the basics of the profession in the following three years, including singing. Karády's first performance was during of the 30s, in the Dániel Jób's theatres: between 1931 and 1941, she appeared in the Pesti Színház and Vígszínház in various roles.
Her first movie role, Halálos Tavasz (Deadly Spring) gave her instant fame as a diva and sex-symbol, supported by her unusual, humming voice, and "femme fatale" character. In the next nine years, she appeared in 20 movies. Zoltán Egyed became her manager, and successfully created a Hollywood-like image around her, as a result, thousands of fans tried to mimic her clothing, hairstyle and behavior throughout the country. Karády's personal life was a constant topic of gossip, conflicting rumors came and gone about she being a man-eater, or lesbian. The theories were stirred up even more as she had intimate relationship with Regent Miklós Horthy's chief of secret service, István Ujszászy, who also proposed to her, and bought her a villa.
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