María Corda
| María Corda | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Born |
Mária Antónia Farkas 4 May 1898 Déva, Hungary |
| Died | 15 February 1976 (aged 77) Thônex, Switzerland |
| Other names | Mária Antónia Farkas |
| Occupation | Actress |
| Years active | 1919 - 1929 |
| Spouse(s) | Alexander Korda (1919-1930, divorced) |
María Corda (Mária Antónia Farkas, 4 May 1898 in Déva, Hungary (now Deva, Romania) – 15 February 1976 in Thônex, Switzerland) was a Hungarian actress and a star of the silent film era in Germany and Austria.
She began her acting career in the theatres of Budapest in the early days of World War I and soon after the break-up of Austria-Hungary she also began to work in the film industry. Her first role was in Se ki, se be (Neither in, nor out) in 1919, directed by the Hungarian director, Korda Sandor, who would come to be known as Alexander Korda. She married Sandor, who was then the leading director in Hungary's fledgling film industry, in 1919. He featured her in White Rose (1919), Ave Caesar! (1919) and A 111-es (1919) all of which he directed.
The young couple was affected by the turmoil in Hungary that followed the end of the Austro-Hungarian empire. For a brief time, Hungary was a badly-run democracy, then a Communist dictatorship, and finally - with the support of Western forces—a rightwing dictator, Miklos Horthy was put in place, the first of Europe's Fascist dictators and an authoritarian anti-Semite. Maria and Alexander had continued making films, no matter who was in power, with Maria as the most famous actress in Hungary and her husband its most important director.
However, her husband was grabbed by Horthy's secret police one day and vanished, Maria managed to get to her brother-in-law, Zoltan Korda, and between the two of them, they learned where Alexander was being held, in a Budapest Hotel which was notorious for having a torture chamber in its basement. Maria went to the British Military Mission, whose Brigadier was also on the board of Korda's film company and "with all the considerable passion at her disposal," as her nephew, Michael Korda, was to write in his biography of the family, convinced him that her husband must be freed or there would be an international scandal, one that would quite likely expose the British government's role in setting Horthy up as regent.
Her husband was freed and they then fled the country, relocating to Vienna, a logical choice since German was the second language of Hungary. This is where both changed their names, he to Alexander Korda and she, for obscure reasons, to "Maria Corda" - with a C. In Vienna, he made her a star of the Austrian silent screen in epic films like Samson und Delila (1922) and Michael Curtiz's Die Sklavenkönigin (1924). Gli ultimi giorni di Pompei (1926) saw her take a leading role in an Italian film of a similar style.
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Wikipedia