Elissa Landi

ELISSA LANDI d1948. Italian-born Austrian actress and novelist who was popular as a performer in Hollywood films of the 1920s and 1930s often playing characters of an aristocratic bearing. She played the heroine in Cecil B DeMille's "The Sign of The Cross" (1932) and in romantic dramas including ; Body and Soul (1931) which also featured Humphrey Bogart, before appearing in the box office hit The Count of Monte Cristo (1934) with Robert Donat. Her contract with Fox was abruptly cancelled in 1936 as a result of her refusal to accept a particular role. MGM signed her to a contract and after a couple of romantic dramas she played the cousin of Myrna Loy in the very popular After the Thin Man (1936). After only two more films she retired, in 1943. She became a naturalized US citizen in 1943 and dedicated herself to writing, producing six novels and a series of poems. She had published her first novel as early as age nineteen and continued to write and publish novels at the height of her movie fame and continuing for the rest of her short life. She died from cancer in New York aged just 43 on October 21st 1948