Pola Negri

POLA NEGRI d1987. Polish stage and film actress and singer. She achieved worldwide fame during the silent and golden eras of Hollywood and European film for her femme fatale roles and was acknowledged as a sex symbol. She had first signed with Paramount Pictures in 1922, making her the first European actress in history to be contracted in Hollywood. She spent much of the 1920s working in the United States appearing in numerous films for Paramount, establishing herself as one of the most popular actresses in American silent film. In the 1930s, during the emergence of sound film, she returned to Europe where she appeared in multiple films for Pathe Films and UFA and also began a career as a recording artist. She made only two films after 1940, her last screen credit being in Walt Disney's "The Moon Spinners" (1964). She spent her later life largely outside the public sphere. She became a naturalized US citizen in 1951 and spent the remainder of her life living in San Antonia Texas. She died aged 90 on August 1st 1987 of pneumonia, secondary to a brain tumor for which she refused treatment