Biography
Franziska Gaál (1903-1973) was a Hungarian cabaret artist and stage actress who starred starred in several European films of the 1920’s and 1930’s.
She was born Fanny Zilveritch in Budapest in 1903. The thirteenth child of a Jewish family, she attended the Budapest Academy of Theatre and after the First World War, she made a name as a singer, dancer and actress. Her film debut in Hungary was the short silent film Az Egér (1921, Lajos Gellért). She was already a highly successful stage actress, when producer Joe Pasternak discovered her for Universal's European subsidiary Deutsche Universal. She started with Paprika (1932, Carl Boese), and went on to star in several features which highlighted her comic timing as well as her enchanting looks. To her German films belong Gruss und Kuss, Veronika!/Greetings and Kisses, Veronika (1933, Carl Boese) and Frühjahrsparade/Spring Parade (1934, Géza von Bolváry).
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After the Nazis' raise to power, the Jewish Gaal couldn't continue her work in Germany. Between 1934 and 1936, she became the star of several independently produced films in Austria. Peter (1934), Kleine Mutti/Little Mother (1935), and Katharina – die Letzte/Catherine the Last (1936) were modern and witty screwball comedies which marked the height of her career. They were all produced by Joe Pasternak, directed by Hermann Kosterlitz (later Henry Koster), and written by Felix Joachimson.
In 1937, Franziska Gaál and the rest of the Universal-team left Austria and emigrated to the USA. In Hollywood she appeared in The Buccaneer (1938, Cecil B. de Mille) and at Bing Crosby's side in Paris Honeymoon (1939, Frank Tuttle). She returned to Budapest in 1940 to attend to her mother's illness, and was forced to remain in Hungary through WW II. She survived the war and Nazi prosecution, hidden in a bombed-out estate. After the war she tried to make a come-back with Renée XIV (1946, Ákos Ráthonyi), but failed. She returned in 1947 to the USA and replaced Eva Gabor in the Broadway production The Happy Time (1951), but she didn't surface again as an actress. Little is known about her life in New York, and in 1972, the former star of the German sound comedy died impoverished and unnoticed by the public.
Biography text from Last.fm, available under CC BY-SA.