Pola Negri

Pola Negri (born Barbara Apolonia Chałupiec, sometimes spelled Chalupec or Chałupec; 3 January 1897 – 1 August 1987) was a Polish stage and film actress who achieved worldwide fame during the silent and golden eras of Hollywood and European film for her tragedienne and femme fatale roles.

She was the first European film star to be invited to Hollywood, and became one of the most popular actresses in American silent film. Her varied career included work as an actress in theater and vaudeville; as a recording artist, as a ballerina and as an author.

Early life

Negri was born Barbara Apolonia Chałupiec on 3 January 1897 in Lipno, Congress Poland, Russian Empire (present-day Lipno, Poland), the only surviving child (of three) of a Polish mother, Eleonora (née Kiełczewska; died 24 August 1954), who, according to Negri, came from impoverished Polish nobility, and Juraj Chalupec (died 1920), an itinerant Slovakian tinsmith from Nesluša. After her father was arrested by the Russian authorities for revolutionary activities and sent to Siberia, she and her mother moved to Warsaw, where they lived in poverty.