08 August 2018

Grit Hegesa

Grit Hegesa (1891–1972) was a German dancer and silent film actress. She appeared in seventeen films, including Ewald André Dupont's crime film Whitechapel (1920).

Grit Hegesa

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 363/1, 1919-1924. Photo: Frieda Riess.

Wahnsinn


Grit Hegesa was born as Caroline Margaretha Schmidt in Niederlahnstein, German Empire, in 1891.

After attending dance and acting lessons in Brighton in the U.K., she made her first appearances on stage in Germany.

In 1911 Hegesa married businessman Johann Nikolaus Meyer, but they divorced in 1919.

Grit Hegesa made her film debut in Des Prokurators Tochter/The procurator's daughter (William Wauer, 1917) with Adolf Klein and Hermann Thimig.

She became known for such silent films as Hotel Esplanade (Karin Swanström, 1919), the horror film Wahnsinn/Madness (Conrad Veidt, 1919) starring Conrad Veidt, Hegesa and Reinhold Schünzel, and Der weisse Pfau/The White Peacock (Ewald André Dupont, 1920).

Grit Hegesa
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 452/2, 1919-1924. Photo: Alex Binder. Collection: Didier Hanson.

Children of darkness


Grit Hegesa played the leading role in the two-part drama Kinder der Finsternis - 1. Der Mann aus Neapel/Children of darkness - 1. The man from Naples (Ewald André Dupont, 1921) and Kinder der Finsternis - 2. Kämpfende Welte/Children of Darkness - 2. Fighting Worldsn (Ewald André Dupont, 1922) with Hans Mierendorff.

Her final film was Fräulein Else/Miss Else (Paul Czinner, 1929) starring Elisabeth Bergner.

Besides her activity as a film actress, she also acted regularly on stage and performed as a dancer.

Since 1925, Hegesa was married with the artist painter Emil van Hauth. Grit Hegesa died in 1972 in Munich, Germany. She was 80

Grit Hegesa
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 452/1, 1919-1924. Photo: Alex Binder.

Sources: Wikipedia (German and English) and IMDb.

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