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).
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 363/1, 1919-1924. Photo: Frieda Riess.
Grit Hegesa was born Caroline Margaretha Schmidt in Niederlahnstein, German Empire, in 1891.
Se attended a convent school and then took dance and acting lessons in Brighton in the U.K. She made her first appearance on stage in Germany. In 1911 Hegesa married businessman Johann Nikolaus Meyer, but they divorced in 1919.
Grit Hegesa then accepted engagements at theatres such as the Deutsches Theater in Cologne and the Palast-Theater in Berlin. She gave her own dance evenings at the Kleines Schauspielhaus theatre in the German capital, run by Max Reinhardt. From 1920 to 1922, she worked with Jaap Kool, who composed music for her and accompanied her on the piano during her performances
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 expressionist 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).
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 452/2, 1919-1924. Photo: Alex Binder. Collection: Didier Hanson.
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 Worlds (Ewald André Dupont, 1922) with Hans Mierendorff.
In 1925, Grit Hegesa married the artist painter Emil van Hauth. The couple stayed together until his death.
Her final film was Fräulein Else/Miss Else (Paul Czinner, 1929), an adaptation of Arthur Schnitzler's 'Fräulein Else', starring Elisabeth Bergner.
Besides her activity as a film actress, she also acted regularly on stage and performed as a dancer. After she retired from the film business, she occasionally devoted herself to her actual profession, dance.
Grit Hegesa died in 1972 in Munich, Germany. She was 80.
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 452/1, 1919-1924. Photo: Alex Binder.
Sources: Wikipedia (German and English) and IMDb.
This post was last updated on 1 September 2024.
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 363/1, 1919-1924. Photo: Frieda Riess.
Wahnsinn
Grit Hegesa was born Caroline Margaretha Schmidt in Niederlahnstein, German Empire, in 1891.
Se attended a convent school and then took dance and acting lessons in Brighton in the U.K. She made her first appearance on stage in Germany. In 1911 Hegesa married businessman Johann Nikolaus Meyer, but they divorced in 1919.
Grit Hegesa then accepted engagements at theatres such as the Deutsches Theater in Cologne and the Palast-Theater in Berlin. She gave her own dance evenings at the Kleines Schauspielhaus theatre in the German capital, run by Max Reinhardt. From 1920 to 1922, she worked with Jaap Kool, who composed music for her and accompanied her on the piano during her performances
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 expressionist 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).
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 Worlds (Ewald André Dupont, 1922) with Hans Mierendorff.
In 1925, Grit Hegesa married the artist painter Emil van Hauth. The couple stayed together until his death.
Her final film was Fräulein Else/Miss Else (Paul Czinner, 1929), an adaptation of Arthur Schnitzler's 'Fräulein Else', starring Elisabeth Bergner.
Besides her activity as a film actress, she also acted regularly on stage and performed as a dancer. After she retired from the film business, she occasionally devoted herself to her actual profession, dance.
Grit Hegesa died in 1972 in Munich, Germany. She was 80.
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 452/1, 1919-1924. Photo: Alex Binder.
Sources: Wikipedia (German and English) and IMDb.
This post was last updated on 1 September 2024.
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