Victims of the Spanish Flu

As 2020 is nearing its end, and the Covid-19 pandemic reminds many of the notorious Spanish Flu which wrecked the world in 1918-1920, we thought it is apt to have a post dedicated to victims of this disaster of a century ago. While the famous silent actresses Lilian Gish and Mary Pickford survived, many less-known European and American actors and directors succumbed. Here is a selection of postcards of the victims from our collections. We wish 2021 will bring us hope, progress, and less dark times.

Gilda Langer (1896-1920)

German postcard by Verlag Herm. Leiser, Berlin-Wilm., no. 3046. Collection: Marlene Pilaete.

Gilda Langer (1896-1920) was a German stage and film actress whose career began in the mid-1910s. She appeared both on stage and in silent films. She was directed by such legendary directors as Fritz Lang and Robert Wiene, but all films featuring Langer as an actress are now considered lost. In January 1920, Langer became engaged to Hungarian film director Paul Czinner. Langer fell ill with a lung infection after contracting the Spanish flu shortly after this engagement and died on 31 January 1920, aged 23.

Lia Borré (ca. 1890-1920)

German postcard by Photochemie, no K. 1397. Photo: Willinger, Berlin.


German postcard by Rotophot in the Film-Sterne series, no. 539/3. Photo: Amboß-Film Dworsky & Co. Lia Borré and Theodor Loos in Die Buße des Richard Solm (Arthur Wellin, 1918).

Lia Borré was a German silent film actress who was very active during the First World War but succumbed to the Spanish Flu in 1920.

Betty Gray (c. 1895-1919)

American postcard by Kraus Mfg. Company, New York, 1913. Photo: Pathé. Collection: Marlene Pilaete.

Betty Gray was an American silent film actress of Danish-Swedish descent, who peaked in the 1910s at American Pathé, Biograph, and Vitagraph. In 1919, she became a victim of the Spanish Flu, only 23 years old.

William Courtleigh Jr. (1892–1918)

British postcard. Photo: Pathé Frères Cinema Ltd.

American silent film actor William Courtleigh Jr. appeared in at least 14 films over his brief career. He was probably best remembered for playing Neal Hardin in the - now lost - adventure serial Neal of the Navy (1915) with Lillian Lorraine, distributed by Pathé Exchange. In 1918 his career was cut short after he fell victim to the Spanish Flu pandemic.

Mogens Enger (1894-1919)

German postcard by Photochemie, Berlin, no K. 1737.


German postcard by NPG, no. 429. Photo: Alex Binder.

Mogens Enger was a Danish actor and director in German silent cinema. Between 1915 and 1918 Enger was active in the German silent cinema. As crime films were popular in Germany during the First World War, Enger would often if not always play detectives and crime police commissioners. During the shooting of Kinder der Liebe I./Children of love I. (Siegfried Dessauer, Mogens Enger, 1919), Mogens Enger died on 9 October 1918, at the age of only 24. He was a victim of the third wave of the pandemic of the Spanish Flu. Siegfried Dessauer had to finish the film.

Einar Zangenberg (1882-1918)

German postcard by Photochemie, no. K. 1731.


German postcard by Photochemie, no. K.1729. Zangenberg wears the same outfit as on this card. This card refers to the Norwegian play 'Dronning Margaretha' (1834) by Adam Oehlenschläger.

Einar Zangenberg was a Danish actor, film director, film producer, and a pioneer of Central European film. He died of the Spanish flu pandemic.

Hazel Neason (1884-1920)

Vintage postcard. Photo: Kalem.

Hazel Neason was an American actress and screenwriter. From 1909 to 1916 she acted in 58 films for such pioneering studios as Vitagraph, IMP, and Kalem. In 1913, Hazel Neason married Albert E. Smith, one of the founders of Vitagraph, one of the most important production companies born at the dawn of cinema. A pregnant Neason passed away in 1920, a victim of the Spanish flu.

Louise Vale (1881-1918)

American postcard by Kraus Mfg. Co, New York, 1913. Photo: Pilot Players.

American silent-film actress Louise Vale had a relatively short career - only six years. She made her film debut in 1912 at the Rex Film Co. with The Old Organist (1912). This was followed by a handful of more short films at Rex, which were distributed by Universal. In 1913 Vale moved to the Pilot Films in Westchester, New York, where she acted under the direction of Travers Vale, whom she also married. End of 1913 the Vale couple moved to Reliance and early 1914 to Biograph, where George Morgan was Louise Vale's regular film-partner. After over 50 short films at Biograph, Louise Vale's career slowed down in 1916 and she quit Biograph, but she had now her first roles in features. She had a lead in The Sex Lure (Ivan Abramson, 1916). Louise Vale ended her career with Vengeance (Travers Vale, 1918) On 28 October, 1918, during the Spanish Flu pandemic, Vale died from pneumonia after volunteering as a waitress at the YMCA in Madison, Wisconsin, because of a shortage of help.

Harold Lockwood (1887-1918)

American postcard by White, Brooklyn, N.Y. Photo: Metro. Collection: Marlene Pilaete.

Harold Lockwood (1887-1918) was an American silent film actor, director, and producer. He was one of the most popular matinee idols of the early film period during the 1910s and formed with May Allison one of the earliest screen romantic teams. He worked for such companies as Nestor, Selig, Flying A, Famous Players, and Metro. At the age of 31, Lockwood, unfortunately, was a victim of the worldwide flu epidemic of 1918.

Gaby Deslys (1881-1920)

British postcard by E.A.S. (E.A. Schwerdtfeger & Co.), Paris, no. 0291-3. Photo: Talbot. Hat by Lewis. In 1913-1914, Schwerdtfeger did a whole series of coloured postcards of photo portraits of Gaby Deslys by Talbot. These were hand-coloured matte bromide postcard prints. The National Portrait Gallery in London shows them on their site. This card is one of them.


French postcard by S.I.P. (Société Industrielle de Photographie), no. 1537. Photo: Stebbing, Paris.

French dancer and actress Gaby Deslys (aka Gaby Delys) was an internationally celebrated - and notorious - star of the early 20th Century. She was famous for her extravagant clothes, jewels, and millinery. She had many admirers, most notably King Manuel II of Portugal, and during World War I, she reportedly worked as a spy for the French government. Before her tragic early death in 1920, she also made a series of silent films. Deslys contracted a severe throat infection caused by influenza in 1919. She was operated on multiple times in an effort to eradicate the infection, on two occasions without the use of an anaesthetic, but she died in Paris in February 1920 at the age of 38.

Vera Kholodnaya (1893-1919)

Russian postcard, no. 77. Collection: Didier Hanson.


Russian postcard. Collection: Didier Hanson.


Russian postcard. Collection: Didier Hanson. Vera Kholodnaya on her deathbed.

Vera Kholodnaya was the first star of Russian silent cinema. Only 26, the ‘Queen of Screen’ died of the Spanish flu during the pandemic of 1919. Her husband, Vladimir Kholodny, died 2 months after her. Her mother, Yekaterina Sleptsova, also died shortly after her. Although Vera worked only three years for the cinema, she must have made between fifty and a hundred short films. In 1924, the Soviet authorities ordered to destroy Kholodnaya's films, and only five of her films still exist.

See also this list at IMDb for people associated with the arts (film, theater, literature, etc.) who died during the 1918-1920 Influenza pandemic.