Tania Fedor

Tania Fédor (1905-1985) was a Monaco-born French film actress, who peaked in the early 1930s in such films as Le petit café (Ludwig Berger, 1931) with Maurice Chevalier and Fantômas (Pál Fejös, 1932) with Jean Galland in the title role and Thomy Bourdelle as Inspector Juve.


French postcard by Cinémagazine-Edition, Paris, no. 946. Photo: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.


French postcard by A.N., Paris, no. 570. Photo: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.


Belgian postcard by P.I.A. Belgaphot, Bruxelles, no. 46. Photo: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Tania Fédor in Si l’empereur savait ça/His Glorious Night (Jacques Feyder, 1930). Caption: The most beautiful films are performed by the stars of Metro Goldwyn Mayer.

Clutching hands and screams in the dark

Tania Fedor was born Tatania d'Ermter in 1905 in Monte-Carlo, Monaco. She came from a Russian aristocratic family and like other Russian royalty, her family later found a permanent home in France. Tania studied acting in Paris and in 1924 she was already on the stage of the Comédie Française, France's most famous theatre. She was a Pensionnaire of the Comédie-Française from 1925 to 1930. where she acted in plays by Alexandre Dumas, Sr., Molière and Jean Racine.

In 1926, she made her film debut in L'Inconnue des six jours/The unknown of six days (René Sti, 1926). Later she performed in other theatres like Odéon and Théâtre de France. In 1930, she left the Comédie Française to join Jacques Feyder's French team in Hollywood to shoot Si l'Empereur savait ça!/If the Emperor Only Knew That (Jacques Feyder, 1930). Tania Fédor was hooked. After making another film in Hollywood, she preferred to return to France to become primarily a film actress.

One of her first sound films was Le petit café/The Little Cafe (Ludwig Berger, 1931), a French-language American Pre-Code musical film starring Maurice Chevalier, Yvonne Vallée and Fédor. The film is a foreign-language version of the film Playboy of Paris (1930), which was based on the play 'The Little Cafe' by Tristan Bernard. Multiple-language versions were standard in the years following the introduction of sound film, before dubbing became widespread. It was shot at the Joinville Studios in Paris.

Fedor played Lady Beltham in the popular sound version of Fantômas (Pál Fejös, 1932). Hal Erickson at AllMovie: "Back to his old tricks, the hooded, black-clad Fantomas goes around robbing from the rich and giving to himself, though he's not quite as homicidally inclined here as he'd been in his earlier film appearances. Jean Galland stars as the elusive "hero," while Thomy Bourdelle plays the detective who dedicates his life to bringing Fantomas to justice. Director Fejos doesn't miss a trick, running through a gamut that includes clutching hands and screams in the dark."

Based on the fairy tale 'A Thousand and One Nights', she then made the film La mille et deuxième nuit (Alexandre Volkoff, 1933), in which she starred alongside Russian actor Ivan Mozzhukhin. Abel Gance directed her as Queen Anne of Austria in Jérôme Perreau héros des barricades/The Queen and the Cardinal (Abel Gance, 1935) with George Milton and Samson Fainsilber.


Vintage card.


French postcard by Edit. Chantal, Rueil, no. 59. Photo: C.P.L.F.


French postcard by Editions Continental, no. 135/A. Photo: Continental Films.

Orgies that were famous throughout the country

Tania Fedor had another success with the Alexandre Dumas père adaptation La tour de Nesle/The Tower of Nesle (Gaston Roudès, 1937) with Jean Weber. In the 13th century, the aristocrat Marguerite de Bourgogne organised orgies that were famous throughout the country. Secretly, the suitors were murdered the day after these festivities and thrown into the Seine. Fedor also appeared in the drama Carrefour/Crossroads (Kurt (later: Curtis) Bernhardt, 1938) starring Charles Vanel, Jules Berry and Suzy Prim. It inspired two English-language remakes, the British film Dead Man's Shoes (1940) and Hollywood's Crossroads (1942). In the early 1940s, she appeared opposite Raimu in the drama Les Inconnus dans la maison/The Strangers in the House (Henri Decoin, 1942), after the novel by the same name by Georges Simenon.

During the 1950s he played smaller parts in such films as Lucrèce Borgia/Lucretia Borgia (Christian-Jaque, 1953) starring Martine Carol and Pedro Armendáriz. The film tells the story of the Borgia family of Italy during the Renaissance. In the historical mosaic Si Versailles m'était conté/Affairs in Versailles (Sacha Guitry, 1953) she played Queen Marie Leszczyńska. Her husband Louis XV was played by Jean Marais.

In 1955, Fédor left for Canada and settled in Montréal, where she decided to work as a teacher. She opened her studio and at the same time taught at the Conservatoire du Québec in Montreal and at the National Theatre School. She continued to perform in the theatre and appeared in numerous television plays. Although she never acquired a proper Quebec accent, all her performances on stage and in front of the camera were great successes. She also occasionally reappeared in films such as the groundbreaking drama À tout prendre/All Things Considered (Claude Jutra, 1963).

The film was a semi-autobiographical portrait of Jutra's own life, focusing on his romantic relationship with actress and model Johanne Harrelle, and his struggle to accept his own homosexuality. Both Jutra and Harrelle played themselves in the film. Notably, the film version of Jutra commits suicide at the end of the film in virtually the same manner, drowning himself in the St. Lawrence River, in which Jutra himself would eventually commit suicide in 1986 after being diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer's. Considered a landmark film in the history of Quebec and Canadian cinema, the film won the Canadian Film Award for Best Feature Film at the 16th Canadian Film Awards.

Tania Fédor retired in 1971 and spent her last years in Chez Nous des Artistes, a retirement home for ageing artists. Tania Fedor passed away in 1985 in Montreal, Canada. She was 80.


Belgian postcard by P.I.A. Belgaphot, Bruxelles, no. 49. Photo: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Tania Fédor and André Luguet in Si l’empereur savait ça/If the Emperor Only Knew That (Jacques Feyder, 1930).


Belgian postcard by S.A. Cacao et Chocolat Kivou, Vilvorde. Photo: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.


Belgian postcard by P.I.A. Belgaphot, Bruxelles, no. 51. Photo: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Tania Fédor and André Luguet in Si l’empereur savait ça/If the Emperor Only Knew That (Jacques Feyder, 1930). Collection: Marlene Pilaete.

Sources: Hal Erickson (AllMovie), Pavel "argenson" Vlach (CSFD - Czech), Alexandre Carle (Les gens du Cinema - French), Wikipedia (French and English) and IMDb.

This post was last updated on 4 March 2024.