Salka Viertel

Salka Viertel (15 June 1889 – 20 October 1978) was an actress and screenwriter. The pianist and composer Eduard Steuermann was her brother. Salka was born as Salomea Steuermann in Sambor, Austro-Hungarian Empire.

Contents [show]

[edit]Career

She co-wrote the scripts for many movies, particularly those starring her close friend Greta Garbo (e.g.: Queen Christina), with whom she also co-starred in MGM's German version of Anna Christie in 1931.[1]

[edit]Personal life

Salka Viertel was married to Berthold Viertel and they had three sons, one of whom, Peter Viertel, an accomplished writer and screenwriter, was married to actress Deborah Kerr until his death in 2007. The Viertels, members of the German intelligentsia, moved to the United States in 1928 for a planned four year stay.[1]

In 1932, due to Hitler's rise, they decided to stay in Santa Monica, California, where Peter grew up with his brothers, Hans and Thomas. The home in Santa Monica Canyon was the site of salons and meetings of the Hollywood intelligentsia and the émigré community of European intellectuals, particularly at the Sunday night tea parties.[1] Salka Viertel was also active aiding those still trapped in Europe.[2] She wrote a memoir The Kindness of Strangers (1969), a title later used by Donald Spoto for his 1985 biography of Tennessee Williams.[3][4]

[edit]Death

Salka Viertel died in Klosters, Switzerland, on 20 October 1978, aged 89.

[edit]Filmography

Anna Christie (German version) (1931) (actress)

Queen Christina (1933)

The Painted Veil (1934)

Anna Karenina (1935)

Conquest (1937)

Two-Faced Woman (1941)

Deep Valley (1947)

L'Amante di Paride (1954)

I Battellieri del Volga (1958)

[edit]Bibliography

Prager, Katharina. (2007) "Ich bin nicht gone Hollywood!" Salka Viertel – Ein Leben in Theater und Film, ISBN 9783700315926, Wien: Braumüller Verlag.

Viertel, Salka. (1969) The Kindness of Strangers, Montreal: Holt, Rinehart and Winston of Canada.