Nora Gregor (3 February 1901 – 20 January 1949) was an Austrian stage and film actress.
Biography She was born Eleonora Hermina Gregor in Görz, a town which then belonged to Austria-Hungary, but is now part of Italy, to Austrian-Jewish parents.Alexander Waugh, "The House of Wittgenstein", Random House, 2009, page 201
Her first husband was Mitja Nikisch, a pianist and son of celebrated orchestral conductor Arthur Nikisch. They divorced circa 1934.
In the mid-1930s, Gregor became the mistress of the married vice chancellor of Austria, the Austro-fascist, nationalist politician Prince Ernst Rüdiger von Starhemberg, with whom she had a son, Heinrich von Starhemberg (1934–1997).Born Heinrich Ruediger Gregor in Switzerland and legally named his father's heir in 1937 as Prince Heinrich von Starhemberg, the couple's only child was an actor, novelist, and playwright, professionally known as Heinrich Gregor, Henry Gregor, and Heinrich von Starhemberg. On 2 December 1937, five days after the prince's marriage to his first wife (the former Countess Marie-Elisabeth von Salm-Reifferscheidt-Raitz) was annulled, he and Gregor wed in Vienna.
In 1938, the Starhembergs emigrated to France through Switzerland, and her husband joined the French Army; cut off from their money and 80 family estates, they were supported for a period by Starhemberg's close friend Friedrich Mandl, the Austrian armaments magnate. In 1942, the Starhembergs moved to Argentina where they lived under humble circumstances. She was depressed by her exile to South America, and many sources claim her early death in Viña del Mar, Chile was a suicide. However, her biographer Hans Kitzmüller calls a suicide unlikely and notes that her death was probably from natural causes.
Career Gregor entered films in the early 1920s. She worked briefly in Hollywood during the early sound era, appearing in the foreign-language versions of films such as The Trial of Mary Dugan (1929) and His Glorious Night (1929). She was considered to be one of Austria's more popular film stars during this time, and she appeared as a stage actress at the famous Burgtheater.
During her French exile, Gregor played her most famous screen role as Christine de la Chesnaye in Jean Renoir's 1939 film La Règle du Jeu. Her last appearance was in the 1945 Chilean film La Fruta mordida.
See also List of unsolved deaths
Filmography Year Title Role Notes1920 Gefesselt 1920 Wie Satan starb 1921 Das grinsende Gesicht Herzogin Josiane 1921 Die Schauspielerin des Kaisers 1922 The Venus Yvonne 1922 Meriota the Dancer Lukrezia Borgia 1922 The Daughter of the Brigadier 1922 The Separating Bridge 1922 Der Mann, der das Lachen verlernte 1923 Irrlichter der Tiefe 1923 The Little Sin 1924 Modern Vices 1924 Mikaël Fürstin Lucia Zamikoff 1925 The Man Who Sold Himself Daisy Bracca 1925 The Girl with a Patron Revuestar Orina Norowna 1926 The Fiddler of Florence Renées Stiefmutter 1927 Eheskandal im Hause Fromont jun. und Risler sen. Claire 1930 Olympia Olympia 1931 The Murder Trial of Mary Dugan Mary Dugan 1931 That's All That Matters Renée Roettlinck 1931 Wir schalten um auf Hollywood Herself1932 But the Flesh Is Weak Mrs. Rosine Brown 1933 What Women Dream Rina Korff 1933 Adventures on the Lido Evelyn Norman 1939 La règle du jeu Christine de la Chesnaye 1945 La Fruta mordida La mère final film role
Names and Styles 1901 –ca. 1920: Fräulein Eleanora Gregor ca. 1925–ca.1934: Frau Mitja Nikisch (privately), Fräulein Nora Gregor (professionally) ca. 1934–1937: Fräulein Nora Gregor (professionally) 1937–1949: Her Most Serene Highness Princess von Starhemberg (privately; see Austrian nobility and Adelsaufhebungsgesetz), Fräulein Nora Gregor (professionally)
References
External links
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