Actress. She was perhaps Hungary’s most famous theatre star of her era, renowned for her beauty, versatility, and mesmerizing presence. Her roles ranged from the Ancient Greek classics to contemporary dramas,  and she helped introduce modern acting techniques to the Hungarian stage.  Bajor was born in Budapest.  As a student at the Actors’ Academy she showed such promise that upon her graduation in 1914 she was hired by the National Theatre,  the best in the country.  By the early 1920s Bajor was the company’s undisputed prima donna and its repertory was tailored to her demands.  The National awarded her a lifetime non-exclusive contract in 1928.  Although she appeared in a handful of films,  including one of Hungary’s first talkies,  “The Laughing Lady” (1930),  she considered cinema an inferior medium and today there is little surviving evidence of her talents.  In later years declining health led Bajor into drug addiction,  and she died of an accidental morphine overdose at 57.  Her funeral was a state occasion.  On the first anniversary of her death in 1952,  the Gizi Bajor Actors Museum was established at her former villa in Budapest.  It remains one of the city’s most popular tourist attractions.    (bio by: Bobb Edwards)