Actress. Dark, mysterious leading lady of silent films. Born Hermengild Langer in Oderfurt, Moravia (now in the Czech Republic), she made her acting debut at Berlin’s Residenz-Theatre in 1917 and was soon playing leads for the Star and Decla movie studios.  Her brief affair with author Carl Mayer inspired him to write the original scenario for “The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari” (1919),  which has been hailed as the first masterpiece of German Cinema.  Mayer wanted Langer for the female lead,  even though she had left him by then,  but the part was given to Lil Dagover.  Instead she co-starred in director Fritz Lang’s earliest films,  “The Half-Caste” (1919),  “Master of Love” (1919),  and the second part of his very successful diptych “The Spiders” (1920).  Her other credits include “The Mystery of Bangalor” (1918),  “Struggling Souls” (1918),  and “The Woman with the Orchids” (1919).  Langer’s portrayal of romantic heroines with a not-so-innocent edge resonated with the postwar German public,  and she was well on her way to becoming a top screen idol when she died suddenly at 23.  Her death has been variously attributed to influenza,  a nervous breakdown,  and a drug overdose.  Just weeks earlier she had been engaged to marry director Paul Czinner.  Former boyfriend Mayer arranged to have the Love Theme from Wagner’s opera “Tristan and Isolde” inscribed on her tombstone.  Most of her films are now considered lost.  In 1995,  a local film historian discovered Langer’s long-unknown gravesite in a neglected part of Stahnsdorf’s Sudwestfriedhof. (bio by: Bobb Edwards)