Actress. She had one of the longest careers of any German actress. As popular in the 1910s as Mary Pickford was in the U.S. Her best known film outside Germany is “Backstairs” (1921). Her first big hit, written by her sister, was “Das Liebesglucke der Blinden” (The Happy Love of a Blind Girl). Porten was largely blacklisted in the Nazi period because she refused to divorce her Jewish husband. In 1950’s she got no longer any offers for movies. Porten became totally poor and was expelled from the audience’s heart when she died in Berlin. (bio by: MC)