Actress. A child star, she is remembered for her numerous appearances in German silent films of the 1920s. Born Eleonore Nest, she was raised in Berlin and got her start in show business when her image on a Sunday School poster for her father’s church was spotted by a movie executive. Loni made her silver screen bow in the 1918 “The Story of Dida Ibsen” and over the next decade was seen in around 40 cinematic features, usually wearing a blonde wig as her parents would not allow her hair to be dyed. She gradually increased the importance of her roles, her credits including “Harakiri” (1919), 1920’s “Johannes Goth”, “The Haunted Castle” and “The Pearl of the Orient” (both 1921), 1922’s all-time horror classic, the Dracula based “Nosferatu”, 1923’s “The Little Napoleon”, the 1925 “The Blackguard”, and 1928’s “The Saint and Her Fool”. The coming of sound hampered her career and the rise of Hitler finished it, though she was seen in 1933’s French drama “The Sparrowhawk”. At her demise several of her performances were preserved on DVD and she was the last surviving cast member from “Nosferatu”. (bio by: Bob Hufford)