- Born
- Died
- Birth nameHermengild Langer
- Gilda Langer was born in Oderfurt (now Privoz). Not much is known about her background, but around 1915 she met screenwriter Carl Mayer in Vienna. It seems he fell in love with her and took her to Berlin, where she was engaged at the Residenz-Theater in 1917.
In the same year she played in the movie "Das Rätsel von Bangalor", next to the young Conrad Veidt. In 1919 she was contracted by Decla film, where Fritz Lang was also under contract. She played in his movies "Halbblut" (1919) and "Der Herr der Liebe" (1919).
Decla bought the script of "Das Cabinet des Dr. Caligari", written by her friends Carl Mayer and Hans Janowitz, but the female parts in that movie went to Lil Dagover and Carola Toelle. Still Decla had big plans with her and her breakthrough seemed only a matter of time.
In the beginning of 1920 she became engaged with director Paul Czinner, but at the end of January she sadly died of a lung infection. However, not everybody believed it went just like that. Janowitz said that her own sudden engagement had put her under severe mental stress, adding to her unexpected demise and Herbert G. Luft claimed she overdosed on drugs. Certain is that Paul Czinner moved on to marry Elisabeth Bergner in later years.
On 4 Feb 1920 Gilda Langer was buried at the then fashionable cemetery at Stahnsdorf, Berlin. In 1995 her gravestone was rediscovered in an unkempt part of the very large cemetery by movie historian Olaf Brill. The headstone had come down but was still there. Carl Mayer was the one who had erected it there after her death and apart from her name, notes from the theme of lovers from Wagner's "Tristan and Isolde" were engraved upon it.
Thanks to Mr. Brill's careful notes the gravestone could be located again in 2004. After rubbing off a lot of mud it turned out to be still readable.- IMDb Mini Biography By: androom
- She is interred in the Südwestfriedhof, Stahnsdorf in Berlin.
- When the young Gilda Langer came to Berlin she dreamed of a great film career like many other girls in her age. In contrast to the others she managed jump into the film business and she made her film debut for the Star-Film Company in 1917 with "Das Rätsel von Bangalor" (1917/1918).
- The dismay of her early death and her popularity she had show to advantage in the obituaries. The Film-Kurier wrote on February 6, 1920: Gilda Langer died of influenza on Saturday, the 31st January, after a short illness. With her has passed a film artist of leading importance whose artistic rise wasn't finished and one had great expectations for her future in general, not least by the direction of "Decla". All this artistic work, these plans had been prematurely finished by the death. With the sympathy of her friends with her artistic and human personality the funeral took place at the cemetery in Stahnsdorf on Wednesday.
- The Lichtbild-Bühne wrote on Frebruary 7, 1920: Gilda Langer died of influenza after a short illness. She was one of few movie actresses who would had been able to become one of the leading stars of the film because of her peculiarity and skill. Just in these days they made preparations for two big Decla movies in which Gilda Langer should had impersonate the leading roles. Everybody who became acquainted with Gilda Langer as an artist or as a human being will take note of this incident with shock, and the industry as well as personal friend of Gilda Langer mourn equally the bereavement of a great artist as well as a valuable human being.
- During an engagement at the Residenz theater she met writer Carl Mayer and Jans Janowitz who were writing the script to "Das Kabinett des Dr. Caligari" (19). When the book became a movie it was planned that Gilda Langer should impersonate the leading role. But her sudden death at the age of 24 because of an influenza refused the great jump to stardom.
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