- Laurence Olivier considered Wessely one of the greatest actresses of the twentieth century.
- Bette Davis was known to have studied Wessely's film performances.
- Theatre actress at the famous Burgtheater in Vienna from 1953 to 1987. She retired from acting shortly after her husband's death.
- As she appeared on antisemitic propaganda movies, she was criticized later by Austrian intellectuals. Nobel Prize winner Elfriede Jelinek considered Heimkehr (1941) the worst Nazi propaganda movie of all and called Wessely "the prototype of an actress in the Third Reich".
- Buried in the Grinzing cemetery in Vienna.
- Her father was a butcher, her mother a dancer at the Vienna State Opera.
- She was the most highly paid film star of the Nazi era.
- Wessely trained for acting at the Reinhardt Seminar and made her theatrical debut in 1924 with the Vienna Deutsches Volkstheater in a play by Sudermann. Specialising in sophisticated comedy, she became a prominent actress of the stage, appearing in Prague (1926), Salzburg, Berlin and the Vienna Burgtheater. She was permanently contracted from 1929 to 1945 by the Theater in der Josefstadt. From the 1930's, she developed into a more serious actress, handling roles like Gretchen in "Faust" (1935) and Joan of Arc in "Die heilige Johanna" (1936), a part which she was associated with for the rest of her career. Wessely was noted for her unaffected, natural manner. She became a screen actress at the height of her theatrical fame.
- Ingrid Bergman considered Wessely as a role model for her own performances.
- Briefly operated her own production company during the 1950's.
- In spite of her young age she soon gained a reputation to be an inspired talent and the critics were always taken with her work.
- The actress Paula Wessely had already a very successful theater career behind her when she conquered the world of the film.
- In her last years she lived a very secluded life in her hometown Vienna and suffered from major depression, caused by the death of her beloved husband.
- She was respectful mentioned "the Wessely" (Die Wessely).
- On 20 January 2000 she celebrated her 93rd birthday quietly, with only her three daughters and grandchildren at her home in Vienna-Grinzing. The following April she suffered an acute attack of bronchitis and was admitted to a hospital in Vienna. She died on 11 May 2000 at the venerable age of 93, "peacefully in her sleep", as the Burgtheater management announced the following day. She was buried two weeks later at the side of her husband in an Ehrengrab of the Grinzing cemetery.
- In 1957 she was again criticized for her appearance in the homophobic film Anders als du und ich by Veit Harlan.
- She was born in Vienna, the daughter of butcher Carl Wessely, younger brother of the late Burgtheater actress Josephine Wessely (1860-1887), whom many believed or still believe to be her sister.
- She only appeared in few movies from the 60's, normally in TV productions. Her main attention was directed again to the theater where she celebrated many triumphs at the Viennese Burgtheater.
- In 1926 she became a member of the New German Theatre ensemble in Prague, where she and her future husband Attila Hörbiger (1896-1987) performed in Les Nouveaux Messieurs by Flers and Croisset.
- She was imposed with a ban on pursuing her career for a short time after the war because of her participation in the propaganda movie "Heimkehr" (1941), but in 1948 she was able to continue her career and was convincing in the movie "Der Engel mit der Posaune" (1948). She took part in many movies in the next years and was also active as a producer.
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