Lil Dagover
Known for: Acting
A prominent German film actress born on 30 September 1887 at Madiven, Java, the daughter of a forest ranger in the service of the Dutch authorities. Sent at the age of ten to Baden-Baden to study, she later entered the cinema thanks to her marriage in 1917 to the actor Fritz Dagover who was 25 years her senior. They divorced in 1919 but not before he had introduced her to director Robert Wiene and other notables of German cinema. She made her screen debut in Fritz Lang's Harakiri (1919). Immediately after she appeared in Wiene's classic expressionist film, "The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari" (aka The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920)). Apart from three trips -- one to Sweden in 1927, another to France in 1928-9 and one to Hollywood in 1931 -- most of Lil Dagover's career and fate was linked to that of the German cinema, where her role was usually that of the frail, menaced heroine. She continued to star in a great number of films during the Nazi era. Among her best performances were her roles in Congress Dances (1931), in Gerhard Lamprecht's The Higher Command (1935) and in Veit Harlan's The Kreutzer Sonata (1937). She also acted in the Deutsches Theatre Berlin, the Salzburg Festival, at forces shows and at war theaters. At one time, she was reported to have been a close friend of Adolf Hitler. In 1944, she received the War Merits Cross. Dagover continued her career in post-war Germany, playing many supporting parts until the late 1970s.
Filmography
Series
Scene of the Crime
Mutter Koenen
1970
Series
Bambi
Self
1948
German Film Award
Self
1951
Film
The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari
Jane
1920
Gut gefragt ist halb gewonnen
Self
1964
Film
The Bird Seller
Die Kurfürstin
1935
Film
Monte Cristo
Mercédès / Comtesse de Morcerf
1929
Film
Destiny
Young Woman / Zobeide / Mona Fiametta / Tiao Tsien
1921
Toteninsel
1921
Film
Dr. Mabuse, the Gambler
(uncredited)
1922
Film
The Fugitive from Chicago
Eveline
1934
Ich weiß, wofür ich lebe
Alice Lechaudier
1955
The White Devil
Nelidowa
1930
Trees die upright
Großmutter
1958
Blick zurück im Film
Self
1963
Vienna 1910
Maria Anschütz
1943
Series
Otto – The Series
Verschiedene
1995
Film
Boycott
Frau von Generaldirektor Haller
1930
Film
Maja zwischen zwei Ehen
Maja
1938
Detours to Happiness
Hanna Bracht
1939
Film
End of the Game
Gastmann's Mother
1975
Film
The Little Residence
Herzogin von Lauffenburg
1942
Film
Harakiri
O-Take-San
1919
Der Volontär
1918
Film
The Case of Colonel Redl
Vera Nikolayevna
1931
Film
Das Geheimnis von Bombay
Gabriela Farnese/Concha
1921
Die Teufelsbraut
1977
Kolibri
Anna Maria Hansen
1971
Film
Fridericus
Marquise de Pompadour
1937
Film
La Grande Passion
Sonia de Blich
1928
Reisender ohne Gepäck
Herzogin
1963
Film
The Spiders: Part 1 - The Golden Sea
Sun Priestess Naela
1919
Film
Tales from the Vienna Woods
Helene
1979
Die Räuber
1940
Film
Phantom
Marie Starke
1922
Die Rache ist mein
1919
Seniorenclub
Self
1968
Der Veilchenfresser
Melitta von Arthof
1926
Film
The Strange Countess
Gräfin / Lady Leonora Moron
1961
Film
Das Blut der Ahnen
1920
Siedlung Arkadien
Frau Assmann
1967
Film
Madame Bluebeard
Frau Erika Dankwarth
1931
Es kommt ein Tag
Madame Mombour
1950
Der Mann von draußen
Mrs.Gillis
1961
Film
100 Years of the UFA
Self - Actress (archive footage)
2017
Film
Only a Dancing Girl
Marie Berner
1926
Film
Tartuffe
Frau Elmire / Elmire, Orgon's wife
1926
Film
The Standard
Erzherzogin
1977
Film
Va Banque
Harriet Williams
1930
Der Demütige und die Tänzerin
Toni
1925
Film
Hungarian Rhapsody
Camilla
1928
Film
The Woman from Monte Carlo
Lottie Corlaix
1932
Film
Die Prinzessin Suwarin
Tina Bermonte
1923
Film
Congress Dances
Komtesse
1931
Film
Das Geheimnis vom Bergsee
Lamberta
1952
Film
The Girl Irene
Jennifer Lawrence
1936
Bettler GmbH
1919
Film
The Pedestrian
Frau Eschenlohr
1973
Film
The Great Passion
Herself
1930
Film
Der Anwalt des Herzens
June Orchard
1927
Film
Rosen im Herbst
Mutter Briest
1955
Film
Clown Charly
1918
Film
Elisabeth of Austria
Elisabeth von Österreich
1931
Film
Buddenbrooks - 1. Teil
Elisabeth Buddenbrook
1959
Film
Old Song
Baronin Eggedy
1930
Film
Ich heirate meine Frau
Lisa Behmer
1934
Film
The Stars Shine
Gast
1938
Paradies der alten Damen
Leonore Feller
1971
Film
Die Kwannon von Okadera
Kwannon von Okadera
1920
Film
Luise Millerin
1922
Film
Spiritismus
1919
Film
The Secret Courier
Mme. Thérèse de Renal
1928
Film
Der Tänzer
Andreas Mother
1919
Film
Friedrich Schiller – The Triumph of a Genius
Gräfin Franziska von Hohenheim
1940
Two Brothers
Esther
1926
Film
Der große Zauberer - Max Reinhardt
Self
1973
Film
Königliche Hoheit
Gräfin Löwenjoul
1953
Film
The Higher Command
Madame Martin
1935
Film
The Chronicles of the Gray House
Bärbe
1925
Film
Bismarck
Eugénie
1940
Film
Lady Windermeres Fächer
Mrs. Erlynne
1935
Film
Meine 16 Söhne
Frau Senator Giselius
1956
Film
Kronprinz Rudolfs letzte Liebe
Kaiserin Elisabeth
1956
Film
The Maelstrom of Paris
1928
Film
Hubertus Castle
Baronin Gundi Kleesberg
1954
Glückspilze
1971
Film
Rätsel um Beate
Beate Kaiserling
1938
Die Frau im Himmel
Tatjana
1920
Film
The Final Chord
Charlotte Garvenberg, seine Frau
1936
Film
His English Wife
Cathleen Paget
1927
Film
Love Is Blind
1926
Film
Hotel Royal
Maharani von Dungapur
1969
Unwiederbringlich
Prinzessin Maria Eleonore
1968
Film
Married by the Stork
Thea Roland
1932
Film
Der Fischer vom Heiligensee
Baronin Hermine von Velden
1955
Lösegeld für Mylady
Lady Cherfield / Mrs. Flowers
1967
Film
Unter Palmen am blauen Meer
Contessa Celestina Morini
1957
Film
Streit um den Knaben Jo
Leonine Brackwieser
1939
Film
Die Barrings
Thilde von Barring
1955
August der Starke
Gräfin Aurore Königsmark
1936
Film
Musik in Salzburg
Ursula Sanden
1944
Triad
Cornelia Contarini
1938
Film
Chased by the Devil
Frau Dakar
1950
The Kreutzer Sonata
Jelaina Posdnyschew
1937
Film
Die Jagd nach dem Tode - 1. Teil
Malatti
1920
Film
Red Roses, Red Lips, Red Wine
Gräfin Waldenberg
1953
Film
Barbarina, the King's Dancer
Barberina Campanini
1932
Film
Buddenbrooks - 2. Teil
Elisabeth Buddenbrook
1959
Film
Professor Sound und die Pille
Seine Frau
1971
Film
Phantome des Lebens
1919
Film
There is a woman who will never forget you
Tilly Ferrantes
1930
Film
Die Ehe
1929
Film
The Second Kiss
Empress Marie Theresa
1930
Film
The Mayor of Zalamea
Isabel
1920
Memento Mori
Charmian Colston
1975
Film
The Death in the Greenstreet
1921
Film
Comedy of the Heart
Gerda Werska
1924
Film
A Woman Who Knows What She Wants
Manon Cavallini
1934
Film
Die Jagd nach dem Tode - 2. Teil: Die verbotene Stadt
Malatti
1920
Tiefland
Martha
1923
Die Söhne des Herrn Gaspary
Margot von Korff
1948
Film
Orientexpress
Beate von Morton
1927
Film
Man spielt nicht mit der Liebe
Florentine Alvensleben
1949
Film
His Wife, the Unknown
Eva
1923
Film
The Ring of the Empress
Catherine the Great
1930
Film
Johannisnacht
Lisa Lers
1933
Es flüstert die Nacht
1929
Die Jagd nach dem Tode - 3. Teil: Der Mann im Dunkel
Malatti
1921