Ilka Grüning


Ilka Grüning was born in Vienna in the old Austrian-Hungarian Empire. She was one of many Jewish actors and actresses that were forced to flee Europe when the Nazis came to power in 1933. A respected and famous actress in Germany, she was forced to play bit parts in Hollywood.

Career

German career

At age 17, Ilka Grüning made her stage debut in Miss Julie and quickly became a famous stage actress. Grüning's first film, at age 43, was a German silent movie called Todesurteil in 1919. Next, she starred with Conrad Veidt in Peer Gynt. Later that year, she and Veidt appeared in Die sich verkaufen.

She continued making silent movies in Germany into the 1920s. In 1920, she appeared in the film Die Bestie im Menschen based on the novel La Bête humaine by Émile Zola. This were two of 11 films she appeared in that year. Grüning appeared in Veidt's two Christian Wahnschaffe movies: Weltbrand in 1920 and Die Flucht aus dem goldenen Kerker in 1921. In 1922, she had a small part as a landlady in Lady Hamilton starring Veidt as Lord Horatio Nelson. This was one of four movies that she and Hans Twardowski appeared in together; F.W. Murnau's drama Phantom, Es leuchtet meine Liebe and The False Dimitri.
In 1923, she portrayed Frau Gött in Max Mack's The Beautiful Girl. Later that year, she portrayed the wife of Johann Friedrich Schiller in Friedrich Schiller - The Young Poet. Next she played Rosalindes' mother in Max Mack's Die Fledermaus. In 1924, she appeared in F.W. Murnau's drama The Grand Duke's Finances;.

In 1925, Grüning appeared in the silent Joyless Street, directed by the legendary Georg Wilhelm Pabst, which featured a 20-year-old Greta Garbo. The following year, Grüning appeared in her third Pabst' movie Secrets of a Soul. In 1927, Grüning appeared in Hello Caesar! which S.Z. Sakall helped write. Later that year, she and Sakall appeared together in Family Gathering in the House of Prellstein.

In 1929, Grüning appeared in her first 'talkie', Melody of the Heart. It would be three years before she appeared in another film. In 1932, she received a part in Max Neufeld's , which would be her last movie in Germany.

American career

Grüning, had played Strindberg and Ibsen for German director Max Reinhardt and had run the second most important drama school in Berlin, left 1938 Germany after Hitler and the Nazis came to power. After arriving in America in february 1939, she received help from the European Film Fund in resettling to America. It would be nine years before she appeared in another movie.
Sometime in the 1930s, she left Germany for Paris, France, and, in 1939, sailed from LeHavre on the S/S Paris, arriving at the Port of New York on February 8, 1939. It was her first time in America. With the outbreak of World War II and the need for older German women for war movies, Grüning started receiving parts. Her first Hollywood movie was in 1941 as Erwin Kalser's husband in Warner Bros.' war drama Underground starring Philip Dorn and Martin Kosleck and Ludwig Stössel.

Grüning was busy in 1942. First, Grüning and Stössel appeared in the Oscar-nominated Kings Row starring Ronald Reagan, Ann Sheridan and Claude Rains. She then played Christian Rub's wife in the spy thriller Dangerously They Live starring Nancy Coleman and Raymond Massey. This was followed by playing the wife of Karl Pfeiffer, a German millionaire living in America in Friendly Enemies. Grüning and Stössel appeared together again in a Sonja Henie film Iceland . Next, playing a Gestapo impostor, she appeared in Desperate Journey with Ronald Reagan and Errol Flynn.

Also in 1942, at the age of 66, Grüning received the role of Mrs. Leuchtag, who along with her husband are leaving Europe for America in Casablanca. She has only one scene in the movie when she and her husband are having a drink in Rick's Cafe with their good friend Carl the waiter and struggling a bit with their English. Her husband asks her for the time, "Liebchen – sweetnessheart, what watch?" She answers, "Ten watch" and he replies, "Such much?" Carl assures them they will get along beautifully in America.
In 1943, Grüning received a bit part as George Tobias's mother in This Is the Army. Next she appeared in The Strange Death of Adolf Hitler with Stössel and Twardowski. Grüning received bit parts in Madame Curie starring Greer Garson and Walter Pidgeon. Grünig appeared in only one movie in 1944 as Mrs. Vronsky in the drama An American Romance starring Brian Donlevy, Ann Richards, and John Qualen. Grüning would not get another part until 1946 when she received a bit part in the mystery Murder in the Music Hall. She received a couple of other small parts that year; the first as Herman Bing's wife in Rendezvous 24.

Next Grüning and Stössel got to play husband and wife again. Instead of being the Leuchtags, they were now the Muellers in Temptation starring Merle Oberon, George Brent and Paul Lukas. The following year, she played Paul E. Burns's wife in the film-noir Desperate which featured Raymond Burr. Playing Mattie, she appeared next in Repeat Performance. In 1948 appeared in Letter from an Unknown Woman starring Joan Fontaine. Later she played a German woman in Billy Wilder's comedy romance A Foreign Affair starring Marlene Dietrich. She also had a small part in the M-G-M musical Words and Music.

The following year, she played a grandmother in the film-noir Caught starring James Mason and Barbara Bel Geddes. Later that year, Grüning and Stössel appeared in their last film together when they received roles in the drama The Great Sinner starring Gregory Peck and Ava Gardner. She played another old woman in Mr. Soft Touch with Glenn Ford.
In 1950, she received a good part as Edgar Bergen's wife in the adventure film Captain China starring John Payne and Gail Russell. She had another good role in the film-noir Convicted starring Glenn Ford and Broderick Crawford. The following year, she appeared as Brett King's mother in Payment on Demand with Bette Davis. Her last Hollywood movie was as Mama Ludwig, Griff Barnett's wife, in the western Passage West'' starring John Payne.

Short Return to Germany

Like many German and Austrian actors, Grüning went back to Berlin in the 1950s, but found that Germany was not the same country she had left. Many former Nazis returned and it became difficult for Grüning to integrate back into the film industry. She did, at age 76, appear in a small Swiss movie in 1952 called , which was her last movie. After this Grüning returned to America.

Death

Grüning died on November 11, 1964, in Los Angeles, at the age of 88. She was cremated and her ashes rest at Woodlawn Memorial Cemetery, Santa Monica, California.

Selected filmography