Lilli Palmer

Early life

Palmer, who took her surname from an English actress she admired, was one of three daughters born to Dr. Alfred Peiser, a German Jewish surgeon, and Rose Lissman, an Austrian Jewish stage actress in Posen, Prussia, Germany (now Poznań, Poland). When Lilli was four her family moved to Berlin-Charlottenburg. She was a junior table tennis champion as a young girl. She studied drama in Berlin before fleeing to Paris in 1933 following the Nazi takeover.

Career

While performing in cabarets, she attracted the attention of British talent scouts and was offered a contract by the Gaumont Film Company. She made her screen debut in Crime Unlimited (1935) and appeared in numerous British films for the next decade. She married actor Rex Harrison 25 January 1943, and followed him to Hollywood in 1945.

She signed with Warner Brothers and appeared in several films, notably Cloak and Dagger (1946) and Body and Soul (1947). She also periodically appeared in stage plays as well as hosting her own television series in 1951. Harrison and Palmer appeared together in the hit Broadway play Bell, Book and Candle in the early 1950s and later starred in the film version of The Four Poster (1952), which was based on the award-winning Broadway play of the same name, written by Jan de Hartog. She won the Volpi Cup for Best Actress in 1953 for The Four Poster. Harrison and Palmer divorced in 1956; they had one son, Carey Harrison, born in 1944.

Palmer returned to Germany in 1954 where she played roles in many films and television productions. She also continued to play both leading and supporting parts in the U.S. and abroad. In 1957, she won the Deutscher Filmpreis for Best Actress for her portrayal of Anna Anderson in The Story of Anastasia, called Is Anna Anderson Anastasia? in the UK. In 1958, she played the role of a teacher opposite Romy Schneider in Mädchen in Uniform (Girls in Uniform), the remake of the 1931 film of the same title.

Ms. Palmer starred with Fred Astaire and Debbie Reynolds in The Pleasure of His Company in 1961. She starred opposite William Holden in The Counterfeit Traitor (1962), an espionage thriller based on fact, and opposite Robert Taylor in another true Second World War story, Disney's Miracle of the White Stallions (1963). On the small screen, in 1974 she starred as Manouche Roget in the six-part television drama series The Zoo Gang, about a group of former underground freedom fighters from the Second World War, with Brian Keith, Sir John Mills and Barry Morse.

Palmer published a memoir, Change Lobsters and Dance, in 1975. Reminiscences by Vivian Matalon and Noël Coward (Matalon directed Palmer in the premiere production of Coward's play Suite in Three Keys in 1966; see A Song at Twilight) suggest that Palmer was not always the patient and reasonable person she represented herself as being in this autobiography. She wrote a full-length work of fiction presented as a novel rather than a memoir, The Red Raven in 1978.

Personal life

Lilli Palmer (with husband Rex Harrison), 1950.

Palmer was married to Argentine actor Carlos Thompson from 1957 until her death in Los Angeles from abdominal cancer in 1986 at the age of 71.

Palmer is interred at Forest Lawn Memorial Park, Glendale, California in the plot of Commemoration, Map 1, Lot 4066, Space 2. The ashes of her first husband, Rex Harrison, were scattered on her grave.

Accolades

• 1953: Volpi Cup for Best Actress for The Four Poster
• 1956: Deutscher Filmpreis (Silver) for Best Actress in Teufel in Seide
• 1957: Deutscher Filmpreis (Silver) for Best Actress in Anastasia, die letzte Zarentochter
• 1959: Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy nomination for But Not for Me
• 1972: Goldene Kamera for Eine Frau bleibt eine Frau (ZDF TV)
• Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 7013 Hollywood Blvd.
• 1974: Great Cross of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany (Großes Verdienstkreuz der Bundesrepublik Deutschland)
• 1978: Deutscher Filmpreis (Gold) for Lifetime Achievement
• 1986: Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress – Series, Miniseries or Television Film nomination for Peter the Great (TV series)

Filmography

Film

Television

Radio appearances