Tala Birell Pics

Tala

Birell

10 September 1907

66

Slim

Bucharest, Romania

Virgo

17 February 1958

Landstuhl, Germany

Cancer

White

Romanian

Female

Tala Birell (September 10, 1907 – February 17, 1958) was a Romanian - American stage and film actress.

Natalie Bierl nickname Talusha, was born to a German couple, the mother a Baroness of Austrian descent, and the father a Serbian businessman who was temporarily in Bucharest overseeing his company. During WWI she was in Berlin, and studying at a private school. 5` 6" tall and blonde, she had a brief film appearance in 1926, and then a stage career in Germany and Austria, substituting for a character that had been played by Marlene Dietrich. During WWII she became a "Second Garbo" in Hollywood, due to her sort of cold, glamorous beauty. She played in crime thrillers and early women-in-prison genre films, but various characters of hers were linked with the anti-Nazi war effort: a courageous Russian in China (1943), Madame Bouchard of the French Resistance in Till We Meet Again (1944), the Nazi Doctor Elise Bork in Jungle Queen (1945), and Yvette Aubert, the French adventurer and entertainer, in Women in the Night (1948), who plays along with an extreme Nazi unit in Shanghai until she saves the world from a weapon of mass destruction with the sacrifice of her life. Possibly during the production of this film, in mid-1948, Tala decided to return to Germany and take up residence with her mother who was by then living in Munich. In 1951 she was appointed by the Special Service Headquarters of the U.S. Army in Nuremberg to organize theatrical productions in Germany, France, and Austria for the G.I.s. stationed there. Her title was Field Entertainment Supervisor, and sometimes took part herself in shows at military clubs in Munich and Nuremberg, and Orléans (France). She later moved to Berlin with the title Command Entertainment Director and put on shows for U.S. troops and refugees from Eastern Europe. She retired in 1957 for health reasons, and died shortly after. She is buried in the family tomb, in Marquartstein, Bavaria, Germany.

Natalie Bierl

Actor/Actress, Soundtrack

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