Rose Stradner

Rose Stradner
Stradner in 1937
Born
Rosa Stradner

July 31, 1913
Vienna, Austria-Hungary
DiedSeptember 27, 1958(1958-09-27) (aged 45)
Mount Kisco, New York, U.S.
OccupationActress
Years active1933–1953
Spouse(s)
​
​
(m. 1934; div. 1938)​

​
​
(m. 1939)​
ChildrenChristopher and Tom Mankiewicz

Rose Luise Maria Stradner[a] (July 31, 1913 – September 27, 1958) was an Austrian-born stage and film actress. Her notable films include The Last Gangster (1937), in which she co-starred opposite Edward G. Robinson and James Stewart, and The Keys of the Kingdom (1944) with Gregory Peck. She was the second wife of film director Joseph L. Mankiewicz.

Early years

Rosa Stradner was born on July 31, 1913 in Vienna, Austria-Hungary.[2] While still an infant, she moved with her parents to Trieste and Isonzo, where her father was stationed as an engineer in charge of troop transportation during World War I. After the war, Stradner was educated at the Sacred Heart Academy in Vienna, where she wrote, directed and performed in student plays.[3]

Career

On her 19th birthday, Stradner approached Austrian theatrical producer and film director Max Reinhardt directly, and asked him for an acting job. She auditioned and under Reinhardt's tutelage, acted in over 50 theatrical productions, including plays written by William Shakespeare, Molière, Henrik Ibsen, Oscar Wilde, and George Bernard Shaw.[3] According to one newspaper, Italian Prime Minister Benito Mussolini was so captivated by Stradner that he saw one of her plays three times and gave her a bouquet.[4]

By 1933, Stradner began acting in several German-language films.[5] At the Berlin premiere of one of her films, Joseph Goebbels offered her a 15-year contract to appear in Nazi Germany propaganda films. Stradner declined the offer, stating she would continue acting in Austrian films. Goebbels replied: "In that case, you'll be working for us eventually. It's only a matter of time."[4] A year later, Stradner performed at the Volksbühne theatre, where she was directed by Karlheinz Martin, whom she married.[4] She also appeared at the Volkstheater, Vienna, where Luise Rainer was her understudy.[6]

During a talent search, László Willinger's photographs of Stradner caught the attention of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) while she was performing in a stage adaptation of Arthur Schnitzler's Fräulein Else.[3][7] One studio publicity story circulated that Stradner was discovered by Louis B. Mayer and Benjamin Thau while in Europe. She was then imported into the United States on the same ship with director Victor Saville, actresses Hedy Lamarr and Ilona Massey, singer Miliza Korjus, and screenwriter Walter Reisch.[4] However, her son Tom stated she and her mother Luise had fled the Nazis during the mid-1930s.[8]

In 1937, Stradner was placed under contract to MGM where studio publicists considered renaming her Andrea Marlow or Andra Marlo. However, they simply substituted her first name for Rose.[5][4] She made her Hollywood film debut opposite Edward G. Robinson and James Stewart in The Last Gangster (1937), where she played the wife of Robinson's character, Joe Krozac.[9] A review in Variety praised her performance, writing Stradner "is a natural as the gangster's wife, the accent fitting in perfectly. As an actress, her talents lie on the dramatic side; she's attractive enough to win attention, too."[10] The Washington Evening Star placed a byline underneath her image stating: "Rose Stradner is being hailed by the M-G-M people as the studio's greatest discovery since Garbo, as they seem to feel she is going places in the cinema."[11] Despite her positive notices, Stradner was not cast in another film with MGM.[6]

Rose Stradner in The Keys of the Kingdom

In 1938, MGM loaned Stradner to RKO Pictures for The Saint in New York but she was replaced.[12] A year later, Stradner signed a long-term contract with Columbia Pictures.[2] There, she appeared in Blind Alley (1939), in which she played Ralph Bellamy's wife.[12] Despondent over her career trajectory, Stradner threatened suicide and was violently anxious at her second husband Joseph L. Mankiewicz. He cabled talent agent Leland Hayward for assistance when Stradner was being considered for a New York production of Lorelei but she did not get the role.[12] Months after she gave birth to her second son, in October 1942, Stradner fell into a catatonic state while vacationing with her husband and Alice and Franz Waxman at the Arrowhead Springs Hotel. She was returned home, and Mankiewicz entered her into the Menninger Clinic in Topeka, Kansas. She spent nine months at the clinic under the care of Karl Menninger who prescribed her medication to treat her illness.[13][14]

Stradner's final film was The Keys of the Kingdom (1944),[15] in which she portrayed Reverend Mother Maria-Veronica. The role had been intended for Ingrid Bergman because of her box office appeal as Gregory Peck was then an unknown actor. However, Bergman was unavailable at the time, and Stradner auditioned for the role without her husband's knowledge.[16] After some time, Bergman became available and Darryl F. Zanuck instead offered Stradner a two-picture contract with Twentieth Century-Fox. Stradner declined and pushed Mankiewicz to have her retain the role. Mankiewicz pleaded with Zanuck to have Stradner in the role to save his already-troubled marriage, and Zanuck agreed.[17] When filming had wrapped, Stradner decided to quit acting and raise her family.[18]

Offscreen, Stradner and her husband regularly hosted dinner parties at their Beverly Hills residence.[19] Her son Christopher remembered instances where "my mother would hit the martinis and there would be a big scene."[20] It is believed the scene in All About Eve (1950) in which an intoxicated Margo Channing states, "Fasten your seat belts, it's going to be a bumpy night" was partially inspired by Stradner.[20] Her other son Tom remembered she suffered from "a mental condition, a form of schizophrenia usually triggered by alcohol", which "made her absolutely terrifying at times."[8] Despite her illness, Tom wrote: "She had a unique ear for languages and spoke English and later Italian fluently, without a trace of accent. She was a tremendous help to Dad as an in-house critic of his screenplays. He routinely solicited her opinion and acted on it."[21]

In 1948, Stradner made her American stage debut in the play Bravo! written by Edna Ferber, produced by Max Gordon, and directed by George S. Kaufman. Costarring opposite Oscar Homolka, the play centered on a refugee European playwright (patterned after Ferenc Molnár) and his mistress, an aging European star, who reside in a shabby boarding house with other destitute refugees.[22] She had auditioned for the role of Rosa Rucker, whereby Ferber and Kaufman were left impressed that they applauded.[23]

The play previewed in October at the Wilbur Theatre, where theatre critic Cyrus Durgin called Bravo! "a disappointing play, but with some good acting."[24] A month later, it was staged at the Lyceum Theatre. However, despite positive reviews of her performance, Stradner was replaced by Lili Darvas, who was married to Molnár.[23] Columnist Louella O. Parsons wrote that Stradner was replaced because she was "too young and good looking for the part."[25] In November 1948, Bravo! closed on Broadway after a run of 44 performances. Mankiewicz reflected decades later, "I don't think she ever recovered from that. She was just on her way back up and that really was a tremendous blow to her..."[26]

Stradner's last onscreen appearance was the 1953 TV episode "Reign of Terror" from Suspense.[23]

Personal life and death

In 1934, Stradner married German stage and film director Karlheinz Martin, who was 27 years her senior. When MGM placed her on contract, Stradner's marriage and past film career was expunged from the public. She later returned to Europe and divorced Martin.[5]

At MGM, Stradner met Joseph L. Mankiewicz, who was instructed to help improve her English as he had with other German-speaking actresses.[6][27] The two were married on July 28, 1939,[28] at Mankiewicz's sister's apartment in New York. When they returned to Los Angeles, on Stradner's 26th birthday, MGM studio writers and producers greeted them at the railway station with rice and a ten-piece orchestra. Stradner gave birth to two sons, Christopher, born in 1940, and Tom Mankiewicz, born in 1942.[27] In November 1944, the Los Angeles Times reported that she and her husband had mutually agreed to separate, though it was short-lived.[29]

On the night of September 26, 1958, at their summer home in Mount Kisco, New York, her husband Joseph and Stradner fought, and he left for New York City to work on his Broadway play.[23] Hours later, Joseph contacted his niece Josie after Stradner had not been answering the phone. On September 27, Stradner was found dead lying on the floor near a writing desk, at the age of 45.[30][31] She was found holding a "nearly indecipherable note" in her hand, stating she was "tired".[15] Her death was ruled a suicide through an overdose of sedatives.[31] She was interred at the Kensico Cemetery in Valhalla.[23]

Selected filmography

References

Notes
  1. ^ Also known and credited as Rosa Stradner[1]
References
  1. ^ Davis 2021, p. 174.
  2. ^ a b "Columbia Signs Rose Stradner". Evening Star. March 9, 1939. p. C-5 – via Library of Congress.
  3. ^ a b c "Her Career Started the Easy Way: Rose Stradner Just Asked for the Job and Got It". Evening Star. April 30, 1939. p. F-2 – via Library of Congress.
  4. ^ a b c d e Wagner 2020, p. 160.
  5. ^ a b c Stern 2019, p. 148.
  6. ^ a b c Geist 1978, p. 97.
  7. ^ "Marriages of the Stars Undergo Examination". Evening Star. November 6, 1937. p. C-20 – via Library of Congress.
  8. ^ a b Mankiewicz & Crane 2012, p. 5.
  9. ^ "Edward Robinson Has New Leading Lady in Picture: Rose Stradner Is Cast Opposite Star in Film". Roanoke Rapids Herald. November 11, 1937. Section B, p. 4 – via Library of Congress.
  10. ^ "Film Reviews: The Last Gangster". Variety. November 10, 1937. p. 18. Retrieved February 9, 2025 – via Internet Archive.
  11. ^ "Rose Stradner Has a Bright Future Ahead". Evening Star. November 10, 1937. p. B-10 – via Library of Congress.
  12. ^ a b c Stern 2019, p. 149.
  13. ^ Geist 1978, p. 110.
  14. ^ Stern 2019, pp. 149–150.
  15. ^ a b "Director's Wife Found Dead". Democrat and Chronicle. September 29, 1958. p. 27 – via Newspapers.com.
  16. ^ Stern 2019, p. 191.
  17. ^ Geist 1978, p. 118.
  18. ^ Mankiewicz & Crane 2012, p. 6.
  19. ^ Geist 1978, p. 123.
  20. ^ a b Wagner 2020, p. 159.
  21. ^ Mankiewicz & Crane 2012, pp. 17–18.
  22. ^ Geist 1978, p. 147.
  23. ^ a b c d e Wagner 2020, p. 166.
  24. ^ Durgin, Cyrus (October 26, 1948). "The Play: 'Bravo!', Comedy by Ferber and Kaufman, Opens at the Wilbur". The Boston Globe. p. 32. Retrieved February 9, 2025.
  25. ^ Parsons, Louella O. (November 18, 1948). "Byrnie Foy Opens Studio Again for New Mystery". San Francisco Examiner. p. 33. Retrieved August 18, 2025 – via Newspapers.com.
  26. ^ Geist 1978, pp. 147–148.
  27. ^ a b Stern 2019, pp. 148–149.
  28. ^ "Joseph Mankiewicz Weds". The New York Times. July 29, 1939. p. 18. Retrieved February 9, 2025.
  29. ^ Geist 1978, p. 119.
  30. ^ "Mrs. Mankiewicz Is Found Dead". The New York Times. September 28, 1958. p. 87. Retrieved February 9, 2025.
  31. ^ a b Geist 1978, pp. 284–285.

Bibliography

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