| Toqa Hesham |
An Austrian actress, born in Vienna, Austia, as Marguerite Maria Christians. She married Dr. Sven von Mueller, editor-in-chief of a newspaper in Hamburg, Germany, and separated from him before traveling to the United States of America. Her most important works include Heidi (1937), The Waltz Dream (1925), Letter from an Unknown Woman (1948), and A Wicked Woman (1934). Maddie was born to a father who worked as an actor. She moved with her family to Berlin when she was a year old, and in 1912, she moved with her family to New York City in the United States, where her father became director of one of the theaters, and she made her first silent film, Audrey (1916). She returned to Germany with her mother to study drama with Max Reinhardt, and she made 63 European silent films before participating in the first German film with modern sound technology, It's You I Have Loved (1929). She starred in 9 films before heading to the United States of America in 1933 and undertook a theatrical tour that achieved remarkable success. She contracted with the Broadway Theatre after it allowed her political asylum to escape the Nazi regime, and she acquired American citizenship. Her most famous performances at the Broadway Theatre were Hamlet (1939) and King Henry V. (1939). In cinema, her peak was in the thirties, then her work diminished in the forties due to her preoccupation with theater, political activity, and advocacy for workers’ issues. Her last works were the films All My Sons (1948) and Unknown Woman (1948), and then she presented some television series. Maddie was blacklisted during the McCarthy Period due to her advocacy for labor issues and her attacks on representatives of the US Congress. Her career was halted until she died in South Norwalk, Connecticut, USA, on October 28, 1951, from a cerebral hemorrhage due to the frequent attacks on her.
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