Helena Makowska

Helena Makowska (née Woynowiczówna, 2 March 1893 – 22 August 1964) was a Polish actress. She appeared in more than 60 films between 1911 and 1958. Early life Helena Makowska was born Helena Woynowiczówna on 2 March 1893 to Ludwik Woyniewicz, a Polish engineer who worked for a Russian-Belgian company, and his wife, Stanisława (née Sauret). The family moved to Warsaw in 1903. There, Makowska attended high school and received her first theater roles. At the age of 16, Makowska married lawyer Julian Makowski, but they divorced shortly after. In 1912, Makowska traveled to Milan, where she took singing lessons. In 1913, she debuted at the Opera as Amelia in Il ballo in maschera and acted as Elena in Mefistofele. Her film debut was in the 1911 short An Autumn Sunset Dream. She next appeared in the film Romanticismo (1915), which was based on a famous play by Gerolamo Rovetta. Makowska played as Ophelia in Ruggero Ruggeri's Hamlet (1917), and as the seductress Elena in the comedy Goodbye Youth (1918) with Maria Jacobini. Makowska would go on to perform in some 40 Italian films before marrying actor Karl Falkenberg and moving to Munich in the early 1920s.