Paula Wessely

Paula Anna Maria Wessely (20 January 1907 – 11 May 2000) was an Austrian theatre and film actress. Die Wessely (literally "The Wessely"), as she was affectionately called by her admirers and fans, was Austria's foremost popular postwar actress. Biography She was born in Vienna, the daughter of butcher Carl Wessely, younger brother of the late Burgtheater actress Josephine Wessely (1860–1887). Like her adored aunt, Paula Wessely prepared for an artistic career. From 1922 she attended the Vienna State Academy of Music and Performing Arts and later the Max Reinhardt Seminar, while she made her debut as an actress in 1924 at the Volkstheater, followed by several minor roles of the boulevard repertoire, also performing at the Raimund Theater. Her career proceeded, when in 1926, she became a member of the New German Theatre ensemble in Prague, where she and her future husband Attila Hörbiger (1896–1987) performed in Les Nouveaux Messieurs by Flers and Croisset. In 1927, she returned to the Volkstheater, playing in Ibsen's The Lady from the Sea and Wedekind's Spring Awakening. After being denied the role of Jenny in Brecht's Threepenny Opera in 1929, she quit and joined the ensemble of the Theater in der Josefstadt under director Max Reinhardt.