Rose Stradner

Rose Luise Maria Stradner (July 31, 1913 – September 27, 1958) was an Austrian stage and film actress, who starred opposite Edward G. Robinson, James Stewart, Gregory Peck, and other leading men of her era. She was married to the film director Joseph L. Mankiewicz. Life and career Stradner was born in Vienna, Austria on July 31, 1913. 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. Post-war, she was sent to a convent after returning with her parents to Vienna. After completing her education, during which she learned English, performed in student plays and became an accomplished pianist, she became a pupil of Austrian theatrical producer and film director Max Reinhardt. Trained by him, she was subsequently hired by a Hollywood studio after executives saw photographs of her. With Reinhardt's guidance, she made her stage debut in 1937. In 1937, she made her Hollywood film debut opposite Edward G. Robinson and James Stewart in The Last Gangster, in which she played the wife of Robinson's character, Joe Krozac. Washington's Evening Star said of her, in an image caption in its November 10 edition that same year: "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."