Lili Valenty(1900-1987)
- Actress
The multi-faceted Polish-born performer Lili Valenty appeared in a
dozen or so Broadway plays in the 30s, 40s and 50s, then went on to
enliven a number of routine on-camera projects in her twilight years.
Born at the turn of the century, she received her start on the German
stage where she became a star. In the early 1930s she emigrated to
America and tried to parlay her European success into stardom here.
Although she fell quite short, she did launch a moderately successful
career on both radio and the Broadway stage. Some of her NY theater
productions included "Bitter Stream" (her debut) 1936, "Cue for
Passion" (1940), "The Land Is Bright" (1941), "Sky Drift" (1945), and
"Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep" (1950). In 1955 she was a replacement in
the role of Baroness Livenbaum in the successful Broadway production of
"Anastasia" starring Viveca Lindfors and Eugenie Leontovich, which later went on tour.
Lili later transitioned into the film and TV mediums, predominantly in
decorative fluff unworthy of her talents. Although she made her film
debut in support of Anna Magnani in the melodrama Wild Is the Wind (1957), she continued
rather inauspiciously from there with a minor dowager role in Can-Can (1960),
and typical ethnic parts in The Story of Ruth (1960), the Troy Donahue / Suzanne Pleshette romantic
excursion Rome Adventure (1962), one of Elvis Presley's weaker vehicles Girls! Girls! Girls! (1962), and the
Jayne Mansfield "comedy" It Happened in Athens (1962). Sometimes billed as "Lili Valenti", she
appeared sparingly after this as various mamas, madames, gypsies, nuns,
ballet teachers, and the like on episodic TV. She died in Los Angeles
in 1987 at age 86 and left no survivors.
