Asta Nielsen

Danish stage star who entered films in 1910 under the auspices of director August Blom and caused a sensation with her striking performance as a woman who obsessive passion with a ne'er-do-well man plunges her into "The Abyss" (1910). The following year, with first husband and director Urban Gad, Nielsen moved to Germany, where her intense, expressive features and markedly naturalistic acting style earned her international fame. By the early 1920s Nielsen, with her huge, dark eyes had established herself as the greatest tragedienne of the European silent cinema. She played landmark title roles in such films as "Miss Julie" (1922), "Hedda Gabler" (1924) and even "Hamlet" (1920), the latter directed by her second husband, Sven Gade, and produced by Nielsen. Probably the Asta Nielsen film best known to contemporary audiences came relatively late in her star reign, G.W. Pabst's striking "Joyless Streets" (1925).