Henny Porten

Henny Porten was Germany's first major film star, as popular in the 1910s as Mary Pickford was in the U.S. A buxom, Viking-like woman, Porten made her film debut in 1906, singing in early "talkies" (made with the use of a synchronized gramophone). Her first big hit, written by her sister, was "Das Liebesglucke der Blinden/The Happy Love of a Blind Girl" (1910). Porten went on to star in scores of "Henny-Porten-Filmes," the most popular of which included "Feenhande/Fairy Hands" (1916), "Die Faust les Riesen/The Giant's Fist" and "Die Ehe der Luise Rohrbach/The Marriage of Luise Rohrbach" (both 1917), "Das Maskenfest des Lebens/Life's Masquerade Party" (1918), and "Rose Bernd" (1919).