María Corda

Temperamental and ambitious Hungarian-born actress and singer with a penchant for romanticising her background and personal history. She was fond of describing herself as the 'Hungarian Garbo' (without sharing that star's self-effacing qualities). Maria began her career as a dancer with the Royal Opera in Budapest. She then acted on screen in German, British and American silent films. She became the first wife of famed producer/director Alexander Korda. Before he began to eclipse her fame, he was known in the business simply as "Maria Corda's director". By the time of Korda's divorce from Maria in 1932, sound pictures had arrived and her career was on the wane.

She and Alexander Korda divorced in 1930 and she moved to New York, where she wrote a number of novels.

She was an actress, known for The Private Life of Helen of Troy (1927), Samson und Delila (1922) and Tragödie im Hause Habsburg (1924). She was married to Alexander Korda.

Her popularity was so big that Austrian investors refused their grant for the movie "Die letzten Tage von Pompeji" (1926) if the leading part wouldn't be recasted with Maria Corda - what finally happened.

She followed Alexander Korda from Hungary to Vienna and in 1921 gave birth to their son.

She started her film career with movies like "A 111-es" (1919), before she went to Germany in order to become a great star.

María Corda was born on May 4, 1898 in Deva, Hungary as María Farkas.

Under the direction of her husband Alexander Korda (1893-1956) she took part in numerous of his movies and became a darling of the public and a success guarantor.