Biography
Mady Christians, also credited as Margarete Christians, was an Austrian-born actress who worked in European theatre and film before emigrating to the United States. Born Marguerita Maria Christians in Vienna on 19 January 1892, she moved with her family to Berlin as a child and later to New York in 1912. She studied under Max Reinhardt and appeared in German films, including the 1929 sound film It's You I Have Loved.
Christians became a US citizen and built a career on Broadway and in Hollywood. She played Queen Gertrude in Hamlet and appeared in the original productions of Lillian Hellman's Watch on the Rhine and John Van Druten's I Remember Mama. Her film roles included Dete in Heidi (1937), Karie Linbeck in Come and Get It (1936), Kate Keller in All My Sons (1948) and Frau Berndle in Letter from an Unknown Woman (1948). She was blacklisted during the McCarthy period and died in Norwalk, Connecticut, on 28 October 1951.
