- Born
- Died
- Birth nameMarie Karoline Rökk
- Nickname
- The Nazi Ginger Rogers
- Marika Rokk was born in Cairo on the 3rd of November 1913. As a child she moved to Hungary. In Paris at the Moulin Rouge she started her career as a dancer, soon moving on to Broadway New York City, USA.
She made her first films Why Sailors Leave Home (1930) in London, & also Kiss Me Sergeant (1930) in London, U.K.
After that she made 2 very fine films in Hungary, her home.
Miss Rokk made her first German film: Light Cavalry (1935) in 1935 it made her a Star overnight. Soon she married German Film Director Georg Jacoby and her 2nd German film was Der Bettelstudent (1936), directed by him.
In 1939 she made It Was a Gay Ballnight (1939) with superstar Zarah Leander and started filming the first German color film Frauen sind doch bessere Diplomaten (1941) which was finished and released two years later.
The couple had one child, Gabriele Jacoby. Miss Rökk also married Fred Raul. She retired from films in the 1960s but continued to perform in Operetta's like "Die Blume von Hawaii" & others on the stage across Europe before retiring to Baden, Austria. She died of a heart attack May 16, 2004.- IMDb Mini Biography By: Rudipolt@aol.com - Rökk grew up in Budapest, where she attended school. She began dance training at the age of eight. A year later she was already taking part in a children's ballet. After her family moved to Paris in 1924, Rökk continued dancing lessons with the Russian teacher Rudkowska. That same year, at the age of 11, she began dancing for the revue troupe "Hoffmann Girls" at the "Moulin Rouge" in Paris. After an appearance at the Broadway Theater in New York, the "Hoffmann Girls" toured the USA towards the end of 1925. Rökk also attended Nat Wayburn's dance school there. In 1929 Rökk returned to Europe to appear as a dancer and singer in various revues. She was able to gain initial success by appearing in operettas and musical comedies in Budapest and Vienna. In 1930, Rökk appeared in front of the film camera for the first time in two British comedies. Further parts in Hungarian films followed in 1932 and 1933. But it was her revue success in "Stern der Manege" that secured the artist a contract with Ufa in 1934.
In 1935 she took part in her first German film role in the "Light Cavalry" for the Berlin film production company. The comedy, set in a circus environment, was the start of a steep career in German film for Rökk. Ufa, which was brought into line under the National Socialist rule of Adolf Hitler, built the dancer and singer into one of the most popular film stars in Hitler's Germany through music and revue films tailored specifically for her. Especially after the start of the Second World War in 1939, the Ufa productions and thus Rökk's artistic work could hardly escape the precise political-propagandistic function with which the National Socialist propaganda minister Josef Goebbels gave them: by supporting the "home front" during the war years through pleasant The entertainment kept people entertained was intended to help stabilize the National Socialist dictatorship internally.
In the 15 films in which Rökk took part from 1935 to 1944, Nazi propaganda used the positive charisma of the blonde and fun-loving actress to convey National Socialist values about the role of women and family and to glorify the figure of the mother. In 1940 Rökk married the director Georg Jacoby, who worked on many of her films and with whom she had a daughter, the future actress Gabriele Jacoby. After the end of the war, Rökk and her husband were initially banned from working in 1945. However, the Ufa star was soon able to refute the suspicion of alleged espionage for the National Socialists, so that a court of honor of the Austrian Actors' Association rehabilitated her in 1947. Rökk's first post-war film, "Fregola", which was directed by Jacoby in 1948, opened up a second career for the film actress. However, their films of the 1950s could no longer match the successes of the 1930s and 1940s.
From the end of the 1950s, Rökk turned back to show business, where she continued to enjoy great success in operettas, musicals and TV shows in the German-speaking cultural area. Her performances in 1966/67 in "Mask in Blue", in 1968/69 in "Hello Dolly" and in 1978 in the Viennese musical "The Countess of Naschmarkt" became legendary. Georg Jacoby, Rökk's first husband, died in 1964. In 1968 she married the director and manager Fred Raul for the second time. In 1983, on her 70th birthday, Rökk appeared in the title role of the operetta "Ball im Savoy" in Vienna. After a temporary break from performing due to the illness and death of her husband Raul in 1985, the artist shone again in the musical comedy "The Cuckoo's Egg" in 1986. In 1987 Rökk returned to film in Peter Schamoni's "Schloss Königswald". The following year, ARD celebrated the actress and dancer's 75th birthday in "An Evening for Marika Rökk".
In 1992, Rökk took part in an operetta performance in her old home of Budapest. Rökk was awarded the Gold Film Ribbon in 1981 for her lifelong work in German film. In 1983 she received the Gold Medal of Honor from the City of Vienna and the Bavarian Film Prize in 1987.
Marika Rökk died on May 16, 2004 at the age of 91 in Baden near Vienna.- IMDb Mini Biography By: Christian_Wolfgang_Barth
- SpousesFred Raul(1968 - August 25, 1985) (his death)Georg Jacoby(1940 - February 21, 1964) (his death, 1 child)
- Her Hungarian accent
- First recipient of a Bambi Award ever (1948).
- Recently declassified documents suggest that Rokk was recruited as a Soviet Spy in the 1940's along with her husband Georg Jacoby whilst studying in Berlin. The network she worked for passed on military intelligence including plans for Operation Barbarossa and the Battle of Kursk.
- Beside her movie career, she became one of Europe's most famous operetta singers. She performed on stage until 1986.
- Marika Rökk soon became a leading star of Nazi Germany and could count on an experienced team with which she shot most of her movies. First of all director Georg Jacoby, whom she married in 1940 but also cinematographer Konstantin Irmen-Tschet, film composer Franz Grothe and Peter Kreuder as well as choreographer Sabine Ress.
- Started in cinema in 1932.
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