All The Babes
Career
Active 1918 – 1929
Biography
About Lya De Putti
With her dark hair cropped short in the style of Louise Brooks and Colleen Moore, Lya de Putti cut a striking figure onscreen. The Slovak actress, born in 1897, was frequently cast as a vamp character, a type she inhabited with a naturalistic, real body. She came to America in February 1926, though accounts of her age differed then; she told reporters she was 22, but ocean liner records listed her as 26. Her first major American role came that same year in D.W. Griffith's The Sorrows of Satan (1926). The film was released in two versions, one for the U.S. and one for Europe, and in the European cut a scene showed her topless where the American version had her fully dressed. She worked with actors like Adolphe Menjou and Zasu Pitts, but her Hollywood career never gained traction. By 1929 she left the screen to try Broadway, then later went to England to make silent movies, studying English along the way. She returned to the U.S. to attempt sound films, but her life was cut short by illness in 1931.
Her personal life was as dramatic as her roles. At 16, she married Zoltán Szepessy de Négyes, a county magistrate ten years her senior. They had two daughters, Ilona and Judit, before divorcing in 1918. Szepessy then told the girls their mother had died, and he even had a headstone placed in a Hungarian cemetery reading 'Lya de Putti - died 1920.' She remarried in 1922 to a Norwegian diplomat, Louis Jahnke, after a brief earlier marriage to merchant Ludwig Christensen that ended with his death from tuberculosis that same year. In the late 1920s, she fell in love with banker Walter D. Blumenthal and wanted to marry him, but his family refused, and she went on a hunger strike in 1931 over it. She also denied rumors of an engagement to Count Ludwig von Salm-Hoogstraeten.
Her health declined sharply in the early 1930s. She nearly died in a plane crash in August 1930. In 1931, she was hospitalized to have a chicken bone removed from her throat, then contracted a throat infection and was taken to the Harbor Sanitarium in New York. There she reportedly behaved irrationally and eluded her nurses before being found in a corridor. She developed pleurisy on her right side and then pneumonia in both lungs. De Putti died at 1:05 a.m. on 27 November 1931, aged 34, leaving only $1,100 and a few pieces of jewelry. She is buried in Ferncliff Cemetery in Hartsdale, New York. Years later, in March 1932, her first husband, Szepessy, took his own life in a Budapest hotel, citing financial troubles and grief over her death; only then did their daughters learn what had really happened to their mother. Some press reports in 1926 and 1927 had hinted at suicide attempts in her own life, but de Putti denied those stories. Her turbulent life and early death made her a tragic figure of the silent era.
Record
Profile details
Personal
- Died
- Friday 27th of November 1931 (age 34)
- Years Active
- 1918-1929 (started around 21 years old; 11 years active)
- Birthplace
- Slovakia (Slovak Republic)
- Ethnicity
- Caucasian
- Sexuality
- Straight
Body
- Boobs
- Real/Natural
Frequently asked
Why did her daughters believe she died in 1920?
After divorcing in 1918, her first husband Zoltán Szepessy told their two daughters that their mother had died, and he even arranged a headstone in a Hungarian cemetery inscribed 'Lya de Putti - died 1920.' The truth only came out after his suicide in 1932.
How did her role in The Sorrows of Satan differ between the U.S. and European versions?
The film was released in two versions: in the U.S. version, one scene had her fully dressed, while the same scene in the European release showed her topless.
How many times was de Putti married?
She was married three times: first to Zoltán Szepessy (divorced), then to Ludwig Christensen (widowed when he died of tuberculosis in 1922), and finally to Louis Jahnke (until her death).
What unusual event happened during her later relationship with Walter D. Blumenthal?
In 1931, when Blumenthal's family refused to allow their marriage, de Putti went on a hunger strike.
Did you know
- Her short dark hair drew frequent comparisons to Louise Brooks and Colleen Moore, though she was cast as a vamp, a darker archetype.
- A tombstone in Hungary once carried the inscription 'Lya de Putti - died 1920' even though she was alive until 1931, a secret kept by her first husband.
- In 1926, the Ogden Standard Examiner claimed she had attempted suicide by jumping from a window, but de Putti said she simply leaned too far while saying goodbye to friends.
- At the time of her death, she left just $1,100 and a few pieces of jewelry, a modest estate for a star who had once worked with D.W. Griffith.
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