Pola Negri: The Polish Star Who Conquered Silent-Era Hollywood

Pola Negri, one of the best-known stars of silent film, was born Apolonia Chałupiec in Lipno and grew up in Warsaw under Russian rule. She was already a stage and film actress in Warsaw before Berlin and Hollywood made her famous.

Childhood in Lipno and Warsaw

Pola Negri was born Barbara Apolonia Chałupiec on 3 January 1897 in Lipno, a small town in central Poland. Her father, Jerzy Chałupiec, was a craftsman born in Slovakia; Negri later said he had been exiled to Siberia, a story biographers treat as a publicity legend, since he in fact left the family. In 1902 her mother took her to Warsaw, then under Russian rule.

Dance and drama training in Warsaw

Her mother paid for dance and acting lessons, and as a girl she trained in ballet in Warsaw. Tuberculosis ended that path; she was treated in Zakopane. She then completed two introductory courses at a Warsaw acting school.

On 1 September 1912 she made her stage debut as Klara in Fredro’s Śluby panieńskie at the Teatr Mały in Warsaw.

First films in Warsaw and Berlin

Her first film, Niewolnica zmysłów (1914), was made by the Sfinks studio in Warsaw, one of the few Polish film companies of the time.

In 1917 she went to Berlin and appeared for Max Reinhardt. Her partnership with the director Ernst Lubitsch followed, with Carmen (1918), Madame Du Barry (1919) and Sumurun (1920).

Hollywood

Negri arrived in Hollywood in 1923 as an established European star.

Tracing her Polish records

Negri’s own account of her early life does not always match the records. Even her birth date differs: her autobiography gives another date from the 3 January 1897 accepted by biographers (22 December 1896 in the Julian calendar then used in Russian Poland). Parish registers like this one are the most reliable starting point for any family from the former Russian partition.