Celia Lovsky Biography

Trained at the Royal Academy of Arts and Music in Vienna, Celia Lovsky gained popularity on the Austrian and German stage in the 1920s. When Hitler assumed power in 1933, Lovsky left for France in the company of her then-husband, actor Peter Lorre. Resettling in Hollywood in 1935, she put her career on hold during her marriage to Lorre, returning to films after their divorce (they remained friends and confidants until Lorre's death in 1964). From 1947 until her retirement in the 1960s, Lovsky was most often seen in maternal roles: George Sanders' mother in Death of a Scoundrel (1956), James Cagney's mother in Man of 1000 Faces (1957), Sal Mineo's mother in The Gene Krupa Story (1959), and so on. Star Trek devotees will remember Celia Lovsky as the Queen of Vulcana in the 1967 episode "Amok Time." ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi