Renate Mueller
About
Biography
Filmography
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Biography
"The Claudette Colbert of Germany," this bubbly actress starred in a number of comedies and musicals in the early days of Nazism. The Bavarian-born daughter of a painter and a newspaper editor, Muller was trained at Max Reinhardt's Academy of Dramatic Arts, and by 1925 was appearing on the Berlin stage. Perky and elfin, Muller was signed to a film contract in 1928, before talkies had become a reality in Germany.
Muller appeared in eight films in the late 1920s and early 30s, one of the industry's more popular modern ingenues. She became a full-fledged star with "Die Privatsekretarin/The Private Secretary" in 1931, starring as a flirtatious working girl courted by her boss (she also starred in the English-language version, "Sunshine Susie"). It was just the sort of role being played by Claudette Colbert, Joan Blondell and others in the U.S., and Muller showed a great aptitude for light, naughty comedy. Through the early 1930s, she starred in a series of farces and musicals such as "Madchen zum Heiraten/Girl Ready for Marriage" (1932), "Walzekrieg/War of the Waltzes" (1933), "Die Englische Heirat/The English Marriage" (1934), and "Allotria" (1936). Her best-known movie was the 1933 musical "Viktor und Viktoria," which later became a Blake Edwards film and Broadway show.
Muller was a favorite actress of both Hitler and Goebbels, but she was dating a Jewish actor and tried her best to steer clear of the Nazi party. When her boyfriend fled to England, she visited him as often as her filming schedule permitted. Goebbels finally forced Muller to act in a propaganda film, "Togger" (1937), playing a journalist fighting alleged Jewish control of the press. Depressed over this turn in her career, Muller checked into a clinic with a knee injury in October 1937. Just as she was ready to be discharged, Muller jumped or fell from a window; whether her death was murder or suicide was never determined.
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