Zorina
About
Biography
Filmography
Family & Companions
Bibliography
Biography
This classically trained dancer achieved success onstage in the 1930s before making a handful of Hollywood films. Vera Zorina (nee Eva Brigitta Hartwig) began her professional career as a child dancing in Norway. She also appeared in Max Reinhardt's stage production of "A Midsummer Night's Dream" before concentrating on her ballet career. Zorina starred as a ballerina in the London production of "On Your Toes" and in 1938 married the show's choreographer George Balanchine. He in turn had successfully guided her in several carefully packaged theatrical showcases before the two of them went to Hollywood for "The Goldwyn Follies" later that year. A leggy, talented dancer and an appropriate vehicle for many of Balanchine's modern-dance innovations, the strong-featured Zorina was a very limited actress who never achieved substantial success in films. In retrospect, her most enjoyable film--and performance--was in the unjustly overlooked tale of cross and double-cross among thieves, "I Was an Adventuress" (1940), in which she was brilliantly supported by Erich von Stroheim and Peter Lorre. She found success on stage in such shows as "I Married an Angel" and as Ariel in Margaret Webster's staging of "The Tempest." In her later years, Zorina enjoyed success appearing as a narrator with opera companies and, with her second husband Goddard Lieberson, as a record producer.
Filmography
Cast (Feature Film)
Life Events
1923
Made professional dance debut at age 6 in Norway
1933
Joined Ballet Russe
1938
Signed by Samuel Goldwyn to perform in "Goldwyn Follies"
1938
First starring Broadway role in "I Married an Angel"
1941
Recreated stage role in film version of "Louisiana Purchase"
1945
Acted the role of Ariel in Margaret Webster's stage production of "The Tempest"
1947
Debut as a narrator
1976
Became managing director of Norwegian Opera
1978
Became music consultant and album producer at Columbia Records
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