April 21, 2023 | Rachel Seigel

Seductive Facts About Pola Negri, The Original Femme Fatale


Pola Negri’s “exotic” looks and sensual charms made her THE femme fatale during the Golden Age of Hollywood. She carried an air of mystery—and used it to hide her behind-the-scenes scandals. From her steamy bedroom habits to her turbulent personal life, this is the story of Pola Negri, Hollywood's dark starlet.


1. She Had A Riches To Rags To Riches Story

Pola Negri was born Apolonia Chalupec in 1897 in Lipno, Poland. Her mother was a washerwoman and her father a tinsmith—but it hadn’t always been that way. According to Negri, her mother had been nobility but had lost everything after supporting Napoleon Bonaparte. However, as we’ll learn, Negri was prone to spinning melodramatic tales about herself—and this woeful tale might have been another one of her fabrications.

But whether she was actually a lost princess or not, Negri's childhood was a harrowing experience.

pola negri

2. They Took Away Her Father

Negri’s father had a long-standing history as a revolutionary, fighting first against the Hungarian and Austrian authorities in Slovakia, and then later against the Russian rule over Poland. This had dire consequences. His actions ruined the family and when his luck finally ran out, the Russians carted him off to Siberia—but the punishment didn’t stop there.

Pola Negri FactsWikipedia

3. She Lost Everything

According to Negri’s memoirs, after her father’s arrest, the government confiscated their belongings. Unable to wait for the verdict in her father’s case, she and her mother were forced to sell everything else they owned. Even worse, according to some versions of the story, they had to stand and watch as the government burned down their house.

With nothing to their name and no home, Negri and her mother fled the city that had only shown them heartbreak.

Pola Negri FactsGetty Images

4. She Grew Up Fast

They landed in Warsaw—but this was no happily ever after. Negri’s mother found work as a cook, but they lived in a total dump of a building. "Ladies of pleasure" came through at all hours, with strange men following them.

Little Pola apparently grew very curious about these goings-on, so maybe it's no wonder she wielded her sensuality like a weapon later in life.

Pola Negri FactsGetty Images

5. She Found Her Calling

There was one bright spot in Negri’s life at this time. She found she had a talent for ballet, and Warsaw’s Imperial Ballet Academy accepted her as a student. Negri started with smaller parts before eventually winning a solo role. Her path to success seemed guaranteed—until life got in the way again.

Pola Negri FactsWikipedia

6. She Had To Give It Up

Negri was due to reach the top of her class—until tragedy struck. She contracted tuberculosis, which forced her to stop dancing immediately. As if that wasn’t bad enough, she had to leave everything she knew behind and spend three months in recovery at a sanatorium in southern Poland. Despite the time she spent there, she never fully recovered—and it broke her heart.

Pola Negri FactsWikimedia Commons

7. She Couldn’t Forget What She Lost

Later, at the height of her Hollywood stardom, Negri still regretted the fact that she’d had to give up her first love, ballet. She even said: "I would be willing to trade places with the poorest ballet dancer in the world". She took on her pseudonym, Pola Negri, while at the sanatorium. Perhaps she thought a new name could break the curse of her disastrous past—but as we’ll see, it wouldn’t be that easy.

Pola Negri factsWikimedia Commons

8. She Knew What She Wanted

Even as a girl, classmates remembered that while most of her schoolmates were hoping to make good marriages, all Negri cared about was getting noticed. Her penchant for the spotlight even got her bullied. Other girls pulled her long black braids and tied them to fences as punishment for her ambitions. Of course, after all she’d been through, this just made Negri more determined.

Pola Negri factsGetty Images

9. She Pivoted

When Negri returned to Warsaw after her convalescence, she looked for—and found—a new direction. She wanted to act. Negri arranged to audition at the Warsaw Imperial Academy of Dramatic Arts, confident she’d get in. This time, though, there was a major obstacle standing in the way of her acting dreams.

Pola Negri factsWikimedia Commons

10. She Said No

Negri was sure she’d found her path in life—but when she told her mother, she got an unpleasant surprise. Eleonora was strongly opposed to the idea, not believing that Negri was in good enough health. She refused to give her permission to go to the Imperial Academy of Dramatic Arts, but this didn't matter to the headstrong Negri, who came up with a devious plan.

Pola Negri factsWikipedia

11. She Lied To Get Her Way

Since applying to the Academy with her own name meant risking her mother's wrath, Negri remembered the pseudonym she’d come up with at the sanatorium and used it to apply. That wasn’t the only lie she came up with, either. The 14-year-old also claimed she was actually 17 so they would admit her.

Once there, she completely threw herself into acting. Her graduation performance earned her several offers to join major theater companies.

Pola Negri FactsWikimedia Commons

12. She Fled Her Home

Success on both stage and film followed in Poland—but as the brutality of WWI crept toward Warsaw, Negri had to make a heartbreaking decision. She had to leave her home once again to escape the fighting and start over again in Berlin. Luckily, it was a blessing in disguise. She’d made enough of a name for herself in Warsaw that studios in Berlin were clamoring to work with her.

There was a film contract with her name on it, exciting roles, and new people dying to meet her in Berlin. She was finally a star.

Pola Negri FactsWikimedia Commons

13. She Found A Creative Partner

Negri’s first films trademarked her as a femme fatale, and it's easy to see why. She was darkly beautiful, a talented dancer, charming, and exotic. Not only did she use it to her advantage, but it drew men to her like flies, both on- and off-screen. In particular, director Ernst Lubitsch had his eye on her. He was working with one of the biggest studios in Germany, but he was still a relative newcomer, making comedies for them.

He wanted to take more risks and make an elaborate drama—and Pola Negri was just the woman he wanted to lead it.

Pola Negri FactsGetty Images

14. He Made Her A Star

Lubitsch and Negri’s relationship was symbiotic: He was going to make her a leading lady, and she was going to take his career to the next level. Their first film together, The Eyes of the Mummy, was not only a huge hit, but also added to Negri’s mysterious image. More collaborations followed, capitalizing on Negri’s raw sensuality and Lubitsch’s ability to use innuendo to evade censors—but their most scandalous work was yet to come.

Pola Negri FactsWikimedia Commons

15. She Played A Famous Scandal-Maker

Lubitsch’s next big work was going to be a historical drama based on the life of Madame Du Barry, King Louis XV’s final royal mistress. And who better to play a temptress than Pola Negri? While the director and star had made hits before, this one was different. Lubitsch’s skill, Negri’s talent, and the scandalous subject matter caught the attention of some very important people—and that wasn’t the only thing going on in her life.

Pola Negri factsWikipedia

16. She Didn’t Take No For An Answer

In 1919, authorities detained Pola Negri at the border while she was traveling between Warsaw and Berlin. Outraged, she demanded to see the agent’s superior officer. The men dutifully brought the bratty starlet to see the man, and she prepared to unleash her fury—until she actually saw him.

Pola Negri FactsWikimedia Commons

17. She Met Her Match

The commander was none other than the dashing Count Eugene Dabski. His good looks were reportedly so undeniable, they stopped Negri in her tracks with the exclamation: "My God! I love him”. When Dabski cleared up Negri's problem, she rewarded him by agreeing to a date. After this meet-cute, the pair corresponded through letters, and their infatuation turned to love.

Pola Negri factsPicryl

18. She Said I Do

After a whirlwind romance and an adventurous getaway, the Count finally sent Negri a letter with a marriage proposal. Over the moon and obsessed with her suitor, Negri eagerly jumped at the chance to turn herself into a Countess. Unfortunately for her, their marriage was very far from the fairy tale she imagined.

Pola Negri factsPicryl

19. Their Relationship Was One-Sided

Negri should have gotten to know the Count better before marrying him. Turns out, they were utterly incompatible: He was often away and had no interests other than his job. But that wasn't even the worst part. Though on the outside he seemed chivalrous and honorable, his actions in the bedroom were much different.

As Negri later confessed, "In bed, I was not his wife sharing the pleasures of marriage. I was simply an object at which he hurled his passion”. Oof, girl.

Pola Negri factsWikimedia Commons

20. She Made Him Jealous

The sensual, seductive Negri knew her worth, and also knew when her man wasn't respecting it. So she came up with the perfect revenge. She abandoned the Count and took up with the German millionaire Wolfgang George Schleber instead. Schleber gave her a taste for the finer things in life and, unlike the Count, he was an amazing lover. But Dabski didn't take his wife's betrayal lightly...

Pola Negri factsGetty Images

21. She Made Her Escape

When Negri's first husband Count Dabski heard that his wife was abandoning him, some sources say he threatened her at gunpoint and told her she had to give up acting and stay in their marriage. Do you think Negri listened to him? Of course not.

She just waited until he was asleep and then took off on the next train to Berlin. And the timing could not have been better.

Pola Negri factsWikimedia Commons

22. Her Stardom Grew Even More

Negri and Lubitsch’s film Madame du Barry had come out just a month before her disastrous marriage to the Count. And while she was busy fighting with her new husband, the film had gotten some serious attention all across Europe. The distributors wanted to take it to Hollywood—but there was just one problem.

After WWI, many countries had banned German films. Well, someone had to break the rules—and who better than Pola Negri?

Pola Negri FactsGetty Images

23. They Took A Risk

Ultimately, the distributors came up with a plan to get Madame Du Barry into the US. They said it was simply “European”, renamed it Passion, and strategically omitted the name of the German director. The gamble paid off, and the release of Passion ended the isolationism of the German film industry.

It also, of course, introduced the glamorous Pola Negri to a whole new audience—and they fell for her charms just as quickly as European audiences had.

Pola Negri FactsWikimedia Commons

24. She Posed A Problem

There was demand for more Negri-Lubitsch collaborations—and the creative duo was all too happy to provide. Because of the success of Passion stateside, Hollywood began to see European films, especially the popular films coming out of Germany, as a threat. Well, you know what they say: if you can’t beat ‘em, poach ‘em.

Pola Negri FactsWikimedia Commons

25. She Broke Barriers

Hollywood wouldn’t have to compete with the work of Negri & Lubitsch if they were the ones hiring them, and so, they made a groundbreaking move. Paramount Pictures offered Negri a $3,000-a-week contract. She was Hollywood’s first “import” from continental Europe. Though she was certainly not the last, there were huge expectations on her to make her mark in the US as she once had back home. But first, she had to get there.

Pola Negri factsPicryl

26. The Pressure Was On

The press in Europe had been hounding Negri long before she signed her contract with Paramount—and the new attention just made everything worse. On top of that, her travels to premieres across the continent had separated her from her lover, Wolfgang George Schleber. She hoped that a divorce from the Count would mean that she make things official with Schleber. Unfortunately, it was too little, too late.

Pola Negri factsWikimedia Commons

27. They Left Her High And Dry

Negri had begged Schleber to come see her or spend a weekend away with her, but he kept finding reasons to bail. He told her he’d meet her in Paris before she had to leave for the US, but when the time came, he never showed up. She was devastated—but the heartbreak didn’t stop there. The night before she was due to go, the Count sent her divorce papers.

He’d met a Danish woman and intended to marry her. Not one but two men had dumped her, and she was going to lose her Countess title. Oh, and she had a few weeks at sea to look forward to.

Pola Negri FactsGetty Images

28. She Hid Out

During her voyage to America, Negri’s agent disapproved of her spending so much time in her cabin and asked her to make a few appearances, if only for publicity. Of course, she had pretty good reason to want to be alone—but she hid it well. She told her agent, “All you have to do is to say you want to be alone, and the whole world thinks you are exotic and glamorous”.

Hey, it worked for Garbo!

Pola Negri FactsGetty Images

29. She Spoke Up For Herself

When Negri made it to Hollywood, she could barely speak English and had a heavy Polish accent that she kept for the rest of her life. In one famous incident, the vain starlet DEMANDED a close-up from her director by saying "Make da beeg face—Make da beeg head”. This glorious—and hilarious—audacity became a Pola trademark, but it didn’t always go over well.

Pola Negri FactsGetty Images

30. She Had A Famous Feud

When Negri arrived on the Hollywood scene, American actress Gloria Swanson was enjoying top-dog status on the Paramount lot. Meanwhile, Negri was beautiful, exotic, and a runaway Countess to boot. It didn’t take much for the two to turn against each other.

According to news articles from the time, the two had a rivalry that made Joan Crawford and Bette Davis look like besties.

Gloria Swanson factsWikipedia

31. Things Got Catty

One publication claimed that the bad blood between Swanson and Negri got so heated, it even gave new meaning to the term "cat fight”. Negri was superstitious about cats, so Swanson reportedly let loose some felines on Negri's set one day, causing the starlet to lose her concentration and freak out.

For her part, Swanson denied the whole thing. But it didn’t stop there.

Pola Negri FactsWikimedia Commons

32. She Had A Competitive Edge

For the Hollywood divas of the 1920s, being a star wasn’t good enough. They also battled each other to see who could achieve the highest-ranking royal title. Negri’s past as a countess was well-known in the industry and this set Swanson off. She ultimately one-upped Negri’s Countess title by marrying a French Marquis in 1925. But there was more to the feud than just a healthy sense of competition.

Gloria Swanson factsWikipedia

33. It Was All Fake

The papers went wild publishing stories about the ongoing rivalry between Negri and Swanson—but there was something that they didn’t know. It was pretty much completely fabricated. As one of Negri’s friends later revealed, it was a “a mélange of cooked-up jealousies and quarrels”. After all, Paramount had invested a lot into Negri’s career, even though relatively few of her movies had made it stateside. Any press is good press, right?

Pola Negri factsFlickr, Allison Marchant

34. She Was Unforgettable

Negri may not have needed publicity stunts anyway, as she made her mark in Hollywood seemingly effortlessly. She set a number of fashion trends, many of which remain popular today. Negri loved headwear, especially turbans, wore fur boots, and painted her toenails bright red. She also set fashion on fire when she decided to dye her white satin shoes to match her outfit, inspiring regular women to do it too.

Negri was definitely an attention-getter—and it wasn’t just the fashion-forward who sat up and took notice.

Pola Negri FactsGetty Images

35. She Didn’t Rejection Well

Despite the fact that her one-time lover Wolfgang George Schleber had refused to see her before she left Europe for the US, she still held on hope that they could work things out. Even after she arrived in Hollywood, she wrote him letters. But eventually, Negri had to face the facts. It was over. And well…what’s that saying about the best way to get over someone?

Pola Negri FactsFlickr, James de Menna

36. She Fell In Love Again

Negri wasted no time when it came to rebounding—and she went big. One of the first stars to welcome her in Hollywood had been Charlie Chaplin, who she’d met earlier when she still lived in Germany. Soon enough, their relationship went from platonic to romantic—but the fact that they were two of the biggest stars in Hollywood didn’t help things.

Pola Negri factsGetty Images

37. The Pressure Was On

When the tabloids found out that Negri and Chaplin were seeing each other, they went wild. They immediately published speculation that the “King of Comedy” and the “Queen of Tragedy” were secretly engaged. It was good publicity, but the news made her bosses at Paramount sweat—and for good reason.

Charlie Chaplin FactsWikimedia Commons

38. She Had An Out

Negri might have technically been a Hollywood newcomer, but she was as sly as they come—and she was also a hopeless romantic. That’s likely why she’d insisted on a “marriage clause” in her contract with Paramount. Sure, she was dedicated to her career, but after her disastrous romances with the Count and Schleber, she was also ready to give it all up for love if she needed to.

The clause stated that she’d have the option to walk off-set if she tied the knot. But as it turns out, she wasn’t about to invoke it anytime soon.

Pola Negri factsFlickr, James de Menna

39. She Aired Their Dirty Laundry

Around 1924, Negri unceremoniously dumped Chaplin. Though the media ran shocked "CHAPLIN JILTED" headlines, Negri revealed the real reason for the split. She said that Chaplin was "an inept lover" who couldn't handle her in bed. Negri claimed that he proposed marriage and she broke it off, finding him more mentally exciting than physically. Burn!

Pola Negri factsWikimedia Commons

40. She Didn’t Trust Anyone

Negri had an enviable contract with one of Hollywood’s biggest studios, which made her one of the richest women in town. She lived in a mansion that looked like the White House, and the studio sought to capitalize on her fame and talent by pairing her with their best actors and directors. Still, ever the shrewd businesswoman, Negri grew suspicious of her superiors and their plans for her career.

Pola Negri FactsGetty Images

41. She Had Her Own Ideas

Unsure if Paramount was using her correctly, Negri came up with a plan of her own. She wanted to work with Ernst Lubitsch again. It was the right move and the film they made together, Forbidden Paradise, became a critical darling. And success wasn’t the only thing it brought to her. She also fell in love with her co-star Rod La Rocque.

It was yet another high-profile romance—the kind that, as we’ll see, would come to eventually backfire on her.

Pola Negri factsForbidden Paradise (1924), Paramount Pictures

42. She Met The Great Lover

Rod La Roque didn’t last long, and after a string of unsatisfying lovers, Negri finally found a man to match her ravenous appetite: The famous "Great Lover" Rudolph Valentino. Well, famous yes—but at the same time, he was suffering a career low. His star had faded, he hadn’t had a hit in a few years, and he was just out of a seriously messy divorce.

Of course, dating one of Hollywood’s biggest stars was a great way out of that—but Valentino had no idea just what he was getting into with Negri.

Rudolph Valentino factsWikimedia Commons

43. She Confessed It All

Negri and Valentino met at a costume party, and the attraction was instant. She later wrote in her memoirs that she found him so “passionately overpowering” that he covered his bed in rose petals for her and they made love all night. While it may sound like something straight out of a romance novel, there was more to their relationship than met the eye.

Pola Negri factsPicryl

44. She Wasn’t Where She Wanted To Be

Valentino wasn’t the only one suffering a career low. The trend for starlets in Hollywood had gone from vamps like Negri to fresh-faced ingenues like Clara Bow. The relationship with Valentino was a great way for Negri to stay in the public eye. Before long, there were ginned-up stories about a potential elopement.

Ultimately, Negri made a plan to go back to Germany for four months to resurrect her career—but what about Valentino?

Pola Negri factsFlickr, James de Menna

45. They Reunited

Negri made a grand statement about her relationship with Valentino, calling their four months apart a “supreme test of love”. She really does have a flair for the dramatic. Negri returned to Hollywood in 1926. Though neither admitted to an engagement, it looked like they did reunite—but this time, their union was doomed to a heartbreaking end.

Pola Negri factsPicryl

46. She Lost Him

Valentino suddenly collapsed in August of 1926. Doctors rushed him into surgery, and the prognosis was hopeful. But then, Valentino took a turn for the worse and perished due  to a perforated ulcer at the tragically young age of 31. When Negri received the call about what had happened, she collapsed in her hotel. As the news broke, the rest of the world mourned with her—well, at least they did at first.

Pola Negri factsFlickr, James de Menna

47. She Made It All About Her

Valentino’s demise caused mass hysteria among his fans, and his funeral incited riots on the streets of New York. Negri had rushed from Hollywood to get there—but what happened next blew up in her face. At his funeral, horrified fans watched as Negri made the day all about her. She theatrically sobbed through the service, fainted on his coffin, and proclaimed to anyone who would listen that he had proposed to her. And she wasn't even done yet.

Rudolph Valentino factsGetty Images

48. She Went All Out

Negri's piece de resistance at Valentino's funeral was a "small," touching tribute to...herself, of course. On the day of the service she demanded that attendants place an enormous flower arrangement on his coffin, which read out "P-O-L-A”. That's our Pola, always so subtle and so restrained. Well, there were some brutal consequences for this behavior.

Rudolph Valentino factsGetty Images

49. It Backfired On Her

There were quite a few factors affecting Negri’s career at this point. For one, there was the introduction of talkies. Studio executives thought that her thick Polish accent and deep voice just wouldn’t work well with English dialogue. She made her last silent film in 1929, which marked the end of her apex in Hollywood.

But of course, those were studio executives—the press and fans were another thing.

Pola Negri FactsWikimedia Commons

50. She Was Cursed

Some say that the decline of Negri's career had less to do with talkies—and more to do with curses. In the 1920s, Negri's lover Rudolph Valentino bought a ring, and soon after, he got sick. He was actually wearing it when he passed on. Then, when Negri took possession of it, she too became sick. Although she recovered, her film career kept tanking. To this day, people claim the ring was responsible.

Pola Negri factsPicryl

51. She Was Too Racy

There was another reason Negri's fame floundered. In 1930, Hollywood adopted a set of rules of conduct known as the Hays Code, which censored any perceived immoral and lewd content from the screen. Unfortunately for Negri, these strict new regulations outlawed the kinds of roles that she was famous for, and severely impacted her ability to find work.

Pola Negri FactsWikimedia Commons

52. She Went Too Far

Ultimately, one of the biggest blows to Negri’s career came from her behavior at Valentino’s funeral. People had always loved her melodramatic side, but the flowers and the emotional outbursts had just been too much. Then she went and topped herself.

Rudolph Valentino factsGetty Images

53. She Couldn’t Stop Herself

Negri produced a note that she claimed Valentino had dictated to his doctor in his final moments, stating he was thinking of her. Her enthusiasm for revealing the note to the press and public only made her story seem less believable. She’d gone so far that it had all seemed like it wasn’t genuine—and her next move didn’t help that impression at all.

Rudolph Valentino factsGetty Images

54. She Moved Too Quick

Pola Negri claimed that Valentino had been the love of her life—yet she sure moved on fast. Perhaps the final nail in the coffin for her public image was the speed of her rebound. Less than a year after losing Valentino, Negri got engaged again.

In fact, the femme fatale went back and one-upped her old “rival” Swanson by marrying into royalty again.

Pola Negri factsGetty Images

55. He Was Lying To Her

This time, it was Georgian Prince Serge Mdivani. But little did Negri know, her new husband was hiding a very dark secret. As it turned out, Serge Mdivani wasn't really a prince; he just called himself a prince. But that was just the tip of the iceberg.

The whole Mdivani family soon became infamous as the "Marrying Mdivanis" because they would stop at nothing to marry the most wealthy and glamorous people of their day. That's right, our player Pola got played.

Pola Negri FactsWikipedia

56. There Was Trouble In Paradise

Negri’s marriage to Mdivani was hardly the fairy tale that she first assumed it was. He loved to gamble, and before they even left for their honeymoon, he was making regular visits to a casino in Vigny, where he became extremely good at losing money. She should have taken that as a bad sign of the things to come.

Pola Negri factsPicryl

57. He Was Jealous Of Her Success

After the honeymoon, Negri went back to work, while Mdivani had a brand-new complaint. He felt he was “losing face” because people thought of him as "Mr. Negri”. To appease him, she funded a real-estate business for him with an office on Wilshire Blvd. He blew all of those funds on bad investments—but the worst was yet to come.

Pola Negri factsWikipedia

58. She Faced True Heartbreak

While married to Serge, the most harrowing moment of Negri's life happened. When she discovered she was pregnant with his child, they immediately packed up from Hollywood to start nesting in a more quiet life in France. Tragically, Negri ended up miscarrying the baby, and responded to the loss with drinking and partying.

Their relationship was in shambles—but they still might have had a chance, if not for one thing.

Pola Negri factsGetty Images

59. He Betrayed Her

The end of Negri’s relationship with Mdivani was also the beginning of her doom. In 1929, the troublesome pair reconciled for a brief time, only for the stock market to crash on the infamous Black Thursday in October. There’s no easy way to state this: Negri lost everything­­. When the gold-digging Mdivani found out, she lost him, too. Ouch.

RooseveltWikipedia

60. She Had A Weird Side

Negri was done with Mdivani and Hollywood was done with her—but she still had her fair share of scandal. During her divorce, a painter sued her, claiming she hadn’t paid him for a portrait. The strange part? She’d told him she wanted to include a figure representing Valentino’s ghost in the background of the painting. Give it a rest, lady!

Pola Negri FactsGetty Images

61. She Had An Unsavory Fan

Negri found some success back in Germany—but there was just one problem. Her movie Mazurka became one of The Fuhrer's favorite films. Soon enough, tabloids printed rumors of an affair, which resulted in a lawsuit from Negri. She went to France, but when Germany invaded, she fled Europe and went back to the US one more time.

Pola Negri FactsMartha Scott and Pola Negri in a still from Hi Diddle Diddle (1943)Getty Images

62. She Had A Roommate

Upon returning to the US at the onset of WWII, Negri became reacquainted with heiress and vaudeville actress Margaret West. The pair became close friends and housemates, living together in Los Angeles, where they collected art and apparently threw fantastic parties. But some said there was more to their relationship than met the eye.

Pola Negri factsGetty Images

63. Rumors About Them Were Romantic

Biographers have fiercely debated the true nature of Negri’s relationship with West, with many suggesting that they were a romantic couple. Negri always denied the claim, saying that people just couldn’t understand that they were never in any kind of bedroom relationship. However, Negri did get a significant portion of West's money when she passed on.

Pola Negri factsGetty Images

64. She Still Had It

Negri’s final comeback was in Disney’s 1964 film The Moon-Spinners. Always one to know how to make headlines, Negri proved that she hadn’t lost her flair for the dramatic while she was trying to drum up interest in the film. She pulled the publicity stunt to end all publicity stunts.

While staying at a ritzy hotel in London, she swanned out to the waiting press with her pet cheetah on a leash. That's one way to make an entrance.

Pola Negri FactsGetty Images

65. She’d Wanted To Go On Her Own Terms

Negri passed on August 1, 1987 at the age of 90…ish. Remember, Negri had a penchant for fudging the facts a little. Though the officials listed the cause as pneumonia, the true cause of her passing was much more disturbing. The illness was actually secondary to a brain tumor—one that she’d refused treatment for. The pneumonia just happened to get to her first.

Pola Negri FactsWikipedia

66. She Never Changed

In the final days of her life, Negri’s vanity never waned. A handsome young doctor was treating her, but he didn’t immediately recognize her name. In true movie star fashion, she allegedly pulled herself up and indignantly asked, “You don't know who I am”?! Who knows whether he did or not, but he probably wished he had.

Pola Negri FactsWikimedia Commons

Sources: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25,26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36


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June 7, 2018 Christine Tran



Dear reader,


Want to tell us to write facts on a topic? We’re always looking for your input! Please reach out to us to let us know what you’re interested in reading. Your suggestions can be as general or specific as you like, from “Life” to “Compact Cars and Trucks” to “A Subspecies of Capybara Called Hydrochoerus Isthmius.” We’ll get our writers on it because we want to create articles on the topics you’re interested in. Please submit feedback to contribute@factinate.com. Thanks for your time!


Do you question the accuracy of a fact you just read? At Factinate, we’re dedicated to getting things right. Our credibility is the turbo-charged engine of our success. We want our readers to trust us. Our editors are instructed to fact check thoroughly, including finding at least three references for each fact. However, despite our best efforts, we sometimes miss the mark. When we do, we depend on our loyal, helpful readers to point out how we can do better. Please let us know if a fact we’ve published is inaccurate (or even if you just suspect it’s inaccurate) by reaching out to us at contribute@factinate.com. Thanks for your help!


Warmest regards,



The Factinate team




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