The Original Vamp... Born Today

Pola Negri, the silent vamp.
 
She was a talented actress whose dark and exotic looks earned her many fans. At the height of her stardom, she was considered a rival to the popular actress Gloria Swanson and at one time was even engaged to Rudolph Valentino as well as Charlie Chaplin.
Born Barbara Apolonia Chałupiec on NYE,1894, in Poland as an only child in a poor family, her mother had to make a living alone after Chałupiec's father was arrested by the Russians and sent to Siberia. She was forced to give up dancing and ballet when she was struck with the threat of tuberculosis. She then turned towards acting, where she was accepted into Warsaw Imperial Academy of Dramatic Arts. In 1923, she signed a contract with Paramount, with a weekly salary of $3,000. Paramount Pictures spent a huge fortune to promote her, with advertising slogans such as: "the woman who pays and makes men pay" (Men 1924). Audiences loved her vamp roles, and soon, her salary was raised to $10,000. Paramount made her the star of celebrated films such as Hotel Imperial (1927) and The Last Payment (1922). What forever doomed Pola from the land of Hollywood was the coming of talky films. By the late twenties, silent films were greatly in decline and talkies were replacing them. By this time, Pola had become so unpopular that Paramount refused to use her name in advertisement. Her thick European accent was also a great obstacle which Pola was never able to overcome as talky films soon became the rage.

Buried in: Los Angeles

Husbands: Count Eugene Domsk (1919), Prince Serge Mdivani (1927), both she divorced.

Death: Died of a brain tumor in San Antonio, August 2, 1987.
"Damn sympathy! I don't care whether they love me or not. I don't care whether I am beautiful or not. I want a chance to act."