Lil Dagover (born September 30, 1887, Madiun, Java, Dutch East Indies [now Indonesia]—died January 23, 1980, Munich, West Germany [now in Germany]) was an actress who was a prominent figure of German silent cinema. Although that was the era in which she made her reputation, she continued to act until shortly before her death at age 92. (Her actual year of birth, 1887 rather than 1897 as she had claimed, became known only after her death.)
Dagover was born to Dutch parents living in what was then the Dutch East Indies. She lived in England, France, and Switzerland, settling in Tübingen, Germany, to attend a girls’ school after her mother’s death. Although she had no formal training in acting, she appeared in her first film in the 1910s. Shortly thereafter she had the good fortune to work with young German director Fritz Lang on the first two parts (The Golden Lake, 1919, and The Diamond Ship, 1920) of a projected four-part silent adventure series, Die Spinnen (The Spiders, the name of a gang of criminals); the last two films of the series were never made. (For many years thought to be lost, the films were discovered in a Czech archive in the 1970s and were painstakingly restored). Thus embarked in the Weimar cinema, Dagover appeared in a number of now-classic silent films, including Das Kabinett des Doktor Caligari (1920; The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari), directed by Robert Wiene because Lang was busy on his other project; Der müde Tod (1921; Destiny), a film that inspired both Alfred Hitchcock and Luis Buñuel; Phantom (1922) and Herr Tartüff (1925; Tartuffe), with F.W. Murnau; and Le Tourbillon de Paris (1928; “The Maelstrom of Paris”), with French director Julien Duvivier. Dagover successfully made the transition to sound films with roles in movies such as the operetta Der Kongress tanzt (1931; “Congress Dances”). Her sole American film was Michael Curtiz’s The Woman from Monte Carlo (1932), but it was not successful, and she returned to Germany. There her career was sidetracked temporarily by her acquiescence with the Nazi regime, and her roles during the Nazi era differed considerably from her earlier roles. She was one of Adolf Hitler’s favourite actresses.
After World War II, Dagover continued regularly to make films, including the two-part drama Buddenbrooks (1959; adapted from the novel by Thomas Mann), and appeared in several made-for-TV movies. She also resumed a stage career, with much-acclaimed performances in Gigi, adapted from Colette’s comedy of manners, and The Madwoman of Chaillot, by Jean Giraudoux. Dagover’s last role was in Maximilian Schell’s Geschichten aus dem Wienerwald (1979; Tales from the Vienna Woods). Her memoir, Ich war die Dame (“I Was the Lady”), was published that same year. By the time of her death at age 92, she had acted in more than 130 films.