# Zita Johann

Zita Johann (born Elizabeth Johann) (14 July 1904 – 24 September 1993) was an Austrian-American actress. She is best known for her role in Karl Freund's film The Mummy (1932) starring Boris Karloff.

## Early life

Johann was born on 14 July 1904 in Temesvar, Austria-Hungary, which is now Timisoara, Timiș County, Romania.
A German-speaking Banat Swabian, Zita Johann was born Elizabeth Johann in the village of Deutschbentschek (near Timișoara), Austria-Hungary. The village is now part of Romania. Johann left her home and moved to the U.S. when she was about 7 years old. Her father, a hussar officer named Stefan Johann, emigrated with his family to the United States in 1911.
In high school, she began to act in school plays. Later, she appeared with the Theatre Guild Repertory Company in touring productions of Peer Gynt, The Devil's Disciple and He Who Gets Slapped.

## Career

Johann debuted on Broadway in 1924. She turned down the lead in Universal's 1929 theatrical version of Show Boat, so she could star in the play, Machinal, with a young Clark Gable.
She subsequently signed a contract with MGM to act in films. Her contract was unique at the time in that it had a script approval clause, which is an indication of how much the studio had wanted to sign her. She took full advantage of the clause and turned down most scripts she was offered. She was said to have once asked Irving Thalberg why he made such awful pictures. About six months later, she asked to be released from her contract.
Johann made her first film appearance in D.W. Griffith's 1931 film The Struggle. Johann had been a great admirer of Griffith and was delighted to star in the film, which was inspired in part by his own struggle with alcoholism. The film was not a success.
However, the next year, she starred in her most famous film, The Mummy (1932), with Boris Karloff. It seemed like a perfect role for her because of her own beliefs in reincarnation and mysticism. However, the director, Karl Freund, was hostile to her on set. He forced her to film a (later deleted) scene while unprotected from lions, and he tried to get her to film a semi-nude scene. Johann asserted Freund set her up as a scapegoat in case his directorial debut was unsuccessful.
Johann went on to make other films and was also known for her performances in The Sin of Nora Moran (1933) and Luxury Liner (1933). None were as successful as The Mummy.
Nonetheless, her great love was the theater and she did not like Hollywood. She felt exploited by the studio moguls who viewed actors as commodities, and she didn't like being on camera which she felt was a barrier between her and the audience. By contrast, in the theater, she had more rehearsal time, felt less rushed and was less exhausted at the end of the day. In her New York Post obituary in 1993, she was quoted as having said: "I hated Hollywood. It was no more than a personality and sex factory. They weren't interested in acting." In her obituary in The Independent, she was quoted as having described the dehumanizing Hollywood system: "The moguls created stars and sold them to the public, the way a grocer sold a 39-cent can of tomatoes to his shoppers."
When the studio tried to make her appear in Thirteen Women, which she considered a tawdry melodrama, Johann asked RKP to be released from her contract. After seven films, she quit to work in theatre again, collaborating with John Houseman, to whom she was married at the time, and with Orson Welles. From the 1920s through the early 1940s, Johann appeared in a number of Broadway productions including: "Dawn" (1924) at the Sam H. Harris Theatre, "The Goat Song" (1926) at The Theatre Guild, "Machinal" (1928) at the Plymouth Theatre, "Troyka" (1930) at the Hudson Theatre, "Uncle Vanya" (1930) at the Booth Theatre, "Tomorrow and Tomorrow" (1931) at the Henry Miller's Theatre, "Seven Keys To Baldpate" (1935) at the National Theatre, "The Burning Deck" (1940) at the Maxine Elliott's Theatre and "Broken Journey" (1942) at the Henry Miller's Theatre.
In addition to her career as an actress, Johann was also a writer. She wrote plays and film scripts under the pseudonyms Joan Wolfe and Elizabeth Yorke. Under the pen name, Joan Wolfe, she wrote the scripts Emily's Week and The Raw Deal.
Johann later spent a lot of time doing community work and taught acting classes for children out of her home. In the 1970s she filmed a show called Zita and Her Friends, which was aimed at helping parents and children have better communication and stronger relationships. She also taught acting to people with learning disorders.
In 1962, she was a guest artist at Elmwood Playhouse in Nyack, New York, where she directed Don Juan In Hell.
She made her last film appearance in the 1986 horror film Raiders of the Living Dead.

## Personal life

Johann was a spiritual person who prayed before each performance. In an act reminiscent of the Roman orators before political speeches, she would call upon the spirits of the people she was to portray to ask that they inspire her work. Johann described herself as a "mystic" and claimed to have levitated. She described her process before a play: "to me, the theatre was related to the spirit. Before every performance I sat alone in my dressing-room, said my prayers, died unto myself and became my character."
Johann married three times. She married John Houseman 5 October 1929. Houseman (né Jacques Haussmann) had been born in Bucharest, about 300 miles from where Johann had been born. When the couple married, Houseman was a grain dealer like his father, but his business career was wiped out by the Wall Street crash just weeks after the wedding. It was Johann's idea that Houseman should reinvent himself as an actor, following her lead in the theater. During her film career, they lived in Malibu, where Johann enjoyed painting, reading and playing violin. The couple divorced in Mexico on 13 September 1933.
Johann briefly dated John Huston. In February 1933 she suffered injuries after a car accident where he had been driving drunk. Johann went through the windshield of Huston's car. A little over six months later, Huston was involved in another car accident, which killed dancer, Tosca Roulien.
After an only seven day courtship, Johann married retired film producer, John McCormick, on 9 July 1935. McCormick proved to be controlling and an alcoholic. They divorced on 18 August 1938.
During World War II, Johann raised money for war-related charities, and organized performances for American soldiers. At her third wedding raised money for Finnish war orphans.
For her third marriage, Johann wanted to find someone who was completely out of the industry, so she married Bernard Shedd (Schetnitz), an economist and publisher. The relationship began when he was in the military and stationed in California. After the marriage, she found out he did not have much money and was not motivated to contribute much to their marriage. They married on 18 April 1941 and divorced in the 1950s.
During her marriage to Shedd, Johann moved back to New York and bought a home in Rockland County, which is part of the New York City metropolitan area. Johann lived there for decades. She never remarried or had children, but devoted her life towards community and charity.
Johann died from pneumonia at a hospital in Nyack, New York, on 24 September 1993, at the age of 89. She was cremated and her ashes were scattered in a stream on a family farm in Upstate New York.

## Theatre credits

| Date | Title | Role | Notes |
| 14 April – June 1924 | Man and the Masses | First Woman Prisoner | Garrick Theatre, New York |
| 24 November 1924 – January 1925 | Dawn | Judith | Sam H. Harris Theatre, New York |
| 18 June – 29 November 1925 | Grand Street Follies | Performer | Neighborhood Playhouse, New York |
| 25 January – March 1926 | The Goat Song | Kruna | Guild Theatre, New York |
| 7 September – 24 November 1928 | Machinal | A Young Woman | Plymouth Theatre, New York |
| 1–1 April 1930 | Troyka | Natascha | Hudson Theatre, New York |
| 22 September – October 1930 | Uncle Vanya | Sofya Alexandrovna | Booth Theatre, New York |
| 13 January – July 1931 | Tomorrow and Tomorrow | Eve Redman | Henry Miller's Theatre, New York |
| 14–16 March 1935 | Panic | Ione | Imperial Theatre, New York$^{:159}$ |
| 27 May – June 1935 | Seven Keys to Baldpate | Mary Norton | National Theatre, New York |
| 1–2 March 1940 | The Burning Deck | Nina Brandt | Maxine Elliott Theatre, New York |
| 23 June – July 1942 | Broken Journey | Rachel Thatcher Arlen | Henry Miller's Theatre, New York |

## Filmography

| Year | Title | Role |
| 1931 | The Struggle | Florrie Wilson |
| 1932 | Tiger Shark | Quita Silva |
| 1932 | The Mummy | Helen Grosvenor |
| 1933 | Luxury Liner | Miss Morgan |
| 1933 | The Man Who Dared | Teena Pavelic |
| 1933 | The Sin of Nora Moran | Nora Moran |
| 1934 | Grand Canary | Suzan Tranter |
| 1986 | Raiders of the Living Dead | Librarian |
| 1993 | D. W. Griffith: Father of Film | On-screen participant (documentary) |