Brigitte Helm
Brigitte Helm (born Brigitte Gisela Eva Schittenhelm, 17 March 1906 – 11 June 1996) was a German actress, best remembered for her dual role as Maria and her double, the Maschinenmensch named Futura, in Fritz Lang's 1927 silent film "Metropolis". Biography. Brigitte Gisela Eva Schittenhelm was born on 17 March 1906 in Berlin, the daughter of Gretchen Gertrud Martha Schittenhelm (née Tews) and Edwin Alexander Johannes Schittenhelm. Helm's first role was that of Maria in "Metropolis" which she began work on while only 18 years old. After "Metropolis", Helm made over 30 other films, including talking pictures , before retiring in 1935. Her other appearances include "The Love of Jeanne Ney" (1927), "Alraune" (1928), "L'Argent" (1928), "Gloria" (1931), "The Blue Danube" (1932), "L'Atlantide" (1932), and "Gold" (1934). Helm was considered for the title role in "Bride of Frankenstein" before Elsa Lanchester was given the role. After a 10-year contract with UFA expired in 1935, Helm married her second husband Dr. Hugo Kunheim, an industrialist. Helm was also involved in several traffic accidents, and was briefly imprisoned. According to the Nazi Party's Press Chief Obergruppenführer Otto Dietrich's book "The Hitler I Knew", Adolf Hitler saw that  manslaughter charges against her from an automobile accident were dropped. Helm retired from films because she was "disgusted with the Nazi takeover of the film industry". In 1935, she moved to Switzerland where she had four children with Kunheim. In her later years, she refused to grant any interviews concerning her film career.