VERA ZORINA

Vera Zorina (born Eva Brigitta Hartwig) was a German ballet star who turned to acting/singing in the 1930s and 1940s. She was the female lead of a London stage production of "On Your Toes" in 1937, and Sam Goldwyn saw her, and promptly signed her to a contract, first giving her a cameo in his "The Goldwyn Follies". He followed that with the movie version of "On Your Toes", and then performed in a Broadway show before returning to Hollywood in "Louisiana Purchase". She was then cast as Maria in "For Whom the Bell Tolls", but two weeks into production, she was replaced by Ingrid Bergman, and film offers diminished greatly, and after a couple more movies, she left Hollywood. She had married choreographer/director George Balanchine in 1939, and they divorced when she left Hollywood, and she promptly married the president of Columbia Records, and devoted much of her time to her husband and two sons. She narrated several records (in many languages!), and also directed a production of "Herod" for Norwegian TV. She passed away in 2003 at the age of 86.