[4] Bartok was born Éva Márta Szőke Ivanovics in Kecskemét, Hungary, to a Jewish father and a Catholic mother.

[5][2] As a young child, she performed in school productions from the age of six, and later in charity events and for wounded soldiers during the Second World War.

To avoid persecution as the daughter of a Jewish father, the teenage Bartok was forced aged 15 to gain protection by marrying Géza Kovács, a Hungarian officer who had Nazi connections.

[6][7] Following the end of the Second World War, Bartok decided to enter the acting profession, and successfully sat an examination at the Drama Centre in Budapest.

She then performed in Gáspár Margit's Új Isten Thébában (New God in Thebes) in 1946, followed by Áron Tamási's drama Hullámzó vőlegény in 1947, George Bernard Shaw's Androkles és az oroszlánok (Androcles and the Lion), and Jean-Paul Sartre's A tisztességtudó utcalány (The Respectful Prostitute).

Feeling threatened and persecuted by the new Communist regime in Hungary, she asked for help from Hollywood-based Hungarian producer Alexander Paal, who had been a friend of her father.

After divorcing Paal, Eva was introduced though the Hungarian expatriate community to fellow emigre Alexander Korda, who arranged for her to be put under contract to London Films.

To assist in gaining parts on the advice of theatrical publicity agent William Wordsworth (who later became her third husband), she attracted attention by attending theatre premieres.

He asked her to join his company with the provision that she could learn enough Italian in three weeks to perform a monologue in a variety show that incorporated singing, dancing, comedians, magicians, acrobats and novelty acts.

The show was a success and over the following four months there were performances in Florence, Venice, Genoa and other cities, ending with a six-week long run in Rome at the Teatro Quirino.

In 1953, Bartok made her first German film, Rummelplatz Der Liebe (Circus of Love), starring opposite actor Curd Jürgens.

Their on-screen chemistry led to a demand for more collaborations, which came one after another in rapid succession: Der letzte Walzer, Meines Vaters Pferde I. Teil Lena und Nicoline, and Orient Express.

Following that production, her best-known roles were in The Doctor of Stalingrad, which was released in 1958, and in 1961's It Can't Always Be Caviar [de], opposite O. W. Fischer.

[11] Mountbatten was prominent part in the London demi-monde of the 1950s, which brought together a colourful mix of aristocrats and shadowy social climbers, such as osteopath Stephen Ward.

[15][13] Bartok had first met Frank Sinatra at a party while she was in Hollywood in 1955, while appearing in the film Ten Thousand Bedrooms, alongside Dean Martin.