After the outbreak of World War I the Pentzner von Scharneck family fled to Vienna.

She was working as a dance instructor and model when she was discovered in Vienna by the Hollywood producer Irving Thalberg who was there on his honeymoon with Norma Shearer.

However, after making her debut in the 1928 silent The Masks of the Devil concerns grew at the studio about her weight and her inability to speak English which was a requirement due to the arrival of sound films.

In 1930, a PR consultant of MGM made a mistake when he released the information that Eva von Berne died in 1930 at the age of only 20 years because of excessive diet.

[citation needed] Eva von Berne worked as an executive to display windows in Vienna, and later she fled to Salzburg after the beginning of World War II where she lived with her family.