Ilka Grüning

Born in Vienna in the old Austrian-Hungarian Empire, she was one of many Jewish actors and actresses that were forced to flee Europe when the Nazis came to power in 1933.

A respected and famous actress of her time in the German-language area, she was forced to play bit parts in Hollywood.

In 1920, she appeared in the film Die Bestie im Menschen, based on the novel La Bête humaine by Émile Zola.

Grüning appeared in Veidt's two Christian Wahnschaffe movies: Weltbrand in 1920 and Die Flucht aus dem goldenen Kerker in 1921.

In 1925, Grüning appeared in the silent Joyless Street, directed by Georg Wilhelm Pabst, which featured a 20-year-old Greta Garbo.

In 1932, she received a part in Max Neufeld's Hasenklein kann nichts dafür [de], which was her last movie in Germany.

Grüning, had played Strindberg and Ibsen for Austrian director Max Reinhardt and had run the second most important drama school in Berlin, left 1938 Germany after Hitler and the Nazis came to power.

First, Grüning appeared in Kings Row, Dangerously They Live, Friendly Enemies the Sonja Henie film Iceland, and Desperate Journey.

Also in 1942, at the age of 66, Grüning received the role of Mrs. Leuchtag, who along with her husband (played by Ludwig Stössel) are leaving Europe for America in Casablanca.

She has only one scene (a total of 30 words) in the movie when she and her husband are having a drink in Rick's Cafe with their good friend Carl the waiter (S. Z. Sakall) and struggling a bit with their English.

Other movies included Repeat Performance, Letter from an Unknown Woman, A Foreign Affair, and Words and Music.

In 1950, she received a good part as Edgar Bergen's wife in the adventure film Captain China.

Ilka Grüning, drawing in 1898
Ilka Grüning as Mrs. Leuchtag in Casablanca (1942)