Amália Helena Mária Róza Putti was born in Vécse, Austria-Hungary on 10 January 1896[3] (however, the date of birth on her tombstone says 1899),[4] one of four siblings born to Gyula Julián Gábor József Putti (Hungarian: Putti Gyula Julián Gábor József, 1863–1901), a cavalry officer,[5] and his wife, Mária Rozália Kamilla, Countess Hoyos Baroness to Stichsenstein[6] (Hungarian: Hoyos Mária Rozália Kamilla, 1868–1945).

While in Germany, de Putti starred with such actors as Conrad Veidt, Alfred Abel, Werner Krauss, Grete Mosheim, and Lil Dagover, and was filmed by such directors F.W.

De Putti generally was cast as a "vamp" character, often wearing her dark hair short in a style similar to that of Louise Brooks or Colleen Moore.

Despite working with distinguished actors such as Adolphe Menjou and Zasu Pitts, she failed to make it big and left the screen by 1929 to attempt to restart her career on Broadway.

On 5 March 1926, the Ogden Standard Examiner published a story alleging that de Putti had attempted suicide by jumping out of her apartment window at the Wilmersdorf quarters.

De Putti contracted a throat infection,[13] and was taken to the Harbor Sanitarium, then located at 667 Madison Avenue, where reportedly she behaved irrationally and eluded her nurses.

Lya de Putti died at 1:05 A.M. on 27 November 1931,[14] aged 35, at the Harbor Sanitorium, leaving just $1,100 and a few bits of jewelry.

Prior to Jahnke, she was married to the Norwegian merchant Ludwig Christensen, who left her widowed when he died of tuberculosis in 1922.

[2] De Putti once was rumored to be engaged to Count Ludwig von Salm-Hoogstraeten, a former husband of oil heiress Millicent Rogers.