Marguerita Maria "Mady" Christians was an Austrian actress and naturalized United States citizen who had a successful acting career in theatre and film in the United States until she was blacklisted during the McCarthy period.
Background
She was born on January 19, 1892 to Rudolph Christians, a well-known German actor, and his wife, Bertha. Her family moved to Berlin when she was one year old, and to New York in 1912, where her father became the Irving Place Theatre"s general manager.
Career
Five years later she returned to Europe to study under Max Reinhardt. She appeared in a number of European films prior to the early 1930s. In 1929, she starred in the first full sound film made in Germany lieutenant"s You I Have Loved.
In 1933, she toured the United States in a play called Marching By and was offered a Broadway contract the following year that allowed her, like a number of other German artists, to seek refuge from the Nazi regime in the United States.
Webster was part of a small but influential group of lesbian producers, directors, and actors in theater (a group that included Eva Le Gallienne and Cheryl Crawford). She also starred in Lillian Hellman"s Watch on the Rhine.
She originated the title role in the 1944 play I Remember Mama. Her last movie roles were in All My Sons, based on the play by Arthur Miller, and Letter from an Unknown Woman, both released in 1948.