40 Beautiful Photos of Elissa Landi in the 1930s and Early ’40s

Born 1904 as Elisabeth Marie Christine Kühnelt in Venice, Italian-born Austrian-American actress Elissa Landi debuted on stage in Dandy Dick (1923). She joined the Oxford Repertory Company at an early age, and appeared in many successful British and American stage productions. In 1926, she starred in Dorothy Brandon’s Blind Alley in the West End.

During the 1920s, Landi appeared in British, French, and German films before traveling to the United States to appear in a Broadway production of A Farewell to Arms (1930). Her other Broadway credits included Empress of Destiny (1938), Apology (1943), and Dark Hammock (1944).

Landi was signed to a contract by Fox Film Corporation (later 20th Century Fox) in 1931, and starred in the box office hit The Count of Monte Cristo (1934) with Robert Donat. She retired from acting in 1943, after making few more films.

Landi became a naturalized U.S. citizen in 1943, and dedicated herself to writing, producing six novels and a series of poems. She had published her first novel as early as age nineteen. She continued writing novels at the height of her movie fame, and for the rest of her short life.

Landi died from cancer in Kingston, New York in 1948 at age 43. She has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for her contributions to Motion Pictures, at 1611 Vine Street. These vintage photos captured portrait of a young and beautiful Elissa Landi in the 1930s and early 1940s.