Margherita Horowitz, the great Austrian actress who played supporting roles (many uncredited) in countless Italian films!

Margherita was born in Austria in 1919. Her birth name was Margarethe Horowitz and her mother was Jewish. She started her career as an actress very early, and was only 14 years old when she was discovered and started to play small theater roles in Vienna.

But the growing anti-semitism in Europe in the late 1930s put an end to Margarethe's career, and she couldn't get any more work because she was half-Jewish. Desperate for work, the now 18-year-old Margarethe heard about opportunities for young singers and dancers in Italy, and decided to go to an audition. The tall, blonde and attractive Margarethe impressed on her audition and was given a six-month contract to work on the stage at the Teatro Valle in Rome.

In Rome, she met Renato Trentini, a handsome Italian fascist officer, and the two fell in love with each other. Margarethe and Renato quickly got married, and Margarethe now changed her name to Margherita Trentini and converted to Roman Catholocism. But the happiness was short-lived because soon World War 2 broke out. Renato started to work as a liaison with the German army. Because of the German occupation of Italy, there was desperate need for translators and a German major offered Margherita a translator job. Terrified that the Nazis would discover that she was half-Jewish, Margherita was too afraid to say no, and she worked with organizing theater performances for the Nazis and translaing their documents and conversations.

Fortunately, the Germans never discovered the truth about Margherita's Jewish heritage and when the war ended in 1945 she could finally feel safe. She divorced Renato, took back her maiden name Horowitz and started to act in the theater again. She also worked as a model, and also started to appear in small movie roles. Her earliest movie credit on the IMDb is from 1960 but we must assume that she also played many uncredited roles in the 1950s. Indeed, many of her roles were small and uncredited but in the 1960s she started to also get more substantial supporting roles, and was a prolific character actress up until the 1980s. In 1989, Margherita retired from acting and since then she has lived quietly outside the limelight but in 2003 she was interviewed in the Associated Press about her experiences during the war, and it was thanks to this interview that I was able to create this mini-bio for her.

J.M.


Am 27.07.2011 rief ich Margarete Horowitz an und fragte sie um ein Interview. Sie stimmte dem bereitwillig zu und betonte, dass ihr Gedächntnis sehr gut funktioniere, ihr Körper hingegen viele Probleme mache. Sie käme gerade aus dem Krankenhaus. Ich rief in den Folgejahren ein paar Mal an, aber das Telefon läutete nur und niemand hob ab. Die Zeiträume zwischen den Anrufen waren sehr groß, weil ich entweder viel zu tun hatte, oder einfach nicht daran dachte. Dass sie bei den meisten meiner Anrufe bereits tot gewesen sein muss, wusste ich zu diesem Zeitpunkt natürlich nicht, da entweder kein österreichisches Medium über ihren Tod berichtete, oder so unauffällig, dass ich es nicht mitbekam, das Telefon aber stets läutete! Am 10.08.2014 fand ich in meinen alten Standbildern ein Bild von ihr, auf dem ich sie beim Sichten des Films nicht entdeckt hatte, aber an besagtem Tag erkannte ich sie wieder. So entschloss ich mich am nächsten Tag neuerlich bei ihr anzurufen. Nachdem die Nummer plötzlich nicht mehr vergeben war, ahnte ich Schlimmes. So recherchierte ich kurz und fand heraus, dass es im Jänner 2012 eine Kremationsfeier für sie gab. So rief ich beim Friedhof an und fand so ihr Geburts- und Todesdatum heraus. Ebenso, dass ihr richtiger Name Margarete und nicht Margarethe Horowitz war.

Zur Erinnerung hier noch eine sehr unterhaltsame Szene mit ihr aus dem Film ... e poi lo chiamarono il Magnifico (Verflucht, verdammt und Halleluja)

Oh! Das hier wiegt was Leute!

Nein, das dürfen sie nicht. Es ist alles was ich habe.

Tritt sie doch vor's Schienbein!

Nein bitte, Auuuuuuuuuu! Oh, Puschi, Puschiiiiiii!

Ich bin nicht dein Puschi!

Ah, da steckt was drin Jungs! Das fühle ich.

Puschi! Puschiiiiiii!

Weiterführende Links:
Internet Movie Database
Thrilling Forum
western-maniac.forum-pro.fr
Margherita Horowitz in der Spencer/Hill-Datenbank