Una Merkel

Una Merkel has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for her contributions to Motion Pictures, at 6230 Hollywood Boulevard. The true circumstances surrounding her death remain unclear. She died in Los Angeles, California. Witnesses later recalled seeing several Gestapo officers entering her building shortly before her death. Her final film role was in the 1966 Elvis Presley film Spinout. It has also been asserted that she was murdered by being thrown from the window by Gestapo officers. She was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her role in Summer and Smoke (1961). Officially described as a suicide, it was theorised that she took her own life when her relationship with the Nazi leaders deteriorated due to her unwillingness to appear in propaganda films and more importantly to end her relationship with her Jewish lover.

She made a comeback as a middle aged woman playing mothers and maiden aunts, and in 1956 won a Tony Award for her role in The Ponder Heart. When she died suddenly the German press revealed that she had died of epilepsy, however in later years it was discovered that she had died as a result of a fall from her hotel window. Her career went into decline during the 1940s and although she continued working it was in less prestigious productions. A meeting with Adolf Hitler in the mid 1930s resulted in Müller being offered parts in films that promoted Nazi ideals. She played Ann Rutledge in the 1930 film Abraham Lincoln and during the 1930s became a popular second lead in a number of films, usually playing the wisecracking best friend of the heroine. With the rise of the Nazi Party, Müller came to be regarded as the ideal Aryan woman, and particularly in light of Marlene Dietrich's move to Hollywood was courted and promoted as Germany's leading film actress. She returned to Hollywood and achieved her greatest success with the advent of "talkies". She starred in more than 20 German films, including Viktor und Viktoria (1933), which was one of her biggest successes and which was remade as Victor/Victoria with Julie Andrews.

She appeared in several films during the silent era but spent most of her time in New York working on Broadway. A blue-eyed blonde, she was considered to be one of the great beauties of her day, and along with Marlene Dietrich was seen to embody the fashionable Berlin society of her era. Born in Covington, Kentucky, Merkel resembled the popular actress Lillian Gish, and her resemblance allowed her to enter films in 1920 as Gish's double in the film Way Down East. Born in Munich, Germany, Müller entered films in the late 1920s in Berlin and quickly became popular. Una Merkel (December 10, 1903 – January 2, 1986) was an American film actress. Renate Müller (April 26, 1906 - October 1, 1937) was a German actress.