Lilia Skala
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| Lilia Skala | |
|---|---|
| Born | November 29, 1896 Vienna, Austria |
| Died | December 18, 1997 (aged 101) Bay Shore, Long Island, New York |
Lilia Skala (November 28, 1896 — December 18, 1997) was an Austrian-American actress.
Skala was born in Vienna, Austria. In the late 1930s, she was forced to flee her Nazi-occupied homeland with her Jewish husband, Eric Pollack, and their two young sons.[1] Skala and her husband managed to escape (at different times) from Austria to England, and eventually settled in the USA.
Lilia Skala appeared on countless television shows and serials from 1952 to 1985 (for example, The Alfred Hitchcock Hour in 1965), and as Grand Duchess Sophie kept company on Broadway with Ethel Merman in Call Me Madam not too many years after toiling in a Queens zipper factory as a non-English-speaking refugee from Austria. The family later moved to Englewood, New Jersey.
She was nominated for an Academy Award as Best Supporting Actress for her most famous role as the Mother Superior in Lilies of the Field opposite Oscar-winning Sidney Poitier. Skala also appeared in Ship of Fools, Charly, Eleanor and Franklin, Roseland, Flashdance and House of Games
She died in Bay Shore, New York, of natural causes at age 101. Her life is the subject of an eponymous one-woman play Lilia! The play is written and performed by her granddaughter, Libby Skala.[2]
