Zita Johann — Acting | Biography, Movies & Career

Biography

Zita Johann (born Elisabeth Johann) was an Austrian-American stage and screen actress, best known for her dual role as Helen Grosvenor / Princess Ankhesenamón in the 1932 film The Mummy. Born July 14, 1904 in Temesvar, Austria-Hungary (which is today part of Romania), Johann immigrated to the United States when she was approximately seven years old. After appearing in school plays and with the Theatre Guild Repertory Company, she made her Broadway debut in 1924. Although she signed a contract with MGM—which included a script approval clause, unique for the time—her tenure there was very brief, and she would later make her big screen debut in D.W. Griffith's The Struggle in 1931. Her defining role in The Mummy would come the next year, although her working relationship with director Karl Freund was acrimonious. After seven films, she left the Hollywood system entirely—later stating that she felt it was exploitive—and returned to theater, in addition to penning plays and film scripts. A deeply spiritual person, Johann described herself as a "mystic" and would pray before each performance to fully surrender herself to a role. She also did community service and taught acting classes for children and people with learning disabilities. She was married and divorced three times, including a four-year marriage to actor John Houseman from 1929 to 1933. In her later years, she bought a home in Rockland County, New York, where she remained for decades, never having children or remarrying. Johann died of pneumonia in Nyack, New York, on September 24, 1993.