pola negri was born barbara apolonia chalupec in lipno, poland on january 3, 1897 to a life of extreme poverty. by WWI she had established herself as a popular stage actress in warsaw. in 1917 she moved to berlin where she appeared in films with directors max reinhardt & ernst lubitsch that proved to be successful throughout the world. in 1922 she was offered a contract with hollywood studios. her exotic style made her popular and she would become one of the richest women in hollywood, modeling her home after the white house. unfortunately her popularity quickly faded....she had affairs with charlie chaplin and supposedly had a feud with gloria swanson but it was her hysterical scene stealing dramatics at the 1926 funeral of her lover rudolph valentino that bothered most people. she declared that they were planning to marry and had floral arrangements that spelled out her name placed next to his coffin. most of valentino's close friends denied that they were to marry and dismissed her actions as a publicity stunt.her acting style went out of vogue and once the talkies came her heavy polish accent basically ended her career in the u.s. in 1929 she lost most of her fortune in the wall street crash and returned to europe. her career was spotty at best but in 1950 billy wilder approached her to appear as norma desmond in sunset boulevard. she threw a tantrum at the mere thought of playing a has-been and the role would go to gloria swanson.in the 60s she moved to san antonio, texas and lived with her companion, texan heiress & composer, margaret west. she was often compared to norma desmond, the role she had famously turned down. she died august 1, 1987 of pneumonia at the age of 90.