* 14.02.1916 in Berlin
† 10.05.1963 in Bad Oldesloe

[Deutsche Übersetzung]

Dinah Grace was a famous German revue dancer of the 1930s.

Born, raised and trained in Berlin, she successfully danced already at the age of 14 at Berlin Nelson Theater where she got the attention of the director Erik Charell. He took her to London for his revue „The White Horse Inn“.

From now on the girl who was born under the real name Ilse Schmidt used the artist name Dinah Grace.

Following the guest performance in London, Grace also made a career leap in Germany and appeared as a solo dancer in successful capital revues at Berlin Wintergarten, the Metropol Theater and Berlin Scala. Further performances not only took her to other German cities but also to European countries like France, Hungary or Austria where Dinah Grace worked for a longer period of time, especially in Vienna.

From 1934 Grace accepted various film offers, each in the role of a dancer, and starred in two short films as well as in the Austrian feature film „The Mystery Of Carlo Cavelli“ (1934) and the German pre-war production „Spassvoegel“ (1939).

In 1937 Dinah Grace married the actor Willy Fritsch whom she was dating already since 1933. She gave up her career and had two sons. The younger one, Thomas Fritsch, became an actor as well.

During World War II, Dinah Grace served in troop entertainment to avoid working in the arms factory. After the war, in 1945, she moved from Berlin to Hamburg with her family, raised her children and supported her husband’s career in business matters.

In the mid-1950s Dinah Grace was diagnosed with cancer and passed away in 1963 at the age of only 47 in Bad Oldesloe Hospital.

The tombstone holds her artist name and ‘1917’ as the year of birth. However, all personal documents registered in the archives of Berlin and Bad Oldesloe show the year of birth in 1916 (e.g. birth certificate no. 72/1916 in the registry office Berlin-Charlottenburg I).

See WILLY FRITSCH