Ilona Massey

Infobox actor
name = Ilona Massey


imagesize = 150px
caption = Ilona Massey, 1941
birthname = Ilona Hajmássy
birthdate = birth date|1910|6|16|mf=y
birthplace = Budapest, Austria – Hungary (now Budapest, Hungary)
deathdate = death date and age|1974|8|20|1910|6|16|mf=y
deathplace = Bethesda, Maryland, United States
spouse = Maj. Gen. Donald Dawson, USAF (Ret.)
(1955-1974) (her death)
Alan Curtis
(1941-1942) (divorced)
Nick Szavazd
(1935-1936) (divorced)
Charles Walker
(?-?) (divorced)

Ilona Massey (16 June, 1910 – August 20, 1974 [Her dates are also reported as 5 July 1912 (birth) and 10 August or 12 August 1974 (death). The dates shown above appear on her gravestone.] ) was a film, stage and radio performer. Massey was born Ilona Hajmassey in Budapest, Austria-Hungary and died in Bethesda, Maryland.

Billed as "the new Dietrich", she starred in three films with Nelson Eddy. In 1943, she starred opposite Lon Chaney, Jr. in Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man as Baroness Frankenstein.

In 1949, she starred in Love Happy with the Marx Brothers. Her character was Madame Egelichi, a "femme fatale" spy. Madame Egelichi was after the Romanoff diamonds, which were hidden in a tin of sardines. Ilona's character so unquestionably defined the "femme fatale" spy that it captured the imagination of Milton Caniff. He structured his "femme fatale" spy Madame Lynx, in the comic strip "Steve Canyon", after Massey's Madame Egelichi. He hired her to pose for him. [Pageant May 1953, V8 n11]

Beginning November 1, 1954, she hosted DuMont's "The Ilona Massey Show", a weekly musical variety show in which she sang songs with guests in a nightclub stage set. The music was provided by the Irving Field Trio. The series lasted through 1955.

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