Pretty, soulful-eyed Austrian actress Rose Stradner was a rising 30s ingénue on the Viennese stage and in a few German film romances and musicals when MGM mogul Louis B. Mayer, who was in Europe searching for exotic talent, discovered Rose. Along with 'Greer Garson' , Rose did not take to being strictly a "hausfrau" easily and soon turned destructive with alcohol used to deaden her unhappiness. She would be known for going into emotional tirades and eventually she was admitted into clinics for her violent rages and psychological disturbances. Constantly threatening suicide, a lethal mix of bitterness and depression set in and on September 27, 1958 ended her pain with an overdose of sleeping pills in her Mt. Kisco, New York, residence. She was only 45.
It is said that the famed birthday party scene ("Fasten your seat belts...its going to be a bumpy night!") with a tipsy, vitriolic Margo Channing in husband Mankiewiczs classic film All About Eve was "inspired" by a very despondent and unhappy Rose.
Mother of Christopher Mankiewicz and Tom Mankiewicz.
