Biography for
Irene von Meyendorff More at IMDbPro »

Date of Birth

6 June 1916, Reval, Russian Empire [now Tallinn, Estonia]

Date of Death

28 September 2001, King's Somborne, Hampshire, UK (natural causes)

Birth Name

Irene Isabella Margarethe Paulina Caecilia Freiin von Meyendorff

Mini Biography

Born in 1916 as the eldest child of a German-Baltic aristocrat, Baroness Irene Isabella Margarete Pauline Caecila von Meyendorff actually never planned to become a movie star. When the Russian Revolution broke out, the family escaped to Germany, where Irene's mother Elisabeth left her conservative husband with the children to live a very unconventional life in the theatre circles of Weimar/Thuringia. In the early 1930's Irene came to Berlin to work as a cutter in the UFA film studios of Babelsberg. As a breathtaking beautiful, ice-cold blond young woman she would have been the ideal star for Alfred Hitchcock movies. But these were the 1930's and she lived in Nazi Germany. When she was discovered for the screen, her debut was only a mediocre swashbuckler movie - which unexpectedly made her a star. Her best part maybe was the noble Hamburg Patrician daughter Octavia in Veit Harlan's Opfergang (1944). She never was a sympathizer of the Nazi system. Her first husband, Dr. Heinz Zahler, was a member of the Kreisau Circle, a group of religious motivated anti-Nazi-bourgeois. Her beauty attracted Josef Goebbels, minister of propaganda, who got a harsh rebuff by her ("You would degrade me - and you would degrade yourself"). Josef Goebbels's infamous nick name "Bock von Babelsberg" (the old horny goat of Babelsberg) was Irene's creation. After the war she only played minor parts in German films. In 1961 she met British actor James Robertson Justice, fell in love with him and left her second husband Pit Severin, a journalist from Hamburg, to follow James Robertson Justice to England. It was 1968 when she returned a last time to screen for a small part in the costume drama Mayerling (1968). She never was interested to continue her career. 8 years after James Robertson Justice's death in 1975, she met and later married philanthropist Keith Bromley. Even at the age of 70 she sailed to the Artic and the Orinoco River. On September 28, 2001, she died in Hampshire after a full, remarkable life.

IMDb Mini Biography By: Yancey

Spouse

Keith Bromley	(1983 - ?)
Dr. Heinz Zahler	(? - ?)
Joachim Matthes	(? - ?)
Pit Severin	(? - ?)
James Robertson Justice	(? - 2 July 1975) (his death)

Trivia

A baroness.

She met actor James Robertson Justice on the set of a film in 1961, and the couple fell passionately in love. Her career was by then on the wane, James Robertson Justice was instrumental in securing the last 3 roles that she performed. She left behind career and Pit Severin, her third husband, to live with him in England. She became a British citizen in 1967, and changed her name to Irina. A series of strokes gradually prevented James Robertson Justice working and led to his bankruptcy. Earning her living as a teacher at a local Language School, Irina nursed him until his death in 1975. After 14 years of living together, they were finally married on his deathbed in hospital. She subsequently married his best friend and their neighbour, the millionaire and philanthropist Keith "Toby" Bromley. She was a passionate gardener and excellent cook, her rose garden at Ashley Manor - the home she and Keith Bromley shared - was renowned locally as was her extensive hospitality.

Had one son Andreas Zahler who died in 1985.

Had 3 grandchildren, Rebecca, daughter of Andreas Zahler; Toby, Siobhan and Gordon Bromley, children of Roderick Bromley (to whom she was step-grandmother).

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