Name	Ilona Massey (Ilona Hajmássy)
Build	Slim
Hair Color	Blonde
Date of Birth	July 5, 1912
Birthplace	Budapest, Austria-Hungary (now Budapest, Hungary)
Star Sign	Cancer
Died	August 20, 1974 (Aged 62)
Location of Death	Bethesda, Maryland
Cause of Death	cancer
Nationality	Hungary
Ethnicity	White
Occupation	Actress
Celebrity Index	Il
Claim to Fame	Balalaika (1939) with Nelson Eddy
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Trivia and Quotes

Trivia

Appeared with Milton Berle and Arthur Treacher in an edition of the "Ziegfeld Follies" on Broadway that ran for more than 500 performances.

Billed as "the new Dietrich", she starred in three films with Nelson Eddy.

Built up her early reputation singing in musical halls and operettas in Hungary, Austria and Germany.

During the tabloid feud between Jeanette MacDonald and Nelson Eddy, Ms. Massey was tried out as Eddy`s co-star in a couple of musical films. The public was not receptive to it. Most people thought Jeanette and Nelson were married in real life and viewed this new pairing as tantamount to adultery.

Former opera-singer.

Her hatred toward communism was notorious. In 1959 she picketed in protest when Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev and Deputy Premier Anastas Mikoyan visited her country.

Her widower, Donald Dawson, was a lawyer who was at one time an administrative assistant to President Truman. He was questioned in 1951 by Senator Fulbright`s subcommittee about his connections with Washington influence peddlers and RFC loans.

Husband #3 was Charles Walker, one-time owner of a fashionable Manhattan jewelry shop.

In 1954 a special subcommittee of the House of Representatives held hearings in Manhattan on communist aggression in Eastern Europe and Ms. Massey became their star witness, testifying to the rape, murder and robbery committed by Soviet agents against her Hungarian native land.

Submitted her photograph to the Vienna office of MGM and ended up one of 36 European hopefuls to try out Hollywood. Only two succeeded. Ms. Massey and Hedy Lamarr.

• Ilona Massey and Robert Ripley
• Ilona Massey and Alan Curtis
• Ilona Massey and Michael Whelan
• Ilona Massey and Jimmy Stewart

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