Helene Thimig

Thimig, Helene (Vienna, 1889-1974, Vienna), the wife and collaborator of Max Reinhardt, was the daughter of the actor and director Hugo Thimig (1854-1944), who was closely associated with the Burgtheater and the Theater in der Josefstadt in Vienna. Commencing her career as an actress in Meiningen (see Meininger), she came to prominence at the Deutsches Theater, Berlin, married Reinhardt in 1932, and worked from 1933 at the Theater in der Josefstadt. In 1938 she emigrated and collaborated with Reinhardt in his productions in the USA and in his foundation of a training centre for actors, first in Los Angeles and later in New York. Reinhardt died in exile and in 1946 she returned to Vienna, became a member of the Burgtheater, a professor at the Viennese Academy (Akademie für Musik und darstellende Kunst), and director of the Reinhardt Seminar, re-establishing its reputation (1948-54 and again 1960). Her two younger brothers Hermann Thimig (1890-1982) and Hans Thimig (1900-91) were also actors associated with the Burgtheater and with Reinhardt's school of acting, and in a number of plays all the Thimigs acted together; these included, among German plays, a farce by Nestroy and Schiller's Kabale und Liebe, produced on a tour in the USA in 1927-8. Helene Thimig's own acting was exceptionally versatile; she made a considerable impression in the title role in Goethe's Stella in 1920, perfected prominent German classical, Shakespearian, and Shavian parts, and in 1958 performed in the German première of Rattigan's Separate Tables (1955).

The biography of Helene Thimig's father, ed. F. Hadamowsky (Hugo Thimig erzählt von seinem Leben und dem Theater seiner Zeit) appeared in 1962. As Helene Thimig-Reinhardt she is the author of Wie Max Reinhardt lebte (1973).