Helene Thimig

Helene Thimig was the daughter of actor Hugo Thimig and the sister of actors Hermann and Hans Thimig. Thimig was married to the stage impresario Max Reinhardt from 1935 until his death in 1943. Thimig went into exile in the United States during the Nazi era, and returned to Europe after World War II.

Returning to Vienna from her American exile, she headed the Max Reinhardt Seminar, an acting school, from 1948 to 1954. Beginning in 1946, she directed the Jedermann productions during the Salzburg Festival. She had played the female lead (Faith) in that play for years under Reinhardt's direction and resumed the role from 1946 to 1951 and 1963 to 1965. She became an ensemble member at Vienna's Burgtheater in 1947; she moved to the Theater in the Josefstadt (her preferred company) in 1954. She died in her native Vienna in 1974, aged 85, of heart failure. She was cremated at Feuerhalle Simmering; her ashes are now buried in Neustifter Friedhof in Vienna.