Rosemarie Magdalena Albach (Romy) was born in Vienna, Austria in 1938 to the film star couple Magda Schneider (German) and Wolf Albach-Retty (Austrian).  Sadly the marriage ended when Romy was 5 and she had little contact with her father after that.

Romy's first movie was Wenn der weiße Flieder wieder blüht (When the White Lilacs Bloom Again) in 1953 and she appeared in it with her mother, who supervised her acting career. Two years later, at the age of 17, she was cast as Sissi (1955) in the film Sissi along with its two sequels (her real mother played her mother in the films).  The Sissi trilogy made her a huge celebrity in Europe and the press began to document her every move.

After making Sissi, while shooting the film Christine, she fell in love with her co-star French actor Alain Delon and moved with him back to Paris (1958).  She felt stereotyped as "Sissi" and wanted to escape the German press and tabloids.  In Paris, Romy was re-styled by Coco Chanel.  German speaking people everywhere were outraged and considered it a betrayal ("becoming French"), but Romy was glad to leave the intense public scrutiny even if it meant beginning her career again and in a new language, French.

After successfully appearing in Paris in the stage play ‘Tis Pity She's a Whore, she was cast in the famous Italian film Boccaccio '70 which brought her to the attention of Hollywood.  So, it was off to Hollywood.

She starred in the Orson Welles film, Le process (The Trial), and in other films like What's New Pussycat and The Cardinal.  While she was in Hollywood, Delon called their engagement off.  Romy went back to France in 1966 and wed actor/director Harry Meyen.  They had a son together, David, but that marriage ended in 1975.  The tabloids called her "unlucky in love" and she even had a miscarriage that made the headlines.

Romy continued to make films and in 1977 she married photographer Daniel Biasini and had a daughter with him, Sarah.  But like the famous character Sissi, Romy couldn't escape tragedy. Her ex-husband Harry, David's father, committed suicide in 1979.  And two years later, David tragically died at the age of 14 in a bizarre accident.  He was trying to climb the spiked fence of his stepfather's parents' home when he punctured his femoral artery and bled to death.

Romy began to excessively use alcohol and sleeping pills to cope with her sorrow.  She was found dead in her apartment in Paris on 29 May 1982.  After an examination, the authorities declared that she died of cardiac arrest.  She was only 44.  Her daughter Sarah has followed in her footsteps and is an actress in France.

Last year ARD (German broadcasting) made a movie about her life, but sadly, I am not sure how to find it here in the states and I am sure that it does not have subtitles.

So I hope your interest is peeked in Romy and in her movies.  Truly there is no more tragic, fascinating and talented actress in the twentieth century.