Kaaren Verne

• Birth name:

  Katherine Ingeborg Bechstein

• Date of Birth:

  23 December 1918 Berlin, Germany

Berlin-born actress Kaaren Verne (sometimes billed as Karen) was born Ingeborg Catherine Marie Rose Klinkerfuss. Originally a stage actress and member of the Berlin State Theatre, she fled her homeland in 1938 and began her film career in England, making her debut with the drama Ten Days in Paris (1940). Jumping on the popular foreign bandwagon during WWII along with other European hopefuls, this highly attractive blonde turned in strong lead and second lead roles throughout the early 1940s. The Teutonic... more

Berlin-born actress Kaaren Verne (sometimes billed as Karen) was born Ingeborg Catherine Marie Rose Klinkerfuss. Originally a stage actress and member of the Berlin State Theatre, she fled her homeland in 1938 and began her film career in England, making her debut with the drama Ten Days in Paris (1940). Jumping on the popular foreign bandwagon during WWII along with other European hopefuls, this highly attractive blonde turned in strong lead and second lead roles throughout the early 1940s. The Teutonic actress initially intended to "Americanize" her stage name to the more acceptable Catherine Young, but her vehement anti-Nazi sentiment made for more publicity and stronger audience identification, so the name of Kaaren Verne quickly returned. She appeared frequently as mysterious ladies in both propaganda films such as Underground (1941) and whodunits, keeping Walter Pidgeon's Nick Carter and Basil Rathbone's Sherlock Holmes on their toes. For the most part she remained in the "B" movie realm.Kaaren had a couple of fine chances for stardom. She shared a touching scene with Robert Cummings in the classic soaper Kings Row (1942) and appeared opposite Humphrey Bogart as a romantic interest in All Through the Night (1941), a combination gangster/spy film. One of Bogie's lesser known movies, the best thing it did for Kaaren was introduce her to one of her co-stars Peter Lorre. Divorcing first husband Arthur Young, she quickly married Lorre in 1945 and put her career on hold for a time. The union was rather brief, however, lasting only five years. Upon their amicable divorce, she made herself available again but the wind had already been kicked out of her career sails. Kaaren found some sporadic TV work but they were minor and few and far between. Her looks grew hard and coarse over time and she moved wisely into small, drab character parts, usually as a world-weary matron. One of her last movie roles was the minor part of a hausfrau and mother to Gila Golan in the all-star epic Ship of Fools (1965). Kaaren died quite suddenly in her Hollywood home during Christmas week in 1967, looking much older than her 49 years. She was survived by her third husband, film historian James Powers, and an adopted daughter.