VILMA BANKY; STARRED ASIDE VALENTINO Associated Press (from December 12, 1992)
LOS ANGELES - Hungarian-born Vilma Banky reigned as a top film star of the 1920s, playing opposite Rudolph Valentino and Ronald Colman until the advent of talkies ended her career.
Falling ill in her 80s, she became embittered that none of her friends visiter her, and she decreed that no notice be made of her death.
Only now has a spokesman revealed the actress died in a Los Angeles nursing home on March 18, 1991, at the age of about 90.
Word of Banky's death began appearing in publications this fall. Yet her passing went largely unnoticed until this week, when her attorney confirmed the death following an inquiry from The Associated Press.
Banky was ill at home for five years and for another five years at the St. John of God Convalescent Hospital, attorney Robert Vossler said Thursday.
"During all that time, not a single soul came to visit her. She was so upset that she wanted no notice and no service when she died," he said. "I followed her wishes."
Vossler said Banky's ashes were scattered at sea near where her husband's ashes had been sown. Banky was married to actor Rod La Rocque for 42 years. Their 1927 wedding, produced by her boss, Samuel Goldwyn, was the most elaborate of the silent era.
A beauty known as "the Hungarian Rhapsody," she appeared in Hungarian, Austrian, and French films in the early 1920s before Goldwyn discovered her in 1925. With an eye toward what fan magazines would like, Goldwyn said the only English she knew was "lamb chops and pineapple."
He cast Banky opposity Colman in "The Dark Angel," a smash hit. The New York Times praised her acting and called her "so exquisite that one is not in the least surprised that she is never forgotten by (Colman)."
She made three more films with him, including "The Winning of Barbara Worth," which featured young Gary Cooper in a major role. She went on to star opposite Valentino in "The Eagle" and "The Son of the Sheik," the idol's last movies before his death in 1926.
When talkies took over in 1929, Miss Banky appeared in "This Is Heaven," cast as a Hungarian immigrant who works as a pancake-flipping cook. But audiences had trouble understanding her accent, and the movie flopped.