- Born
- Died
- Birth nameKoncsics Vilma
- Height5′ 4″ (1.63 m)
- Vilma Bánky appeared in Hungarian, Austrian and French movies between 1920 and 1925, the year in which Samuel Goldwyn signed her, in Budapest, to a Hollywood contract. In Hollywood she was billed as the "The Hungarian Rhapsody". In the mid and late 1920s she was Goldwyn's biggest money maker, especially playing with Ronald Colman. Her best-known works were with Rudolph Valentino: daughter of a Russian aristocrat in The Eagle (1925) and an Arab dancer in The Son of the Sheik (1926). Her first talking movie was This Is Heaven (1929). She toured the U.S. in "Cherries Are Ripe" with her husband Rod La Rocque in 1930-1 and, the next year, went with him to Germany to make her last film.
- IMDb mini biography by: Ed Stephan < stephan@cc.wwu.edu>
- SpouseRod La Rocque(June 26, 1927 - October 15, 1969) (his death)
- RelativesViktor Bánky(Sibling)
- The Hungarian Rhapsody
- Banky spoke no English when first discovered by Samuel Goldwyn, who taught her to answer "Lamp chops and pineapple" to all reporters' questions.
- Was an avid golfer who was still teeing off well into her 80s.
- When she died, she left a sizable estate. She and her husband endowed a foundation to educate children.
- Banky's 1927 marriage to fellow silent film star Rod La Roque was arranged by their respective studios in hopes of bolstering both of their fading careers, and the wedding itself was staged like a film premier on a Hollywood sound stage (with guests in the "cheap seats" reputedly served papier mache chickens). Despite its impetus as a publicity stunt, the marriage lasted nearly 50 years, ending only with La Roque's death in 1969.
- Her wedding to actor Rod La Rocque was paid for by producer Samuel Goldwyn and was considered one of the most extravagent of all Hollywood parties at the time.
- This Is Heaven (1929) - $5,000 /week
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