Biography

Grüning died on November 11, 1964, in Los Angeles, at the age of 88. She was cremated and her ashes rest in Columbarium of Faith in Woodlawn Cemetery in Santa Monica, California. Actors Paul Henreid and George Bancroft are also buried here.

In 1942, at the age of 66, the oldest actor in the movie, Grüning received the role of Mrs. Leuchtag, who along with her husband (played by Ludwig Stössel) are leaving Europe for America in Casablanca. She has only one scene (a total of 30 words) in the movie when she and her husband are having a drink in Rick's Cafe with their good friend Carl the waiter (S.Z. Sakall) and struggling a bit with their English. Her husband (Ludwig Stössel) asks her for the time, "Liebchen - sweetnessheart, what watch?" She answers, "Ten watch" and he replies, "Such watch?" Carl assures them they will get along beautifully in America.

In 1925, Grüning appeared in the silent Die freudlose Gasse, directed by the legendary Georg Wilhelm Pabst, which featured a 20-year old Greta Garbo. Marlene Dietrich was also in the film, uncredited as "Maria's friend", making this the only film featuring both Marlene Dietrich and Greta Garbo. Dietrich is the dark-haired friend of Maria's who actually catches Garbo when she collapses from hunger in the Vienna butcher shop line.

She became already established at the theater at the end of the 19th century and she was successful on stages in Berlin and Bremen.

Grüning, had played Strindberg and Ibsen for legendary German director Max Reinhardt and had run the second most important drama school in Berlin, left Germany after Hitler and the Nazis came to power. After arriving in America, she received help from the European Film Fund in resettling to America. It would be nine years before she appeared in another movie.