Deana Jürgens

Deana was born in London on October 7, 1957, the daughter of film actress Eva Bartok and, at the time, an unknown father. Her birth received great publicity for several reasons. For starters, it was unheard of that a major movie star like Eva Bartok would admit to a pregnancy out of wedlock. She was divorced from her fourth husband, actor Curd Jürgens, and denied that he had any involvement in this pregnancy. It was also known that Mr. Jürgens could not have children due to a surgery performed on him to fix lesions suffered in an accident when he was young. Things got more complicated when Bartok was diagnosed in Los Angeles with an ovarian tumor that, according to doctors, must be urgently removed in order to save her life but there was no hope for the baby she was carrying.

Instead of submitting to doctors in L.A., the actress flew to London for a second opinion but was told basically the same thing. Her baby was doomed and her own life was at stake. An avid student of Subud, an Indonesian philosophy, Miss Bartok decided to postpone the surgery and immersed herself in Subud's spiritual exercises in spite of the risks. When everybody thought she was dying, Eva gave birth to a healthy baby girl whom she named Deana Grazia and shortly afterwards she, herself, was back working in a film. The tumor had miraculously disappeared and she and her baby were in perfect health. These remarkable events changed Miss Bartok forever as well as her commitment to acting. She moved with her mother and baby to the Subud compound in Cilandak, Indonesia where Deana was raised and educated.

In 1970, Bartok left her family behind and settled in Los Angeles where she wrote articles and gave lectures on Subud. Later on, Deana joined her mother in California and attended school at Marymount Junior High graduating in 1972. Deana returned to the public eye when she launched a short-lived career as a film actress in the early 1980's. Several years later, she became the center of media attention again when her mother revealed that Deana was fathered by Frank Sinatra. It is truly mystifying why Miss Bartok kept this a secret for so long nor what she expected to achieve with this revelation. By all accounts, she was a deeply spiritual individual who never cared much about financial gain so it is very unlikely that she would come up with such a story in order to con money out of "old blue eyes". On the other hand, there was never any formal rebuttal to Bartok's claim from Sinatra or his family, which leaves the subject of Deana's paternity an open question. Among so many mysteries, it is also strange that Deana decided to use "Jürgens" as her last name in films. She presently resides in Sydney, Australia, "an attractive divorcée with two children" according to confirmed reports. Eva Bartok died in London in 1998.