Biography

German character actress and occasional screenwriter. Began her career as an extra in opera. Stage debut in 1902, films from 1921. Under contract to Ufa, she was often cast in operettas or military comedies, specialising in robust, crusty old harridans: dominating mothers-in-law, henpecking wives, resolute aunts, grandmothers, and the like. Also appeared in several propaganda films during the Nazi period and consequently received a post-war acting ban, 1946-49.

She got married with the famous actor Bruno Kastner and they wrote together some scripts for the movies "Nur ein Diener" (1919) and "Der König von Paris" (1920).

In the movie "Tragödie der Liebe" (1923) Ida Wüst played her first bigger part in a film and subsequently she became established as a player of emancipated women.

The actress Ida Wüst began her theater career at the Stadttheater Bromberg at the beginning of the 20th century, from 1904 she had an engagement in Leipzig.

In1946 her application for denazification was rejected because they testified that Ida Wüst denounced other people during the Nazi time, only in 1949 she was classed as "exanorated".