María Corda (born Mária Antónia Farkas
4 May 1898 in
Dévá,
Hungary, died
15 February 1976 in
Thônex,
Switzerland) was a Hungarian actress and a star of the
silent film era in
Germany and
Austria.
She began her acting career in the theatres of Budapest in the early days of
World War I and soon after Hungary became an independent state she began to work in the film industry as well. Her career took off and she soon followed her then husband, the
film director Alexander Korda, to
Vienna where he made her a star of the Austrian silent screen in
epic films like
Samson und Delila (1922) and
Michael Curtiz's
Die Sklavenkönigin (1924).
Gli ultimi giorni di Pompei (1926) saw her take a leading role in an Italian film of a similar style.
In 1926 she and her husband moved to
Berlin and the following year travelled on to
Hollywood. She appeared in Korda's early productions there but enjoyed little success. Her Hollywood career to an end with the coming of sound, not least because her English was limited, so she returned to Europe where she appeared in a few minor films. She divorced Korda in 1930 and to
New York where she wrote
novels. The later years of her life were spent in the vicinity of
Geneva in
Switzerland.