Memorable Manitobans: Carla Helen Lehmann (1917-1990)

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Carla Helen Lehmann
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Actor.

Born at Winnipeg on 27 February 1917, the youngest of five children of Dr. Julius Lehmann and Elsa Hillerns, she attended Riverbend School and Rupert’s Land Ladies’ College (both forerunners to Balmoral Hall) and acted with Winnipeg’s Little Theatre. Her first of many on-stage performance came at age 15 as the lead in the 1932 production of Peter Pan at the Winnipeg Auditorium. (Her “Wendy” was played by Ruth Gordon.) After the death of her father in 1934 she moved to England and study at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London.

By 1937 she began appearing in London’s West End where she worked steadily, even through the Second World War. In 1939 she made her film debut in So This Was London. Throughout the 1940s she appeared in ten films opposite some of Britain’s leading men such as Stewart Granger, Hugh Williams, and James Mason. In 1947 she took time off from acting to have a family. When she returned in the early 1950s it was primarily to British television dramas. Lehmann returned to Winnipeg numerous times throughout her career to visit family and old acquaintances.

She died in England in December 1990.

Sources:

Carla Lehmann: From Winnipeg Little Theatre to London’s Stage, West End Dumplings.

This page was prepared by Christian Cassidy.

Page revised: 27 June 2022

Memorable Manitobans

Memorable Manitobans

This is a collection of noteworthy Manitobans from the past, compiled by the Manitoba Historical Society. We acknowledge that the collection contains both reputable and disreputable people. All are worth remembering as a lesson to future generations.

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