Kaaren Verne was a German actress who married Peter Lorre and later took her own life She was born Ingeborg Greta Katerina Marie-Rose Klinckerfuss on April 6, 1918 in Berlin, Germany. At the age of sixteen she dropped out of school to join a local theater troupe. In 1936 she married Arthur Young, a pianist from Scotland. The following year she gave birth to a son named Alastair. Soon after she moved to England leaving her husband and son behind. Kaaren began working as a model in London. Producer Irving Asher saw a screen test she made and put her under personal contract. She made her film debut in the 1939 British drama Ten Days In Paris. Her performance got good reviews and she was offered a contract at MGM. Shortly after arriving in Hollywood she was hospitalized for an appendectomy. Kaaren was given small roles in Sky Murder and The Wild Man Of Borneo. While filming All Through The Night in 1941 she met actor Peter Lorre who was fourteen years older than her and married They began having an affair and filed for divorce from their spouses. She co-starred with Robert Cummings in Kings Row and with Spencer Tracy in The Seventh Cross. On May 25, 1945 she and Peter were married in Las Vegas. He didn't want her to work so she put her career on hold.
Unfortunately their marriage was tumultuous and Peter had numerous affairs. The couple wanted to have a child but she was unable to get pregnant. She began drinking and attempted suicide several times. Her marriage to Peter ended when he left her in 1950. To support herself she had to sell all of her designer clothes and get a job in a store. Kaaren married Harold Susman, a manufacturer's agent, in November of 1953. Just seven months later she filed for divorce. She tried to get help for her drinking by joining Alcoholics Anonymous. At a meeting she met James Power, an editor at the Hollywood Reporter. They were married in 1955. During the 1950s she landed small roles in the films The Juggler and Outside The Law. She also appeared on the television shows Fireside Theater, Bronco, and The Twilight Zone. When her ex-husband Peter Lorre died in 1964 she and her husband adopted his daughter Catherine. Sadly Kaaren continued to struggle with alcoholism and depression. Her final acting role was in a 1966 episode of 12 O'Clock High. On December 23, 1967 she tragically committed suicide at the age of forty-nine. She was buried at
Calvary Cemetery in
Saint Paul, Minnesota.
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