Written by Jasun Hicks

DSTidbits is sad to report that Carla Laemmle has died couple days ago (June 12, 2014). She sure had a great life, living until she was 104 years old. During the silent film era, she was most famous for the first voice dialogue in horror film genre, Dracula (1931).

“Her heart just stopped,” Laemmle’s great niece, Rosemary Hilb, said Friday morning, noting that she had been in good health.(LA Times Obituaries – Carla)

Another interesting fact about her is that she is the niece of Carl Laemmle, founder of Universal Studio.

Here are a few pictures and a GIF to remember her by.

Her uncle Carl is also famous for being the inventor of the celebrity death hoax. That’s how all the tabloids starts emerged in Hollywood and elsewhere. The celebrity death hoax is a way that some celebrities attract attention to their latest story or success and while fans are all upset they are dead, it helps increase the value of their things. This video explains a bit more about the history behind the death hoax that Carla’s uncle, Carl had invented in dire need.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GTQogQ2uQf4]

In a 2012 interview with The Times, film historian Scott Essman called Laemmle nearly “the last tie to an era that is pretty much gone. When you talk about these great Universal films of that period — we are at a point now that it is all memory.” (LA Times)

Rebecca “Carla” Laemmle, you will be greatly missed by many! Thank you for your beautiful artistic works that gave million and million people entertaining for many more years to come!
Rest well, Carla!