There is an entire television and film genre in which royals and commoners come together in a romantic way, from ‘Roman Holiday’ with Audrey Hepburn and Gregory Peck to ‘Princess by surprise’ and its sequelwith Anne Hathaway and Julie Andrews… We are not going to enter the ‘afternoon movie’ field because the list would be endless. It is not so common, however, for members of royalty to dedicate themselves to acting, but there are exceptions that confirm the rule.
We are going to focus on three figures from different generations, members of royal families who, with greater or lesser success, tried their hand in the world of acting: Theodora of Greece, Catherine Oxenberg and Ira de Füsternbeg. The first, Queen Sofia’s niece, who finally got married in Athens after postponing her wedding on several occasions, seems to have thrown in the towel (or has taken time to focus on her wedding), although she has been trying for years with modest plans. results.
Teodora de Grecia has pulled out all the stops to choose her stage name in the United States, none other than Theodora Greece. Not in vain in IMDB, the largest film database in the world, includes a list of all the royals she is related to. Daughter of the remembered Constantine of Greece and Anne Mary of Denmark, sister of Queen Margaret, she was born in family exile in London, but her sights were set on Hollywood.
At 41 years old, barely a dozen titles adorn his resume, his first role dates back to 2009, with a brief appearance in ‘The Lighthouse Keepers’, a film in which He rubbed shoulders with the Hollywood aristocracyBruce Dern, father of Laura Dern, Blythe Danner, mother of Gwyneth Paltrow, and Richard Dreyfuss. A promising and modest start that would be followed by small appearances in independent productions.
Teodroa of Greece, with her mother, Princess Ana María of Denmark, and actress Nia Vardalos, performer of the saga ‘My Big Fat Greek Wedding’. /
It would be in 2012 when Theodora was presented with her big opportunity, to be part of the cast of one of the oldest soap operas in the United States‘Beauty and Power’, of which thousands of episodes have been broadcast. Queen Sofia’s niece worked on it for six years, until 2018 and participated in almost 90 episodes. His next and last work to date is ‘The Great Awakening’, where he was directed by the strong actor and director Bo Roberts.
With just over 20,000 followers on her Instagram profile, Princess Theodorathe actress and royal has given priority in her posts in recent years to snapshots of her family life with her parents, her partner, Matthew Kumar, and memories of a happy past, with some nods to the Greece of her ancestors.
From Lady Di in fiction to Joan Collins’ daughter in ‘Dynasty’
As with most royals, the branches of family trees sometimes intertwine. This we can see in the case of Catherine Oxenberg, whose mother is Elizabeth of Yugoslavia, daughter of Paul of Yugoslavia and Olga of Greece and Denmarkand second cousin of Queen Sofia.
Her father is the American industrialist Howard Oxenberg, the first of her three husbands, and she also had close ties with our country, because she lived for a time in Madrid with her partner at the time, Manuel de Prado, son of Manuel Prado and Colón de Carvajal. , private administrator of King Juan Carlos.
He did not have fond memories of that eighties experience in Spain, according to some statements he made in the American press: “It was very difficult to live in Spain taking into account the majority of Spanish attitudes and customs, it is like going back 200 years.” .
Tired of our country and with different visions, the 19-year-old actress and the 31-year-old banker broke up and she flew to Hollywood with the intention of making her way as an actress. And he got it like Theodora of Greece, with modest resultsalthough it enjoyed enormous popularity thanks to the small screen.
Catherine Oxenberg, with Casper Van Dien, protagonist of the ‘Starship Troupers’ saga, one of her ex-husbands. /
In her case, there are about 40 titles in which she appears credited, but the peak of her career came with ‘Dynasty,’ a series in which she played the daughter of the perfidious Alexis Carrington, played by Joan Collins, between 1984 and 1986. A year later Next he starred in a forgettable TV remake of ‘Roman Holiday’where it became clear that comparisons are odious. The producers played the card of one princess playing another and it turned out okay. Like her portrayal of Diana of Wales in the television film ‘The Royal Romance of Charles and Diana’ and its sequel, ‘Charles and Diana: A Palace Divided’.
In recent years he has been present in the media especially for the fight he undertook to get his daughter India out of a sect. A terrible experience that she captured in the book ‘Captive: A Mother’s Crusade to Save Her Daughter from a Terrifying Cult’, co-written with Natasha Stoynoff. A matter typical of the black chronicle, as was also the conviction for drug trafficking of the young woman’s father, William Weitz Shaffer, in the 90s. Time, which is usually the best balm for everything, has been very favorable for India, which has made her a grandmother.
Niece of Gianni Agnelli, wife of Alfonso de Hohenlohe and figure with Alfredo Landa
Finally we come to the recently deceased Ira of Fürstenberg, daughter of Prince Tassilo von Fürstenberg and Clara Agnelli, sister of Gianni Agnelli, mythical owner of Fiat and one of the most powerful men in Italy. The princess, who She was married to Alfonso de Hohenlohecreator of the legendary Marbella Club, also made her first steps as an actress, but apparently more for fun than considering it a career to which she could dedicate herself body and soul.
Of spectacular beauty and elegance, Ira de Füstenberg appeared in around thirty films. Among others, ‘Fratello sole, sorella luna’, directed by Franco Zeffirelli, ‘At any price’, with Klaus Kinski, ‘The impotentísimo’ (the title explains itself), in 1970. It would be followed by ‘The loves of Don Juan’, ‘Homo eroticus’, ‘You will not want the neighbor on the fifth floor’, with Alfredo Landa, the western ‘The Friends’ with Anthony Quinn, and ‘When Husbands Went to War’, with Arturo Fernández.
Ira de Fürstenberg, with designer Karl Lagerfeld, in Germany, after a fashion show. /
In an interview with ‘Vanity Fair’, she looked back and revealed that her time as an actress was very happy: «Each film has its own story, which opens and closes, and that was what I liked; that fantasy world. I worked with great performers, like Alberto Sordi, Alfredo Landa, Donald PleasenceFranco Nero, Klaus Kinski… I have to admit that Kinski was interesting to me, but the one I have the best memory of is Anthony Quinn. “He was a true gentleman, he helped you with the scenes,” he said.
In his memoirs in ‘Hello!’ She admitted that she came to the seventh art by chance, although it was her great passion and she admitted that she had not had much luck with the projects in which she was involved, nor did she do well in Hollywood. «I did a first test with De Laurentiis and passed it. The exam was in Rome. So I left my apartment in Paris and went to Italy, which, on the other hand, was my birthplace. The first film was with Alberto Lattuada. A role alongside Patrick O’Neill, in ‘Matchless’,” the princess recalled.