Aud Egede-Nissen (30 May 1893 – 15 November 1974) was a Norwegian actress, appearing in many early 20th-century German films.

Biography

Born in Bergen, Norway in 1893, Egede-Nissen was one of six daughters of Norwegian politician Adam Egede-Nissen; she also had five brothers.

Aud made her acting debut in Norwegian director Bjørn Bjørnson's 1913 film Scenens børn. She worked on her first German film one year later. In 1916, she appeared in Otto Rippert's six-part sci-fi serial Homunculus. Also that year, she starred as the character "Christine Daaé" in the now lost film Ernst Matray-directed German adaptation of Gaston Leroux's novel The Phantom of the Opera opposite Swedish actor Nils Olaf Chrisander.

She worked with many noted directors of early German cinema, including Ernst Lubitsch, Fritz Lang, Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau, Karl Grune, and Gerhard Lamprecht. Egede-Nissen's German film career came to an end with the advent of sound films, though she did return to Norway to make two films there in the 1940s.

Egede-Nissen was twice married to actors. In 1917 she married the German actor Georg Alexander (1888–1945), by whom she had had her son Georg (1915–1972) two years earlier; from 1924 to 1931 she was married to the Austrian actor Paul Richter (1895–1961). Richter adopted her then nine-year-old son, who later, under the name Georg Richter, became known as an actor and film producer.

Four younger sisters and two younger brothers all became actors as well: Gerd Grieg (1895–1988), Ada Kramm (1899–1981), Oscar Egede-Nissen (1903–1976), Stig Egede-Nissen (1907–1988), Lill Egede-Nissen (1909–1962) and Gøril Havrevold (1914–1992).

Aud Egede-Nissen died in Oslo on 15 November 1974 at the age of 81.