Lilia Skala

Lilia Skala, born Lilia Sofer on November 28, 1896, in Vienna, Austria, was an Austrian-American architect and actress whose Broadway career spanned four decades, from 1941 to 1981. She died on December 18, 1994, in Bay Shore, New York, at the age of 98.

Skala was born to Katharina Skala, a Roman Catholic, and Julius Sofer, a Jewish manufacturer's representative for the Waldes Koh-i-noor Company. Because women were barred from studying at the University of Vienna at the time, her parents enrolled her at the University of Dresden in Germany, where she studied architecture and engineering, graduating Summa cum Laude. The institution is now known as the Technical University of Dresden. She returned to Vienna following graduation and continued practicing architecture professionally, becoming one of the first women architects in Austria and the first female member of the Austrian Association of Engineers and Architects. A collection of architectural drawings she produced as a student at Dresden between 1915 and 1920 was later donated to the International Archives of Women in Architecture by her sons, Peter and Martin Skala.

An interest in theatre that had taken root when Skala was in her mid-teens was renewed after the birth of one of her sons, when she enrolled in acting lessons. In the late 1930s, she and her husband, Louis Erich Skala — having adopted the non-Jewish-sounding surname of her mother — were forced to flee Nazi-occupied Austria separately, eventually settling in the United States. In the years following her arrival, Skala worked in a zipper factory in Queens, New York, as a non-English-speaking refugee before establishing herself as a performer.

On Broadway, Skala appeared in a range of productions including With a Silk Thread, the drama The Diary of Anne Frank, Zelda, and The Survivor. She also played Grand Duchess Sophie opposite Ethel Merman in Call Me Madam. Her stage career continued through 1981, encompassing both dramatic and other theatrical works.

Skala's screen career brought her considerable recognition. She received an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress for her portrayal of the Mother Superior in Lilies of the Field (1963), and earned two additional Golden Globe Award nominations as well as a Primetime Emmy Award nomination over the course of her career. Her other film appearances included Ship of Fools (1965), Charly (1968), Deadly Hero (1976), Roseland (1977), Heartland (1979), Flashdance (1983), and House of Games (1987). She also appeared in the television film Eleanor and Franklin (1976) and in television series including The Alfred Hitchcock Hour in 1965 and Green Acres in the 1960s, where she played Lisa Douglas's mother, the Countess. Her television work spanned from 1952 to 1985.

Skala was introduced to Christian Science in Vienna in the 1920s and practiced the religion throughout her life. Her life story became the subject of a one-woman play titled Lilia!, written and performed by her granddaughter Libby Skala.