Helga Liné


Helga Lina Stern, known as Helga Liné, is a German-born Spanish film actress, model, and former vedette. She was a star of the horror genre during the 1960s and 1970s, and gained the reputation of a scream queen.

Early life

Liné was born Helga Lina Stern on 14 July 1932 in Berlin, into a circus family. When she was still very young, her family emigrated to Portugal to escape the Nazi regime. She began her performing arts career at the age of 8 in her family's circus acts, as an acrobat and contortionist.

Career

After winning a beauty contest, Liné made her film debut at the age of 13 in the Spanish-Portuguese co-production La mantilla de Beatriz. As a young adult she worked professionally as a model, showgirl, and vedette, working variously in Portugal, Spain, and Brazil.
In the 1950s she made further film appearances, but her career took off after she moved to Madrid in 1960. From this point, the red-headed actress made many appearances in the 1960s, particularly in horror and action films. She also starred in the spaghetti westerns In a Colt's Shadow and Have a Good Funeral, My Friend... Sartana Will Pay. Although she appeared in giallo films such as So Sweet... So Perverse, My Dear Killer, Alta tensión and Red Rings of Fear, she is best known for her horror film work. She appeared opposite Barbara Steele in Nightmare Castle, and then starred as the spy Natasha in the Gothic feature Horror Express, in the title role in The Loreley's Grasp, aka When the Screaming Stops, as a vampire countess in the erotic film The Vampires Night Orgy, and as the leader of a Satanic cult in Black Candles. She also starred opposite Spanish horror actor Paul Naschy in Horror Rises from the Tomb and The Mummy's Revenge in 1973, and appeared in the 1974 Peter Fonda film Open Season.
Later she would go on to work under Pedro Almodóvar in films such as Labyrinth of Passion in 1982 and Law of Desire in 1986. She also took part in the popular Spanish TV series Verano azul in the early eighties, as a secondary character.

Selected filmography