"A Woman's Face" Danish-American Actress Osa Masson 2006 Westwood Village Cemetery

Osa Massen (January 13, 1914[2] – January 2, 2006) was a Danish actress who went on to become a successful movie actress in Hollywood. She became a naturalized citizen of the United States in 1941.[3]

Background and early career

Born Aase Madsen Iversen in 1914, she began her career as a newspaper photographer, before becoming an actress. She first came to the United States in 1937.[4] 

Massen's first film was Kidnapped (1935).[5] 

Massen notably appeared as Melvyn Douglas' unfaithful wife dealing with blackmailer Joan Crawford in A Woman's Face (1941). 

She also appeared as a mysterious woman with something to hide in Deadline at Dawn (1946).

She starred with Lloyd Bridges in the science fiction film Rocketship X-M (1950), the first space adventure of the post-World War II era. 

Later in her career, she appeared in guest roles on many television programs. She made three guest appearances on Perry Mason: in 1958, she played Lisa Bannister in "The Case of the Desperate Daughter," and in 1959, she played Sarah Werner in "The Case of the Shattered Dream." Her last television role was in 1962 when she played Lisa Pedersen in "The Case of the Tarnished Trademark."

Personal life

She was married three times, including once to Allan Hersholt, the son of Jean Hersholt, on December 15, 1938.[2]:229

Death

Massen died on January 2, 2006, 11 days before her 92nd birthday, following unspecified surgery in Hollywood, California.[note 1][6] She had previously been living just outside Copenhagen until just before her final relocation (to California).

Osa Massen is buried at Westwood Village Memorial Park in Los Angeles, California next to her third husband Dr. Stanley William Vogel. 

Partial filmography 

Kidnapped (1935) 

Bag Københavns kulisser (1935) 

Honeymoon in Bali (1939) 

Honeymoon for Three (1941) 

You'll Never Get Rich (1941) 
A Woman's Face (1941) 
The Devil Pays Off (1941) 

Accent on Love (1941) 

Background to Danger (1943) 

Jack London (1943) 

Cry of the Werewolf (1944) 

The Black Parachute (1944) 
Deadline at Dawn (1946) 

Strange Journey (1946) 

The Gentleman Misbehaves (1946) 

Million Dollar Weekend (1948) 

Night Unto Night (1949) 

Rocketship X-M (1950) 

Outcasts of the City (1958)

Notes

The book Obituaries in the Performing Arts, 2006: Film, Television, Radio, Theatre, Dance, Music, Cartoons and Pop Culture says Massen "... died of complications from surgery in a Santa Monica, California, convalescent home ...."

References

1. IMDB The Master Race (1944)
2. Hans J. Wollstein (1994). Strangers in Hollywood: the history of Scandinavian actors in American films from 1910 to World War II. Scarecrow Press. p. 227. ISBN 978-0-8108-2938-1.
3. Copy of Petition for Naturalization #90276, filed in Los Angeles, California under the name Aase Madsen Iversen Hersholt, ancestry.com
4. She was recorded as Aase Madsen-Iversen, Danish actress, aged 23, on the manifest of the S/S Normandie, which sailed from Southampton, England, on 18 December 1937, and arrived at the Port of New York on 23 December 1937.
5. "Osa Massen, 91; 1940s Danish-Born Actress Famous as Femme Fatale". Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on 13 September 2017.
6. Lentz, Harris M. III (2007). Obituaries in the Performing Arts, 2006: Film, Television, Radio, Theatre, Dance, Music, Cartoons and Pop Culture. McFarland. pp. 230–231. ISBN 9780786452118.