Biography

Gerda Amalie Holst Christophersen (1870–1947) was a Danish stage and film actress, singer, theatre director and writer. From 1911, she starred in numerous early Danish films, including 15 from Nordisk Film. Born Gerda Amalie Holst Christophersen on 1 March 1870 in Copenhagen, Gerda Amalie Holst Christophersen was the daughter of the opera singer Harald Edvard Christensen and his wife Ernesta Felicita Simonsen, who also came from a family of musicians. Christophersen began her career as a stage actress in 1889 at the Casino Theatre, also taking small parts at the Royal Danish Theatre until the late 1990s.Her singing career began in 1894 when her father took her on an operatic concert tour in which she sang excerpts from Faust. From 1897 to 1900 she toured with Albert Helsengreen's theatre company, gaining fame by singing the leads in Frøken Nitouche and Den skønne Galathea as well as Adele in Die Fledermaus.