Personal Life
In November 1931, at the age of nineteen, Marius married Mary Westwood Steel at Gretna Green, Scotland. They had eloped to Scotland as Marius was underage and his mother, Katie, tried strenuously to prevent their marriage - Mary was ten years his senior and pregnant with their child. Katie finally relented and gave her consent and they had a second marriage ceremony in a London register office in February 1932 (with Katie and his aunt Freda acting as witnesses). Marius's only child, a daughter Phyllida, was born a few weeks later in March 1932. The marriage did not succeed.
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He became engaged in 1935 to ballet choreographer and designer, Susan 'Susy' Salaman, older sister of Merula Salaman Guinness, wife of Alec Guinness. Tragically, Susy contracted acute encephalitis in late 1935 and was left brain damaged. Marius wanted to go ahead with the wedding but Susy's father, Michel Salaman, would not allow it.
Marius first met Lucie Mannheim in late 1936. Lucie had been a principal actress in the Berlin Theatre but had to leave Germany when the Nazis came to power as she was Jewish. She had made her way to England in 1934 and soon established herself in films such as Alfred Hitchcock's 'The 39 Steps' (1935) and in a very successful production of Bruno Frank's 'Nina' which she had previously performed on the Berlin stage.
After the success of 'Nina' Lucie Mannheim was looking for a partner for her next play, 'The Unknown Girl' ('Girl Unknown') by Franz Molnar, and decided on a certain Marius Goring, whose photo in the theatre almanac 'Spotlight' she thought quite passable.
Lehnhardt, Rolf. Die Lucie-Mannheim-Story. [The Lucie Mannheim Story] (Remagen-Rolandseck, Verlag Rommerskirchen + Co., October 1973), 47.
By 1939 Marius and Lucie had formed a romantic and professional partnership, producing plays such as a revival of 'Nina' in which he co-starred with Lucie and also directed. In June 1941, he and Lucie, who was thirteen years his senior, were married. She worked with him in numerous stage productions after that and, notably, in seven episodes of 'The Adventures of the Scarlet Pimpernel' (1955), one episode of which he wrote especially for her, as well as in several films such as 'So Little Time' (1952).
“The question must arise whether this was, like some other marriages at this time, a marriage of convenience, intended to give Mannheim British nationality, but it seems unlikely that was the main purpose. Goring had divorced his first wife in order to marry Mannheim and might well have married her earlier, if he had not been obliged to wait for his divorce to come through. It was not a short-lived marriage, lasting thirty-five years and ending only with Mannheim’s death in 1976, only after that did Goring marry for a third time.” 1.
After their marriage, Marius and Lucie were living at Cobham in Surrey, 20 miles south west of London but it was only 5 miles from the Vickers Aircraft Factory at Brooklands. The Luftwaffe had bombed the Vickers Factory buildings and extensively damaged the facilities on 4 September 1940. Nearly 90 aircraft workers were killed with at least 419 injured.
"Before the elementary horror of the war, which fell on London with the bombing raids and later with the bombardment with the V1 and V 2 rockets, Lucie Mannheim crept home like a terrified animal. She was simply unable to concentrate on any work; she admired her husband and his colleagues, who were meanwhile calmly playing Shakespeare's "Tempest" in London's Old Vic, like heroes. Later, on top of her own creature fear of the threat from the air, came the tormenting thought that people were in the old homeland and that her Berlin friends and relatives were no better off. With the move to a "quiet" country house twenty kilometres from the city, she went from bad to worse, because the Vickers aircraft works were nearby, a first rank magnet for German bombers, which in turn attracted the British interceptors. Only when their little house had a solid basement did Lucie's nerves solidify back to the point where she was capable of occupational therapy." Lehnhardt, Rolf. Die Lucie-Mannheim-Story. [The Lucie Mannheim Story] (Remagen-Rolandseck, Verlag Rommerskirchen + Co., October 1973), 48.
1. Dove, Richard. Foreign Parts: German and Austrian Actors on the British Stage 1933-1960. (Cambridge, New edition ed., vol. 15, Modern Humanities Research Association, 2017), 111.
A letter from Marius to Lucie dated 23 November 1944 ("Luchie"was Marius's pet name for her)
In 1951, events took a dramatic turn in Marius's life. Having spent several months performing on the West End stage in The Madwoman of Chaillot with Martita Hunt, he went straight onto filming So Little Time with Maria Schell. Interior filming took place at Elstree Studios at Borehamwood, north of London with two weeks of outdoor location filming in Belgium. Marius had previously worked with Maria Schell in just one very brief scene in The Magic Box the previous year. This time, they were the co-stars of the film and were in nearly every scene together. Marius's wife, Lucie Mannheim, was also playing a small part in the film as his former lover and shared a few scenes together with her husband and Maria. Marius and Lucie also celebrated their tenth wedding anniversary whilst making the movie.
During filming, Marius and Maria fell in love and began a passionate affair. While Marius appeared to have never spoken about their relationship publicly, Maria chronicled it in each of her two memoirs, but particularly in her second memoir “…und wenn’s a Katz is! Mein Weg Durchs Leben (...and if it's a cat! My way through life)". Maria was deeply in love with him, describing him as the greatest love of her life and hoping that they could eventually marry. However, their affair was to be over within a year with Maria making it clear in her memoir that Lucie had known about it and had actively put a stop to their relationship.
Another momentous event happened to Marius whilst filming. On his way to Elstree Studios on the morning of 30 May 1951, he was involved in a serious motor vehicle accident. He struck and killed a man on a bicycle.
The accident's aftermath on Marius was also described by Maria in her first memoir “Die Kostbarkeit des Augenblicks: Gedanken Erinnerungen (The preciousness of the moment: thoughts, memories)." He was deeply affected by the accident and broke down on the set. An inquest held a week later ruled that it was an accident.
English extract from “Die Kostbarkeit des Augenblicks: Gedanken Erinnerungen” (The preciousness of the moment: thoughts, memories) by Maria Schell (1985) pp. 239 - 241
Great love - almost young love - Marius.
The story of the film: The love of a Belgian girl for a German officer, Marius - the tender one who could never have been an officer.
One morning Marius didn't come to shoot - we waited. A phone call, an accident on the way to the studio - a man ran into Marius' car. Dead.
Coincidence? The scene to be played - the suicide of the high German officer.
Finally Marius came. He was snow white. He didn't say a word. Walked up to us as if he didn't see us, to his place on the set and waited.
Silent, focused, scary. A great actor.
Finally everything was ready, it could be turned. The camera was running. We stood aside.
He wrote the few words that needed to be written on a piece of paper, put the key and paper on the desk, calm, terribly calm. Picked up the pistol, loaded it, laid it down in front of him, waited a long time - eyes inward, farewell.
Finally a shot was heard. He died for that man in the street. Then the shock wore off. He cried. I held him for a long time.
English extract from “…und wenn’s a Katz is! Mein Weg Durchs Leben” (...and if it's a cat! My way through life) by Maria Schell (2005) pp. 109 - 111
The third film, So Little Time, told the story of a senior German officer who falls in love with a Belgian girl during the German occupation. The main role was played by Marius Goring.
Marius Goring was one of the mainstays of English theatre along with Laurence Olivier, although they were both quite young at the time.
Marius Goring became world famous with the film The Red Shoes. However, his film career has not developed as much as that of Laurence Olivier. He stayed mostly in the theatre.
Marius was married to Lucy Mannheim, a famous actress from the era of director Jürgen Fehling, who had emigrated to London.
With Marius I experienced the only great love of my life, which corresponded completely to my nature. Marius had everything I dreamed of. Everything was home to me: his house in the woods with many dogs, his familiarity with every kind of literature and music, his incredible tenderness.
Lucy was in Germany for a short time, so I could drive with him to the house in the woods every day. I was happy like I've never known before him or after him.
He had put together a construction with which, instead of being woken up by a shrill alarm clock, one could wake up to the music one had put on in the evening and start the day slowly.
Not so slowly, however. Because at seven the cleaning lady who had been asked by Lucy Mannheim to take good care of Marius came. So I had to go into the closet.
There I crouched while the cleaning lady discussed the market prices, the post and other things and Marius kept watch in front of the closet.
"I'd be happy to stay here all day, sir," said the cleaning lady, "at least the dogs have already been fed."
"No thanks," said Marius, "I have a lot of work today."
The door clicked downstairs. I could get out of the closet. We hugged like children and made breakfast.
I was preparing at this time for Juliet, which I was supposed to play on my theatre holiday in the summer, in an open-air performance in Basel, directed by Leonard Steckel and starring Will Quadflieg as Romeo. Marius had arranged the Shakespeare play for me, handwritten in English and German and with his thoughts on it.
Every separation from Marius had become exceedingly difficult. Lucy Mannheim tried, sometimes with evil means, to prevent our great love. Nevertheless, I had to part with Marius after another year. But, by then, our love had already been destroyed and could no longer grow into the longed-for connection that might have been possible.
After many, many years I met Marius again at the Garrick Club in London. He had brought his second wife with him. We talked about our life and thought that it was actually good the way it had turned out.
Marius still writes me letters to this day. Another one just came:
"Darling Maria, my distant beloved, are you working every day or will you fly to Gatwick, Sussex, by the sea?
Your Marius”
