Marion Mill Preminger

Marion Mill Preminger (August 3, 1903 – April 16, 1972), born Josa Magda Deutsch or Magda Deuth, was a Hungarian-born socialite and philanthropist, best known for her work with Albert Schweitzer, and her marriage to director Otto Preminger.

Early life and education Josa Magda Deutsch was born in Percosova, Hungary (now in Romania). but she was considered a "charming fabulist", and her accounts were not always consistent or verifiable.

Career Mill worked as a model, actress, and nightclub performer in Vienna as a young woman. From 1950 to 1965, Preminger "renounced the glitter and the gloss" of her Hollywood social life and spent several months a year in Africa with Albert Schweitzer, assisting in his work at a hospital in the Congo. She had a collection of African art and artifacts from her travels there.

Preminger's efforts in Africa were sometimes described as well-meaning and generous, but not serious. "Schweitzer openly admires the bigness of her heart," reported the Sunday Mirror in 1963. "Privately, however, he laments her liking for low-cut, figure-hugging dresses."

In the 1960s in the United States, Preminger raised funds for Schweitzer's work and for other philanthropic causes. She served as vice-chair of the President's Committee on Employment of the Handicapped, and supported the committee's work by donating money for contest prizes. She served as honorary Consul-General at the Gabonese embassy in New York.

Publications

All I Want is Everything (1957, memoir) The Sands of Tamanrasset: The Story of Charles de Foucauld (1961, biography) "He Follows in Footsteps of Albert Schweitzer" (1961)

Personal life and legacy Mill's divorced her first husband, Mueller, to marry director Otto Preminger in Vienna in 1931.

After her death, the Marion Mill Preminger Award and Medallion were named and given in her memory, by the Women's Committee of the President's Committee on Employment of the Handicapped; Gini Laurie was one of the award's first recipients. There is a collection of papers concerning Preminger's work with Schweitzer in the collection of Xavier University Library.