MYSTERIOUS DEATH

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XXVI, Issue 79, 14 March 1936, Page 6

MYSTERIOUS DEATH

Film Star’s Collapse PARIS PARTY TRAGEDY The sudden death of Monna Lys, one of the best known of French cinema actresses, after a mysterious collapse at a supper party,caused consternation when it became known in Paris theatrical circles. A number of small packets stated to contain cocaine was found in her bag. On Sunday evening Miss Lys, who returned recently from Berlin, where she had been working on a film adapted from the plav “Donogoo.” went to the flat of a friend, Miss Ellis. They were joined by two other young women friends, and all annear to have had a merry evening. “To-night I want to live, I want to enioy myself,” Miss Lys said during the evening, one of them stated. At 2 o’clock she went very pale and seemed unable to breathe. She then suddenly collapsed. Her friends sent for a doctor, but in an hour she was dead. The nolice are investigating the case, and it is understood that a post-mortem is being held. Miss Lys is admitted hr her friends to have been a cocaine addict, and it has been stated that some time ago she became very ill owing to an overdose. A close friend has told the police flint of late she had suspected that scr lathing was making her unhappy, al though she was so gay on the night of her death. Those who knew her best do. not believe that she committed suicide, but think that she may have sought to forget some trouble by excessive use of drugs. Miss Lys, who was a nlatinrm blonde, was 25, and at the height of her popularity among cinema goers.