Ingrid Pitt, the Polish-born actress who found fame in Hammer horror films, passed awayВ on MondayВ at the age of 73.

For music fans, she was the narrator for Cradle of Filth’s Cruelty and the Beast album. On that album, Pitt reprised her role from the film Countess Dracula, in which the Countess bathed herself in the blood of virgins to stay young.

Countess Dracula was hardly Pitt’s first foray into the world of horror. She famously played a seductive vampire in The Vampire Lovers and also hunted jugulars in The House That Dripped Blood. But Pitt’s own story is as compelling as any of her films.

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As a child, she was interned in a Nazi concentration camp. Her 1937 birth actually foiled her parents’ attempt to flee the country. After the war, her search for her family took her to East Berlin, where she later stirred up trouble as a young actress who wouldn’t keep her opinions to herself.

On the night of her stage debut, she defected, jumping into the River Spree and swimming to the western side. She was rescued by an American soldier, whom she ended up marrying.

Pitt still managed to launch her acting career in West Berlin, with small roles in Doctor Zhivago and A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum. She scored a major role in the Clint Eastwood/Richard Burton thriller, Where Eagles Dare. This led to offers from Hammer Films, the legendary British horror film company. It was at Hammer that Pitt created the roles that defined her career.

Pitt passed away at a London hospital, where she had been taken after collapsing two days prior. She had been walking to a birthday celebration in her honor.