Lien Deyers (formerly Nicolina Dijjers Spanier, born Nicolina Spanier; 5 November 1909 – after March 1982) was a Dutch actress based in Germany. Early life Lien Deyers was born Nicolina Spanier in Amsterdam on 5 November 1909, the daughter of Nathan Spanier, a piano teacher (1857–1916), and Johanna Adriana Nicolina Liefjes, a seamstress (1889–1920). She had a half-brother, Andries Liefjes, (1906–1960), who was from a previous relationship of Liefjes. After Spanier’s death, Johanna married the hotel-owner Egbert Dijjers (1874–1948) and the family moved to The Hague. At the early age of five her potential was noted by Amsterdam theatre owner and film producer David Sluizer, but she did not enter the film business. Deyers spent most of her childhood years in The Hague until her stepfather, Dijjers, remarried to the Austrian actress Lotte Erol. Deyers then traveled between The Hague, Vienna (where the family mostly lived), and Lausanne, where she went to a private school and became fluent in French. Career In August 1926 the Austrian weekly Mein Film staged a competition for new young screen talent and Lien submitted her photograph. Together with twenty other contestants she was chosen for a screen-test by director Hans Otto, which she won. Subsequently, during an autograph session in the Mein Film offices in 1927, she was introduced to the well-known Austrian director Fritz Lang, who happened to be in need of a young blonde for a role in his new movie Spione, written by his wife, the novelist and screenwriter Thea von Harbou. Lang had her travel to Berlin for a screen test, and she was indeed given a secondary, racy role in Spione. She was billed as Lien Deyers because Dijjers frequently was misspelled or mispronounced in German-speaking countries. Lang had her sign a six-year contract to the UFA studios in Berlin. The contract soon turned out to be mere slavery, and Deyers sought a court decision to end it. In November 1928, the court ruled in her favor, a verdict welcomed by hundreds of Berlin-based actors with similar contracts. In turn Lang appealed and was granted a 10,000 Reichs-mark pay-off, to be fulfilled in monthly payments. Deyers and Lang already had grown to dislike each other during the shooting of Spione. She was featured in nine silent movies and 25 talkies over the following eight years, mostly comedies, some of them French productions. Her initial popularity, especially with women, was