Lisa Montell, Legendary Western Star, Dead At 89
Prolific Western star and prominent Baha'i activist Lisa Montell has passed away.
It’s always hard to say goodbye to a beloved starlet turned advocate, but unfortunately, we have to say goodbye to the legendary television Western actress, Lisa Montell. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Montell passed away on March 7 of heart problems and sepsis, leaving behind her daughter, Shireen Janti, and her granddaughter, Tatiana. She was 89 at the time of her passing.
And while we’re mourning the loss of Lisa Montell, we figured it would be a great time to celebrate her life, accomplishments, and lasting legacy.
Born Irena Ludmilla Vladimirovna Augustinovich in 1933, Lisa Montell was of Russian and Polish descent. Her family fled Warsaw, Poland before World War II, and took on the last name Montwill when they moved to New York. At the young age of 15, she became involved with acting when she transferred to the newly opened High School of Performing Arts.
But her family moved once again to Florida, so she finished out her secondary education in Fort Pierce, Florida, before pursuing higher education at the University of Miami. Still going by the name Irene Montwill, Lisa Montell’s family moved to Peru in pursuit of one of her father’s business interests, and that’s when her acting career took off.
Lisa Montell was noticed by Hollywood producer Dick Welding when she became involved in an English-speaking theater in Peru. Though Welding offered Montell her first role in Daughter of the Sun God in 1953, the film was not released until 1962. When her father passed away, her family moved once again, but this time to Hollywood to help Montell pursue her acting career given the opportunity she had to make a name for herself.
One of Lisa Montell’s earliest appearances was on the American legal drama series, The Public Defender, based on the film of the same name, which aired from 1954 to 1955. Known as the “starlet of many faces,” Montell saw herself in a number of science-fiction and adventure films such as She Gods of Shark Reef, Ten Thousand Bedrooms, Pearl of the South Pacific, The Lone Ranger and the Lost City of Gold, and the role she was most well known for, World Without End.
On the television front, Lisa Montell was most known for her appearances in Westerns, such as The Gene Autry Show, Broken Arrow, Tales of Wells Fargo, Colt .45, and Maverick. But Lisa Montell’s acting career came to an end in her 30s when she decided to shift gears to serving her community, and her religion through advocacy rather than continuing to pursue a Hollywood career.
Off-screen, Lisa Montell was known as Lisa Janti, when she married David Janti in 1957.
Having adopted the Baháʼí Faith as her religion, Lisa Montell broke away from acting, citing that she could serve her community better as an advocate than she could as a celebrity. She focused primarily on women’s advocacy at Baháʼí conferences, including the 1975 UN Women’s Conference in Mexico. But she was also known for her race unity efforts in the Baháʼí faith.
Though it’s been a long time since we’ve seen Lisa Montell appear in a series or movie, her passion for her faith and the people who practiced it needs to be highlighted. In other words, her legacy transcends film and television, and we hope that it will carry over into future generations.
