Elga Andersen – German Actress And Singer

Elga Andersen (born Helga Hymen, February 2, 1935, in Dortmund – December 7, 1994, in New York City) was a German actress and singer.

From the age of six, she attended a ballet school, and then went to high school in Paris. There she worked as a model and was noticed by the tabloids.

Otto Preminger selected her for a small role in his film Bonjour tristesse in 1958 and gave her the stage name "Elga Andersen". Her first starring role was in 1960 in Brazilian Rhapsody. Into the 1970s she appeared in many predominantly European productions. Her most famous role was as Lisa Belgetti alongside Steve McQueen in Le Mans.

In the 1960s she began to sing and succeeded well in the charts. Among other things, she sang the title song of The Guns of Navarone. In 1978 she married the American millionaire Peter R. Gimbel; in 1981 she worked with her husband in a multi-million-dollar project trying to recover the vault of the SS Andrea Doria, and two documentaries were made for American television.

Selected filmography
1958: Bonjour tristesse
1958: So ein Millionär hat’s schwer
1963: À toi de faire… mignonne
1964: Coast of Skeletons
1971: In Prison Awaiting Trial
1971: Le Mans
1971–1974: Aux frontières du possible (French TV show)

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The Kessler Twins

Alice and Ellen Kessler (born 20 August 1936 in Nerchau, Germany) are twins popular in Europe, especially Germany and Italy, from the 1950s and 1960s and until today for their singing, dancing and acting. They are usually credited as the Kessler Twins (Die Kessler-Zwillinge in Germany and Le Gemelle Kessler in Italy where are considered an mythe of the cultural popular history of the country), and remain popular today.

In the USA, they were not as popular, but appeared in the 1963 film Sodom and Gomorrah as dancers and appeared on the cover of Life Magazine in that year.

Their parents, Paul and Elsa, sent them to ballet classes at the age of six, and they joined the Leipzig Opera’s child ballet program at age 11. When they were 18, their parents used a visitor’s visa to escape to West Germany, where they performed at the Palladium in Düsseldorf. They performed at The Lido in Paris between 1955 and 1960, and represented West Germany in the 1959 Eurovision Song Contest, finishing in 8th place with Heute Abend wollen wir tanzen geh’n (Tonight we want to go dancing).

They moved to Italy in 1960 and gradually moved to more serious roles. At the age of 40, they agreed to pose on the cover of the Italian edition of Playboy. That issue became the fastest-selling Italian Playboy up until that point.

They moved back to Germany in 1986 and currently live in Munich. They have received numerous awards from both the German and Italian governments for promoting German-Italian cooperation through their work in show business.

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Heidi Brühl – German Actress & Singer

Heidi Rosemarie Brühl (30 January 1942, Gräfelfing, Upper Bavaria – 8 June 1991, Starnberg) was a German singer and actress who came to prominence as a young teenager and had a prolific career in film and television. She was also a successful recording artist, and is known for her participation in the 1963 Eurovision Song Contest.

Early career
Brühl first screen appearance was in the 1954 film Der letzte Sommer with Liselotte Pulver, but it was in the role of Dalli, in what became known as the "Immenhof films", that she became famous in Germany. Die Mädels von Immenhof, adapted from a novel by children’s writer Ursula Bruns, appeared in 1955 and was followed by two sequels, Hochzeit auf Immenhof and Ferien auf Immenhof, at yearly intervals.

In 1959, Brühl obtained a record deal with the Philips label, and her first single "Chico Chico Charlie" reached #5. In 1960 her recording of "Wir Wollen Niemals Auseinandergeh’n" or "(We Will Never Part) (Ring of Gold)" sold over one million copies, and was awarded a gold disc.

Eurovision Song Contest
Brühl first took part in the German Eurovision selection in 1960 with the Michael Jary-composed "Wir wollen niemals auseinandergehen" ("We Never Want to Be Apart"), which finished in second place but went on to top the German singles chart for nine weeks. She participated again in 1963, and this time was successful when the song "Marcel" was chosen to go forward to the eighth Eurovision Song Contest which took place on 5 March in London. "Marcel" finished the evening in ninth place of 16 entries.

Brühl also co-starred with Guy Williams in the 1963 classic film Captain Sindbad.

Later career
Brühl met American actor Brett Halsey, and moved with him to Rome, where they married in December 1964. In 1970, she moved to the USA where she appeared in shows in Las Vegas and played in television series such as Columbo. Brühl returned to Germany to play in two further Immenhof sequels in 1973/1974, Zwillinge vom Immenhof and Frühling auf Immenhof. She appeared in The Eiger Sanction in 1975.

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