They performed together with Frank Sinatra. With Harry Belafonte. With Fred Astaire. And on Monday (Nov 17), Germany’s Kessler twins – Alice and Ellen – ended their lives together at age 89.
Police confirmed the death to the Associated Press, stating in an email that it was a “joint suicide.” The women shared a house in the suburb of Grunwald, just south of Munich.
The sisters, who were born in the town of Nechau on Aug 20, 1936, “no longer wanted to live” and “had chosen to end their lives together,” the German outlet Bild reported Monday, according to an automated translation.
Medically assisted dying is allowed in Germany under certain conditions, the outlet said, for people who are legally capable and acting of their own free will.
The women were inseparable in life as well as death, learning to dance when they were children and applying their skills with the Leipzig Opera children’s ballet, the AP said. In 1952, after World War II ended and the family found itself living in the newly created German Democratic Republic, East Germany, they all fled to West Germany.
The tall twosome – reportedly 5-foot-10 (178cm) – was discovered three years later while dancing in Düsseldorf in 1955, by the director of Paris’ Lido cabaret, according to German news agency DPA International. That launched an international career for the Kesslers, who moved to Rome, toured the world and performed with luminaries, DPA said.
They refused an offer to appear in Viva Las Vegas with Elvis Presley, the AP said, not wanting to get pigeon-holed in American musical films. But according to IMDb, they had a decent career in film and TV, which included mostly Italian and German projects. They sang on The Ed Sullivan Show three times in the early 1960s and on The Red Skelton Show in 1963.
The Kesslers worked well into their 80s, telling DPA at one point, “Being on the road as a duo only has advantages. You’re stronger together.”
The women told Bild in 2024 that they had “stipulated in [their] wills” that they wanted to be buried in the same urn, alongside their mother and a beloved dog. They never married.
On Monday, Radio Monte Carlo posted a tribute to Ellen and Alice Kessler on social media.
“Alice and Ellen Kessler left together, just as they lived: inseparable,” the radio station, which broadcasts out of Monaco and Milan, said in Italian on Instagram. “Born in 1936, they were an absolute symbol of European spectacle, including music, dance and television. In Italy, they became celebrities as the ‘legs of the nation,’ icon[s] of elegance and stage presence since the Fifties.
“A unique artistic couple, capable of leaving an indelible imprint on the collective imagination.” – Los Angeles Times/Tribune News Service
Those suffering from mental health issues or contemplating suicide can reach out to the Mental Health Psychosocial Support Service (03-2935 9935 or 014-322 3392); Talian Kasih (15999 or 019-261 5999 on WhatsApp); Jakim's Family, Social and Community care centre (011-1959 8214 on WhatsApp); and Befrienders Kuala Lumpur (03-7627 2929, go to www.befrienders.org.my/centre-in-malaysia for a full list of numbers and operating hours, or email sam@befrienders.org.my
