Friday, November 21, 2025

A00299 - The Kessler Twins (Alice and Ellen Kessler), German Singing and Dancing Duo Famous During the 1960s

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Kessler Twins
The Kesslers Twins in 1966
Born
Alice Kessler
Ellen Kessler

20 August 1936
Nerchau, Gau Saxony, Germany
Died17 November 2025 (aged 89)
Grünwald, Bavaria, Germany
Other namesdie Kessler-Zwillinge (in Germany)
le gemelle Kessler (in Italy)
Occupations
  • Singers
  • dancers
  • actresses
Years active1947–2016

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Alice and Ellen Kessler, born Kaessler (20 August 1936 – 17 November 2025), usually credited as the Kessler Twins (German: die Kessler-Zwillinge; Italian: le gemelle Kessler), were twin German singers, dancers and actresses who were popular in Europe, especially Germany and Italy, during the 1950s and 1960s.

Early life

Twin sisters Alice and Ellen Kessler were born on 20 August 1936 in Nerchau, Gau Saxony,[1] to parents Paul and Elsa Kessler.[2] The girls started ballet classes at the age of six,[3] and they joined the Leipzig Opera's child ballet program at age 11.[4] In 1952, when the twins were 16, their parents used a visitor's visa for the family to escape East Germany.[4][5]

Career

The Kessler Twins pictured in the Italian magazine TV Sorrisi e Canzoni in 1965

After they reached Düsseldorf, the sisters performed at the Palladium theatre.[6] Between 1955 and 1960, they performed at The Lido in Paris.[6] There they met American singer Elvis Presley, who was on leave from the army on 17 June 1959.[6] The twins represented West Germany in the Eurovision Song Contest 1959, finishing in 8th place with "Heute Abend wollen wir tanzen geh'n" ("Tonight we want to go dancing").[7][6] While performing at The Lido, they also met Don Lurio, a US-born Italian choreographer who would bring them to Italy in 1961.[8]

In 1962, the twins moved to Italy,[9] where they gradually worked into more serious roles. They became very popular through the RAI television variety show Studio Uno (1961–1966).[6] 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 to that date.[7][9]

The Kessler sisters enjoyed a significant degree of popularity in the United States as well, making their American television debut on variety show The Red Skelton Hour[10] and appearing on national television programs such as The Danny Kaye Show and The Ed Sullivan Show.[11] They also appeared in the 1962 film Sodom and Gomorrah as dancers and were featured on the cover of Life that same year.[12]

The Kessler Twins moved back to Germany in 1986 and lived in Grünwald, near Munich, Bavaria.[9] They received awards from both the German and Italian governments for promoting German-Italian cooperation through their work in show business.[13]

Personal life and deaths

Despite both sisters having a history of romances – with Ellen even being with the Italian actor Umberto Orsini for 20 years, and Alice having relationships with the French singer Marcel Amont and Italian actor Enrico Maria Salerno – neither of the two sisters ever married.[8][14]

The twins died together, by assisted suicide in Grünwald, on 17 November 2025, at the age of 89.[15][16][17][14] The suicide took place in the presence of a doctor and a lawyer from the German Society for Humane Dying.[18] It was known that the twins preferred to die together and also did not want to become dependent on nursing care. According to a friend, Ellen had suffered a stroke in October while their general quality of life was declining due to heart problems and loss of the sense of smell.[19] In a 2023 interview with Bild, the childfree sisters revealed that they had changed their last will and testament. They initially wanted to bequeath their entire estate to Doctors Without Borders, but changed it so that more social organisations would inherit something; these organisations included the Paul Klinger Künstlersozialwerk, CBM Blindenmission, UNICEF, and Deutsche Stiftung Patientenschutz.[20]

The Kessler Twins in later years (pictured in 2005)

Awards

Selected filmography

Sources:[23][24]

Bibliography

References

  1.  "'Im Tode vereint' — Kessler-Zwillinge gemeinsam gestorben". Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger (in German). 17 November 2025. Retrieved 17 November 2025.
  2.  Feddersen, Jan (20 August 2018). "Kessler-Zwillinge feierten ihren 82. Geburtstag". eurovision.de (in German). Retrieved 17 November 2025.
  3.  "Kessler-Zwillinge Alice und Ellen sind gestorben". Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (in German). 17 November 2025. Retrieved 17 November 2025.
  4.  "Kessler-Zwillinge feiern ihren 160. Geburtstag". Leipziger Volkszeitung (in German). 20 August 2016. Retrieved 17 November 2025.
  5.  "Im Alter von 89 Jahren: Die Kessler-Zwillinge sind gestorben". Die Zeit (in German). dpa. 17 November 2025. Retrieved 17 November 2025.
  6.  "singend und tanzend ins internationale Showbusiness". SWR (in German). 19 August 2022. Retrieved 17 November 2025.
  7.  "Perché le gambe delle gemelle Kessler erano il sogno di tutte? La vera storia delle dive della tv italiana". www.elle.com (in Italian). 24 September 2017. Retrieved 14 June 2022.
  8.  Giuffrida, Angela (18 November 2025). "The Kessler Twins sisters Alice and Ellen die together aged 89". The Guardian. Retrieved 18 November 2025.
  9.  "Kessler-Zwillinge werden 75". SWI swissinfo.ch (in German). 20 August 2011. Retrieved 17 November 2025.
  10.  "'The Red Skelton Hour' (CBS) Season 12 (1962–63)". CTVA US Music Variety. 25 September 1962. Retrieved 17 November 2025.
  11.  "Showgirls Alice und Ellen Kessler". Der Spiegel (in German). 19 August 2016. Retrieved 17 November 2025.
  12.  "February 22 1963 Life Magazine Sensations from Germany Kessler Twins on Cover". Etsy Canada. 22 February 1963. Retrieved 17 November 2025.
  13.  Wulff, Hans-Jürgen; mediarep.org (2015). "Der Tanz der Puppen. Die Kessler-Zwillinge und ihre Performances". Montage AV. Zeitschrift für Theorie und Geschichte audiovisueller Kommunikation (in German). doi:10.25969/MEDIAREP/3506. ISSN 0942-4954.
  14.  Arkin, Daniel (18 November 2025). "The Kessler Twins, German entertainment duo, die together by assisted suicide". NBC News. Retrieved 18 November 2025.
  15.  "Alice and Ellen Kessler, '60s Singing Sensations, Die at 89". The New York Times. 19 November 2025. Retrieved 20 November 2025.
  16.  Etienne, Vanessa (17 November 2025). "Twin Sisters Who Were Once Famous Entertainers Choose to End Their Lives on the Same Day". People. Retrieved 17 November 2025.
  17.  Klugmayer, Lisa (17 November 2025). "Die Kessler-Zwillinge sind tot". FOCUS online (in German). Retrieved 17 November 2025.
  18.  Hoffmann, Nadja; Zsolnay, Maria; Woitsch, Katrin (19 November 2025). "Alice und Ellen Kessler sind tot – Sie wurden von Sterbehilfeverein begleitet". Merkur.de (in German). Retrieved 19 November 2025.
  19.  Teresa Winter, Maria Zsolnay (18 November 2025). "'Wir sehen uns wieder auf Wolke 7': Der Abschiedsbrief der Kessler-Zwillinge". Münchner Merkur (in German). Retrieved 18 November 2025.
  20.  Trunk, Steffen (19 November 2025). "Kessler-Zwillinge bestimmten im Testament: Wer das Millionen-Haus erbt". www.abendzeitung-muenchen.de (in German). Retrieved 20 November 2025.
  21.  "Ehrenbürger der Stadt Grimma". Stadt Grimma (in German). Retrieved 18 November 2025.
  22.  Reppenhagen, Charlotte (17 November 2025). "Sie starben gemeinsam! Die berühmten Kessler-Zwillinge sind tot". gala.de (in German). Retrieved 17 November 2025.
  23.  "Alice Kessler". filmportal.de (in German). 20 August 1936. Retrieved 17 November 2025.
  24.  "Ellen Kessler". filmportal.de (in German). 20 August 1936. Retrieved 17 November 2025.
  25.  Guttmann, Katja (17 November 2025). "Kessler-Zwillinge mit 89 Jahren in München gestorben". Süddeutsche.de (in German). Retrieved 17 November 2025.
  26.  CINEMA online (18 December 1956). "Kino bei CINEMA: Kinoprogramm, Filme, DVDs, Stars, Trailer und mehr". cinema.de (in German). Retrieved 17 November 2025.
  27.  "Die Zwillinge vom Zillertal". filmportal.de (in German). Retrieved 17 November 2025.

Further reading

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The Kessler twins were 5'10' tall.

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Alice and Ellen Kessler, ’60s Singing Sensations, Die at 89 - The New York Times

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Alice and Ellen Kessler, ’60s Singing Sensations, Die at 89

The twin sisters from Germany, who were nightclub stars and regular guests on international variety shows, chose to end their lives together.

Listen to this article · 5:23 min Learn more

By Clay Risen

Alice and Ellen Kessler, identical twin sisters from Germany whose tightly choreographed song-and-dance routines wowed nightclub and variety show audiences around the world, died on Monday at their home in Grünwald, a suburb of Munich. They were 89.

Their death, by suicide, was confirmed by the German Society for Humane Dying, which provided assistance with the process. By their own account, they had long intended to end their lives together, and Ellen had recently suffered a serious stroke.

Beginning as dancers at the famed Lido cabaret in Paris in 1955, the Kessler twins were part of the golden age of the trans-Atlantic nightclub circuit, performing on their own and alongside headliners like Frank Sinatra, Harry Belafonte and Fred Astaire.

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As singers, they recorded a number of hit songs in West Germany in the early 1960s, as part of a trio with the singer Peter Kraus. In the United States, they made regular appearances on television programs like “The Ed Sullivan Show” and “The Red Skelton Hour.”

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But their greatest success came in Italy, where they moved in 1961 and helped usher in a TV revolution. They made a splash as the first female performers allowed to show their legs on camera — albeit in opaque tights — signaling an abrupt turn toward increasingly risqué programming on Italy’s formerly conservative small screen.

They appeared in at least 12 films, made in Italy and Germany, usually in small parts, as background dancers or as comic relief. One of their more prominent roles was in “Erik the Conqueror” (1961), a low-budget Viking epic directed by Mario Bava, in which they played vestal virgins.

The Kessler sisters were constantly together, onstage and off. They practiced their synchronized routines endlessly and insisted on sitting for interviews together — even answering questions in unison.

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“We were always working,” they said during an interview with the newspaper Die Zeit in 2016. “We are perfectionists.”

They were among West Germany’s first pop-culture exports after World War II, and their statuesque features made them a paparazzo’s dream as they emerged, one after the other, from a limousine at film premieres and fashion shows.

They never married or had children. Boyfriends came and went. Ellen briefly dated the American actor Burt Lancaster, and Alice dated the French singer Marcel Amont.

They were on the cover of Life magazine in 1962; in 1975, they appeared on the cover of the Italian edition of Playboy.

“We were feminists, but without thinking about it,” they said in a 2024 interview with the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera. “From the age of 15, we started earning our own living. And we’ve always been independent. Perhaps, in the end, we became a little dependent on each other.”

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ImageTwo identical twin blonde women in skimpy outfits wink as they flank a man in a tuxedo making a surprised expression.
The Kessler twins in the 1960s with the comedian Red Skelton, whose TV variety show they appeared on regularly.Credit...Porges/ullstein bild, via Getty Images

Alice and Ellen Kaessler — they dropped the “a” early in their careers — were born on Aug. 20, 1936, in Nerchau, a town in central Germany. Alice was delivered first, and Ellen followed about 30 minutes later.

Their father, Paul, was a mechanical engineer; their mother, Elsa, managed the home. Early on, their parents encouraged their artistic talents, and at 11 they enrolled at the renowned ballet school at the Leipzig Opera.

Their father, in particular, pushed them hard, but he was an unstable presence in their lives. An alcoholic who abused his wife, he eventually left them, and East Germany, for the West.

The experience gave the sisters a life mission: to become successful enough to buy their mother a home of her own. Eventually, they did.

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Twin showgirls in short skirts, bustiers and tall, feathered headpieces smile into a mirror.
The Kesslers in 1958 at the Lido, the Paris nightclub where their song-and-dance career took off.Credit...Pierluigi Praturlon/Mondadori Portfolio, via Getty Images

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It also put them off marriage and family.

“We had already decided as children against the idea of marriage,” they wrote in their 1996 autobiography, “Eins Und Eins Ist Eins” (“One Plus One Is One”). “Men really never had a chance.”

In 1952, they applied for a tourist visa to visit West Germany and never returned. They moved to Düsseldorf, where they performed at the Palladium, a nightclub. Three years later, Pierre-Louis Guérin, the director of the Lido, saw them onstage and offered them a contract to perform in Paris.

There, they became part of the Bluebell Girls, a dance troupe based at the Lido. The work was grueling — two shows a day, seven days a week — but it forced them to hone their skills, and it got them noticed.

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Two women sing while wearing long, sparkling silver dresses.
The Kesslers at a news conference in 1997, presenting excerpts from a show based on their autobiography, “Eins Und Eins Ist Eins” (“One Plus One Is One”).Credit...Karl Mittenzwei/DPA, via Associated Press

After living in Rome for decades, they returned to West Germany in 1986. At their home in Grünwald, they had separate living quarters with a sliding door in between.

“Generally, we each take care of our own house, but at midday we meet for lunch,” they told Corriere della Sera. “One day, Ellen cooks; the other, Alice.”

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They continued to perform, though less often. In 2009, they appeared with the SWR Big Band, a jazz ensemble based in Stuttgart, Germany, and in 2015 they had lead roles in “Ich War Noch Niemals in New York” (“I Have Never Been to New York”), a jukebox musical.

They left no immediate survivors.

In recent years, the sisters spoke openly about their desire for euthanasia in the event that one of them became gravely ill.

“Our desire is to go away together, on the same day,” they told Corriere della Sera. “The idea of ​​one of us going first is very hard to bear.”

Clay Risen is a Times reporter on the Obituaries desk.

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