Ilse Werner

Ilse Werner (Ilse Charlotte Still, 11 July 1921 – 8 August 2005) was a Dutch-German actress and singer.
She was born in Batavia (present-day Jakarta) to a Dutch father, merchant and plantation owner, and a German mother. Werner was a Dutch citizen by birth; although she had her greatest successes in Germany, mainly during the time of the Third Reich, she did not assume German citizenship until 1955.

Arriving in Frankfurt, Germany at the age of 10, Werner's family in 1934 moved to Vienna, where she attended the Max Reinhardt Seminar drama school and gave her debut at the Theater in der Josefstadt in 1937. She later made her name at the legendary UFA Studios near Berlin. She starred in the popular wartime films "Die schwedische Nachtigall" (The Swedish Nightingale) and "Wir machen Musik" (We're Making Music).

Having briefly been barred from performing by the Allies at the end of World War II, due to her alleged role in Nazi propaganda, she returned to the big screen in the 1950s where she excelled in dramatic character roles.

Werner had her last appearance on German TV in 2000 before dying peacefully in her sleep on 7 August 2005 at a retirement home in Lübeck. She had been suffering from pneumonia. Her last wish was to have her ashes scattered in Potsdam-Babelsberg.

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