Inge Meysel

Born Ingeborg Charlotte Hansen, the daughter of Anna Hansen, who was Danish, and Julius Meysel, a German Jew. She attended drama schools in Berlin from 1928 until 1930, thereafter she was on stage in Zwickau, Leipzig and Berlin. During Nazi Germany, Meysel was banned from performing from 1935 until 1945 because of her Jewish father. In 1945 she restarted her career in Hamburg. Since the early 1960s Inge Meysel mainly acted in made-for-TV films and got the nickname (Fernseh-) Mutter der Nation ("(Television) Mother of the Nation"). She won numerous German actor awards including a lifetime achievement award from the German Television Awards, but in 1981 she refused to accept the Bundesverdienstkreuz because "Einen Orden dafür, daß man anständig gelebt hat, brauche ich nicht" ("I don't need an order of merit just for having lived decently"). From the mid-1920s until shortly before her death, Meysel was outspoken on many – often controversial – social and political issues. Despite her decidedly leftist and feminist views, this did not harm her popularity as an actress. In 1992, she came out as bisexual. In 2004, aged 94, she died of heart failure at her home in Bullenhausen near Hamburg. She was cremated and her ashes were buried near her second husband the Austrian film producer John Olden (1918–1965) at Ohlsdorf Main Cemetery, Hamburg.

Die Wäscherin des Herrn Bonaparte (1954, based on Madame Sans-Gêne), as Catherine Hübscher Im sechsten Stock (TV series, 3 episodes, 1954–55), as Germaine Lescalier Die Heiratsvermittlerin (1955, based on The Matchmaker), as Dolly Levi Ein Mann für Jenny (1956, based on The Reluctant Debutante), as Sheila Broadbent Kabale und Liebe (1959, based on Intrigue and Love), as Miller's wife Im sechsten Stock (TV series, 3 episodes, 1959), as Germaine Lescalier (remake of the 1954/55 TV series) Die Zeit und die Conways (1960, based on Time and the Conways), as Mrs. Conway Das Fenster zum Flur (1960), as Anni Wiesner Madame Sans-Gêne (1960, based on Madame Sans-Gêne), as Catherine Hübscher (remake of Die Wäscherin des Herrn Bonaparte) Schau heimwärts, Engel (1961, based on Look Homeward, Angel), as Eliza Gant The Beaver Coat (1962, based on The Beaver Coat), as Mother Wolff The Conflagration (1962, based on The Conflagration), as Mrs. Fielitz Stadtpark (1963), as Anna Thielecke Wachet und singet (1964, based on Awake and Sing!), as Bessie Berger Die Unverbesserlichen (TV series, 7 episodes, 1965–71), as Käthe Scholz Gertrud Stranitzki (TV series, 13 episodes, 1966–68), as Gertrud Stranitzki The Rats (1969, based on The Rats), as Mrs. John Ida Rogalski (TV series, 13 episodes, 1969–70), as Ida Rogalski So war Mama (1969, based on I Remember Mama), as Mama Weh' dem, der erbt (1969, based on the Mrs Thursday series), as Alice Thursday Keiner erbt für sich allein (1970, based on the Mrs Thursday series), as Alice Thursday Kinderheim Sasener Chaussee (TV series, 6 episodes, 1973), as Irene König Eine geschiedene Frau (TV miniseries, 6 episodes, 1974), as Erika Seipold Endstation Paradies (1977), as Fränze Riedel Ihr 106. Geburtstag (1979), as Mamouret Bühne frei für Kolowitz (1980, based on Enter Laughing), as Emma Kolowitz Mrs. Harris (TV series, 6 episodes, 1982–91, based on the "Mrs. 'Arris" novels by Paul Gallico), as Ada Harris Derrick - Season 12, Episode 8: "Schwester Hilde" (1985), as Schwester Hilde Die Erbschaft (1987), as Wilhelmine Eisel The State Chancellery (1989) Polizeiruf 110: 1A Landeier (1995), as Elisabeth Kampnagel Die Liebenden vom Alexanderplatz (2001), as Ruth Levenstein Polizeiruf 110: Mein letzter Wille (2004), as Elisabeth Kampnagel (final film role)