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Marion Michael was born as Marion Ilonka Michaela Delonge in Königsberg, Germany (now Kaliningrad, Russia) in 1940. Her father was a doctor. The last months of the war she spent together with her mother and her four-year older brother on Hiddensee, a small island in the Baltic Sea. After the war, the family moved to Berlin where Marion attended a secondary school. As a ten-year-old, she made her stage debut in little theatre and was taught classical dance in the ballet school of Tatjana Gsovsky. When she was only 15, she was selected out of allegedly 12,000 entries for the lead in Liane, das Mädchen aus dem Urwald/Liane, Jungle Goddess (Eduard von Borsody, 1956). This adventure film was largely shot on location in Africa.

The story is about a girl who is discovered in the African jungle by an expedition group which includes Hardy Krüger. A tribe adores her as a goddess. It turns out that she is Liane, the long lost granddaughter of a rich shipowner in Hamburg. Her dark hair was dyed blonde and she was promoted as the 'German Brigitte Bardot'. Michael appeared topless during the first half of the film and this was part of the success of the film. However, she was acceptable for family audiences as the nature child with no obvious erotic suggestiveness.

The film was a huge box office hit, and producer Gero Wecker offered her a seven-year-contract. The press loved her, she was constantly photographed, and at the age of 18 she already owned a sports car. Unfortunately this success of her debut film would not be matched by any of her later films.

Marion Michael played next in the comedy Der tolle Bomberg/The Mad Bomberg (Rolf Thiele, 1957) opposite Hans Albers, an adaptation of the 1923 novel of the same title by Josef Winckler based on a real historical Westphalian aristocrat of the nineteenth century.

Then followed the sequel Liane, die weiße Sklavin/Jungle Girl and the Slaver (Hermann Leitner, 1957), this time opposite Adrian Hoven. Set in North Africa, this story concerns Arab slave traders who abduct Liane and members of her tribe. Later, the two Liane films were edited together and re-marketed as Liane - die Tochter des Dschungels/Liane - The Daughter of the Jungle.

In order to break away from the Liane image, Marion took dance and acting lessons and then appeared opposite Christian Wolff in Es war die erste Liebe/First Love (Fritz Stapenhorst, 1958) in which a Catholic theology student falls in love with a country girl. Tragedy came about when, during the shooting of the crime film Bomben auf Monte Carlo/Bombs on Monte Carlo (Georg Jacoby, 1960) with Eddie Constantine, she had a car accident that left her face temporarily scarred. However, she recovered and returned to acting in Schlußakkord/Festival (Wolfgang Liebeneiner, 1960), the Schlagerfilm Davon träumen alle Mädchen/That's What All The Girls Dream About (Thomas Engel, 1961), and Jack und Jenny/Jack and Jenny (Victor Vicas, 1963) with Senta Berger and Ivan Desny.

The following decade, Marion Michael mainly worked for love theatre and television. For six years she worked at the Städtischen Bühnen Köln and In 1970 gave birth to a son, Benjamin, allegedly fathered by an American director, with whom she lived in a commune and with whom she also did some street theatre. Afterwards, she suffered severe depression after a short marriage to actor Marcel Werner ended, and retired from acting in 1976. For a while she then worked as a saleswoman. In 1979 she took the unusual step of moving from West to East Germany, where she worked as a synchronisation assistant for TV.

She still occasionally acted in TV-films such as In Hassliebe Lola/In Hate Love Lola (Lothar Lambert, 1995) and Blond bis aufs Blut/Blonde Till Blood (Lothar Lambert, 1997), and in 1996 her life became the topic of a TV musical, Liane (Horst Königstein, 1996). She also played a small role in the production. The film was nominated for the Adolf Grimme award and the Prix Europa 1997.

In her later years, she still remained a well known German film icon and with her second husband, Freimut Patzner, lived in an old house in Oderbruch. In 2007 Marion Michael died of heart failure in a hospital in Gartz an der Oder. It was four days before her 67th birthday.

Born in Königsberg in 1935, Renate Ewert and her family had to leave their home and relocate to Hamburg during WWII. As she was determined to become an actress, she applied for the "Hamburger Kammerspiele" but was rejected. By doing synchronising jobs for foreign movies she finally got her first role in the third part of 08/15 - In der Heimat (1955). After that one, she appeared in a number of movies as the seductive, mysterious girl but never got the dramatic parts she was eager to play.

She had affairs with some famous actors of the time but these didn't help her career. At the middle of the 60s she didn't get many offers anymore and turned to tablets and alcohol. At the 10th of December of 1966, she was found dead by a friend, actress Susanne Cramer, who wanted to visit her in her apartment: she had died three weeks previously, probably by starvation.

Her parents couldn't deal with Renate Ewert's untimely death: They poisoned themselves not long after their daughter died.

She was born Maria Erika Knab in Königsberg (now Kaliningrad) in Eastern Prussia. As routes to Hollywood go, hers was both dramatic and circuitous. Erika's parents were killed near the end of World War II by Red Army soldiers. The ten-year old orphan may have been one of the tens of thousands of civilians who were lucky enough to be evacuated in 1945. Little is known about the next decade of her life, but, in 1955, Erika turned up in West Berlin. There, she acted (as Erika Knab) in a few motion pictures, even had a leading role in Das Sandmännchen (1955), a fairy tale for children loosely based on Oscar Wilde's The Canterville Ghost. She also signed a contract with the short-lived Berolina production company and went on to dub the voice of Mickey Mouse for German viewers. Sometime during this period, she became Erika Peters after marrying an American citizen.

In 1957, Erika arrived in the U.S., initially making ends meet by importing used Volkswagens (without, apparently, an agency license). Reinvesting her earnings from this enterprise, she then ran a coin-operated laundromat in Los Angeles. In 1959, Erika made her screen debut on American television. She was featured in several movies, including Elvis Presley's G.I. Blues (1960), Heroes Die Young (1960) (headlining, as the daughter of a Romanian partisan) and a couple of low budget horror films (Mr. Sardonicus (1961) and House of the Damned (1963)). In addition, she guest starred in a handful of popular TV shows. In one particular instance, she was picked to appear in an episode of Jack Webb's G.E. True (1962), because an actress with a German accent was required who also "could fit into a normal-sized suitcase" (this, for an episode about an escape from communist East Berlin entitled "The Suitcase Man").

In 1961, Erika obtained a divorce from her first husband. Three years later, she married the costume designer Sy Devore and permanently retired from acting. After Devore died less than two years later from a heart attack. Erika got married a third time in 1969 to Robert M. Brunson, president of Century Fast Foods in Los Angeles. She henceforth called herself Erika Devore Brunson. Perpetually resourceful, never letting grass grow under her feet, she subsequently reinvented herself as a successful interior designer and creator of antique reproduction furniture. She invested a great deal of her profits in animal welfare-related charities. Erika Brunson twice served as commissioner of the Department of Animal Services and as a long-standing board member of the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS).

Erika Devore Brunson passed away in Los Angeles on May 17 2022 at the age of 86.

One of Germany's most popular actresses, Witta Pohl started to act on stage before she had major success in film and television. From 1983 to 1994, she starred in the leading role as the mother in the quite popular tv-series "Diese Drombuschs", her most memorable role. In the early Nienties she left her career as an actress behind her and stared to help children and established "Kinder Luftbrücke e.V.", an organisation which arranged transports to children mostly to East Europe. For her humanitarian work, Witta Pohl was awarded with the Golden Camera in 1994 (an award she had already won two times before, for her acting work) and with the Federal cross of Merit. She died from leukemia on April 4, 2011 in Hamburg.

Sandow was already a great admirer of Greek and Roman statues of gladiators and mythical heroes when his father took him to Italy as a boy. By the time he was 19, he was already performing strongman stunts in side shows. The legendary Florenz Ziegfeld saw the young strongman and hired him for his carnival show. He soon found that the audience was far more fascinated by Sandows' bulging muscles than by the amount of weight he was lifting, so Ziegfeld had Sandow perform poses which he dubbed "muscle display performances." The legendary strongman added these displays in addition to performing his feats of strength with barbells. He also added chain-around-the-chest breaking and other colorful displays to Sandows routine. Sandow quickly became a sensation and Ziegfeld's first star.

Sandow's resemblance to the physiques found on classic Greek and Roman sculpture was no accident. He actually measured the marble artworks in museums and helped to develope "The Grecian Ideal" as a formula for the perfect physique. He built his physique to those exact proportions. Because of this, he is considered to be the father of modern bodybuilding, having been one of the first athletes to intentionally develope his musculature to pre-determined dimensions.

Sandow performed all over Europe and came to America to perform at the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago. He could be seen in a black velvet-lined box with his body covered in white powder to appear even more like a marble statue come to life. His popularity grew since he was cultured, highly intelligent, and well-mannered. He also dressed very well and had a charming European accent, coupled with deep blue eyes and hearty laugh. He wrote several books on bodybuilding, nutrition and encouraged a healthy lifestyle as being as important as having a sound mind.

He was married to Blanche Brooks Sandow, had 2 daughters, but was probably unfaithful to her, since he was constantly in the company of women who paid money to feel his flexed muscles back stage after his stage performances. He also had a close relationship to a male musician he hired to accompany him during his shows. The man was Martinus Sieveking, a handsome pupil of Sandow. The degree of their relationship has never been determined, but they lived together in New York for a time.

Sandow knew many famous people in his lifetime... among his friends were Arthur Conan Doyle; Thomas Edison, who made early motion pictures of Sandow; the King of England; Isabella Gardner of Boston and many other celebrities of the day. Sandow invented many bodybuilding exercises, some still used today, and equipment such as a lightweight dumbbell-shaped hand exerciser that was spring-loaded. He was quite generous with his time and money -- out of his own pocket, he paid the housing costs of foreign athletes at the Olympic Games held in London. Sandow was the promoter and judge at the first bodybuilding contest ever held, in New York on September 14, 1901. Sandow also made a world tour in 1903. He died prematurely in 1925 at age 58 of a stroke shortly after pushing his car out of the mud.

Sandow was a charming, intelligent and industrious man who worked very hard for what he earned. He also inspired countless men to look at their bodies as something at least as important as their minds, since for several decades in the 19th century, more men were working in offices as clerks, bankers and other jobs which turned many bodies pale and weak. He changed countless attitudes about health and fitness, and we continue to feel its effects today.

Werner Richard Heymann was active as a classical composer in Berlin from 1912. By the end of the decade, he also wrote songs for cabaret and served as musical director for Max Reinhardt from 1918 to 1919. In films with Ufa from 1923, he initially worked as assistant to the head of the music department Erno Rapee, before replacing the latter in 1926. Heymann remained under contract until 1933 as musical director and composer, scoring several classic films for F.W. Murnau and Fritz Lang. He also established himself as among the foremost writers of songs for film operetta, creating hits for popular fare like Die Drei von der Tankstelle (1930) and Bomben auf Monte Carlo (1931).

Forced to flee from Nazi persecution because of his Jewish background, Heymann made his way to Hollywood via Paris and London. There, he was noted particularly for scoring two of Ernst Lubitsch's best films: Ninotchka (1939) and To Be or Not to Be (1942). Heymann returned to Germany in 1951 where he resumed writing film scores and songs for the theatre until his death in 1961.

Harry Liedtke was born on 12 October 1882 in Königsberg, East Prussia, Germany [now Kaliningrad, Russia]. He was an actor, known for Die Liebe einer Königin (1923), Die Konkurrenz platzt (1929) and Der Mann ohne Namen - 1. Der Millionendieb (1921). He was married to Käthe Dorsch, Ernestine Emaline Johanne Proft, Christa Tordy and Hanne Schutt. He died on 28 April 1945 in Bad Saarow, Brandenburg, Germany.

Antje Weisgerber was born on 17 May 1922 in Königsberg, East Prussia, Germany [now Kaliningrad, Russia]. She was an actress, known for Der Landarzt (1987), Die Nibelungen (1967) and Ein Schloß in Schweden (1967). She was married to Reinhard Schilling and Horst Caspar. She died on 29 September 2004 in Dortmund, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany.

Rosemarie Pasdar was born in Königsberg, East-Prussia, Germany [now Kaliningrad, Russia]. She is known for Made in U.S.A. (1987). She was previously married to Homayoon Pasdar.

Margie Schmitz was born in 1941 in Königsberg, East Prussia, Germany [now Kaliningrad, Russia]. She was married to Curd Jürgens and Klaus Hermann Schmitz. She died on 1 August 2003 in Zürich, Switzerland.

Whatever her limitations as an actress, Charlott Daudert made up for with wide-eyed effervescence and a cute, feisty personality. The bubbly blonde began working life as editor of the children's section of a newspaper (as 'Aunty Charlotte') in her home town of Königsberg, East Prussia. She also dabbled in drafting costume designs. The abandonment of her journalistic career seems to have come about all of a sudden and quite by accident: accompanying a friend to a theatrical audition as 'moral support' resulted in Charlotte, not the friend, being signed up for drama school. Her 'discovery' is generally credited to the renowned actor Max Pallenberg who took on the role of her mentor. Known by her peers as 'Charly', she made her debut in a minuscule part in Shakespeare's "Much Ado About Nothing" and spent the next three years at Tilsit's Stadttheater under Pallenberg's direction. Following a brief stint in local radio, she then moved on to wider canvases in Berlin where she underwent further tuition by Leopold Jessner. By 1933, Charly had developed into an accomplished comedienne and come to the attention of Trude Hesterberg. She began performing comedy routines and singing in various popular cabarets, including "Musenschaukel" and "Die Katakombe". At the same time, she spiced up the screen as perpetually naive, sexy friends of the heroine. Her output was rather heavily weighted towards escapist entertainments, some of them not at all bad: April, April! (1935), Der Etappenhase (1937), Kitty und die Weltkonferenz (1939). Resuming in the same vein in the aftermath of World War II, the ever likeable, pert, dizzy Charlott warbled a popular hit song ("Ach du liebe Zeit, hat den kein Mensch mehr für die Liebe Zeit") in the ruins of Berlin in Nacht ohne Sünde (1950). There were diverse other supporting roles in box-office hits, including the caper comedies Klettermaxe (1952) and Der blaue Stern des Südens (1951). Sadly, despite her enduring popularity as a conveyor of uncomplicated happiness, genuine stardom was never to be on the cards. The decline of Charly's career was to be exacerbated by depression and alcoholism. On occasion, she would come on stage and forget or fumble her lines. By the autumn of 1960, she was making plans to retire from acting and run an artists B & B in Monaco. It never came to pass. Just four months later she was dead from a blood disorder at the age of 47.

Michael Fengler was born on 14 November 1940 in Königsberg, East-Prussia, Germany [now Kaliningrad, Russia]. He is a producer and writer, known for Warum läuft Herr R. Amok (1970), Eierdiebe (1977) and Output (1974).

Max Kolpé was born on 19 June 1905 in Königsberg, East-Prussia, Germany [now Kaliningrad, Russia]. He was a writer and composer, known for Germania anno zero (1948), Freddy und der Millionär (1961) and La crise est finie (1934). He died on 2 January 1998 in Munich, Bavaria, Germany.

Lotar Olias was born on 23 December 1913 in Königsberg, East-Prussia, Germany [now Kaliningrad, Russia]. He was a composer and writer, known for Freddy und der Millionär (1961), Heimweh nach St. Pauli (1963) and Symphonie in Gold (1956). He died on 21 October 1990 in Hamburg-Ohlsdorf, Germany.

Hannes Gromball was born on 21 March 1932 in Königsberg, East Prussia, Germany [now Kaliningrad, Russia]. He was an actor, known for Angst essen Seele auf (1974), Was Ihr wollt (1968) and Irgendwie und sowieso (1986). He died in 2015 in Germany.

While born in eastern Europe, he has lived in the US since 1936. He initially worked for his father, who was US representative of the Lithuanian government-in-exile. He began publishing science fiction in 1952 in the magazine "Astounding Science Fiction" (now "Analog").

Peter Musäus was born on 12 October 1939 in Königsberg, East-Prussia, Germany [now Kaliningrad, Russia]. He is an actor, known for Lost Horizon (2010), Kriminaltango (1995) and Tatort (1970).

Manfred Korytowski was born on 31 December 1936 in Königsberg, East-Prussia, Germany [now Kaliningrad, Russia]. He was a producer and production manager, known for The Contenders (1993), Im Stahlnetz des Dr. Mabuse (1961) and Die Vertreibung aus dem Paradies (1977). He died on 24 August 1999.

Willi Schrade was born on 31 January 1935 in Königsberg, East-Prussia, Germany [now Kaliningrad, Russia]. He is an actor, known for Das unsichtbare Visier (1973), Zur See (1977) and Hochzeitsnacht im Regen (1967).

Wolfgang Weyrauch was born on 15 October 1904 in Königsberg, East Prussia, Germany [now Kaliningrad, Kaliningrad Oblast, Russia]. He was a writer, known for Und wenn's nur einer wär' (1949), Auf der Lesebühne der Literarischen Illustrierten (1965) and Zur Nacht (1967). He died on 7 November 1980 in Darmstadt, Hesse, Germany.

Ingeborg Lapsien was born on 16 October 1926 in Königsberg, East Prussia, Germany [now Kaliningrad, Russia]. She was an actress, known for Die unfreiwilligen Reisen des Moritz August Benjowski (1975), Schwarz greift ein (1994) and Amouren (1972). She died on 5 June 2014 in Germany.

Solveig Müller was born on 19 June 1942 in Königsberg, East-Prussia, Germany [now Kaliningrad, Russia]. She is an actress, known for Das unsichtbare Visier (1973), Tatort (1970) and Bürgschaft für ein Jahr (1981).

Willi Kollo was born on 28 April 1904 in Königsberg, East-Prussia, Germany [now Kaliningrad, Russia]. He was a composer and writer, known for Solang' noch Unter'n Linden (1958), Meine Freundin Barbara (1937) and Die Wirtin zum Weißen Röß'l (1943). He died on 4 February 1988 in Berlin, Germany.

Heinz Voss was born on 22 October 1922 in Königsberg, East Prussia, Germany [now Kaliningrad, Russia]. He was an actor, known for Geheimakten Solvay (1953), Der Hauptmann von Köln (1956) and Tatort (1970). He died on 7 November 2000 in Wuppertal, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany.

Irene Mann was born on 12 April 1929 in Königsberg, East-Prussia, Germany [now Kaliningrad, Russia]. She was an actress and assistant director, known for Der letzte Walzer (1953), Wir tanzen auf dem Regenbogen (1952) and Ferien vom Ich (1963). She was married to Berno von Cramm. She died on 19 September 1996 in Pfaffenhofen an der Ilm, Bavaria, Germany.