Christine Kaufmann

Christine Maria Kaufmann (11 January 1945 – 28 March 2017) was a German-Austrian actress, author, and businesswoman. The daughter of a German father and a French mother, she won the Golden Globe Award for New Star of the Year – Actress in 1961, the first German to be so honoured. Kaufmann was called the "most beautiful grandmother in Germany".

Life and career

Kaufmann was born in Lengdorf, Styria, Austria, then part of Nazi Germany. Her mother, Geneviève Kaufmann (née Gavaert), was a French make-up artist; her father, Johannes Kaufmann, was a German Luftwaffe officer and engineer. Christine Kaufmann also had Circassian ancestry.

Growing up in Munich, Bavaria, Kaufmann became a ballerina at the Munich Opera. She began her film career at the age of seven in The White Horse Inn (1952), but gained attention with Rose-Girl Resli (1954). She gained international recognition when she starred with Steve Reeves in The Last Days of Pompeii (1959) and with Kirk Douglas in Town Without Pity (1961). The following year she appeared in Escape from East Berlin (1962).

At age 18 in 1963, Kaufmann married Tony Curtis, a man 20 years her senior whom she had met during the filming of Taras Bulba (also 1962). They had two daughters, Alexandra (born 19 July 1964) and Allegra (born 11 July 1966). The couple divorced in 1968. Kaufmann resumed her career, which she had interrupted during her marriage. Later, Christine Kaufmann was married to TV director Achim Lenz (1974-76), musician and actor Reno Eckstein (1979-1982) and illustrator Klaus Zey (1997-2011).

On German TV, Kaufmann admitted to having an affair with Warren Beatty.

Kaufmann was also a successful businesswoman, promoting her own cosmetics products line that sells well in Germany. She wrote several books about beauty and health, as well as two autobiographies. She spoke three languages: German, English, and French.

Kaufmann enjoyed travelling. She moved from one place to another frequently—a pattern that she believed to have inherited from her Circassian forefathers. She died in Munich from leukaemia.

Selected filmography

• The White Horse Inn (1952)
• Salto Mortale (1953)
• The Monastery's Hunter (1953)
• Rose-Girl Resli (1954)
• The Winemaker of Langenlois (1957)
• Mädchen in Uniform (1958)
• First Love (1959)
• The Last Days of Pompeii (1959)
• Toto, Fabrizi and the Young People Today (1960)
• The Last Pedestrian (1960)
• Town Without Pity (1961)
• Via Mala (1961)
• A Man Named Rocca (1961)
• Constantine and the Cross (1961)
• The Phony American (1961)
• Escape from East Berlin (1962)
• Terror After Midnight (1962)
• Taras Bulba (1962)
• Swordsman of Siena (1962)
• Wild and Wonderful (1964)
• Love Birds (de) (1969)
• Das Bastardzeichen (1970, TV film)
• Wie ein Blitz (de) (1970, TV miniseries)
• Murders in the Rue Morgue (1971)
• Der Kommissar: Traum eines Wahnsinnigen (1972, TV)
• Der Tod der Maria Malibran (fr) (1972)
• Willow Springs (fr) (1973)
• World on a Wire (1973, TV film)
• Zum Abschied Chrysanthemen (1974)
• Auf Biegen oder Brechen (1976)
• Derrick - Season 4, Episode 02: "Hals in der Schlinge" (1977, TV)
• Red Rings of Fear (1978)
• Der ganz normale Wahnsinn (1979, TV series)
• Egon Schiele – Exzess und Bestrafung (1980)
• Day of the Idiots (1981)
• Lili Marleen (1981)
• Lola (1981)
• Monaco Franze – Der ewige Stenz (1982, TV series)
• The Roaring Fifties (1983)
• Bagdad Café (1988)
• Hard to Be a God (1989)
• Wenn das die Nachbarn wüßten (1990, TV series)
• Im Namen des Gesetzes: Dunkle Ahnung (2008, TV)

***

Christine Maria Kaufmann (11 January 1945 – 28 March 2017) was a German-Austrian actress, author, and businesswoman.

The daughter of a German father and a French mother, she won the Golden Globe Award for New Star of the Year – Actress in 1961, the first German to be so honoured. Kaufmann was called the "most beautiful grandmother in Germany".

Life and career

Kaufmann was born in Lengdorf, Styria, Austria, then part of Nazi Germany. Her mother, Geneviève Kaufmann (née Gavaert), was a French make-up artist; her father, Johannes Kaufmann, was a German Luftwaffe officer and engineer. 

Christine Kaufmann also had Circassian ancestry.

Growing up in Munich, Bavaria, Kaufmann became a ballerina at the Munich Opera. She began her film career at the age of seven in The White Horse Inn (1952), but gained attention with Rose-Girl Resli (1954). She gained international recognition when she starred with Steve Reeves in The Last Days of Pompeii (1959) and with Kirk Douglas in Town Without Pity (1961). The following year she appeared in Escape from East Berlin (1962).

At age 18 in 1963, Kaufmann married Tony Curtis, a man 20 years her senior whom she had met during the filming of Taras Bulba (also 1962). They had two daughters, Alexandra (born 19 July 1964) and Allegra (born 11 July 1966). The couple divorced in 1968. Kaufmann resumed her career, which she had interrupted during her marriage. Later, Kaufmann married the television director Achim Lenz (1974-76), musician and actor Reno Eckstein (1979-1982) and illustrator Klaus Zey (1997-2011).

On German television, Kaufmann admitted to having an affair with Warren Beatty.

Kaufmann was also a successful businesswoman, promoting her own cosmetics products line that sells well in Germany. She wrote several books about beauty and health, as well as two autobiographies. She spoke three languages: German, English, and French.

Kaufmann enjoyed travelling. She moved from one place to another frequently—a pattern that she believed she had inherited from her Circassian forefathers.

Kaufmann died on March 28. 2017 in Munich from leukaemia at the age of 72.

Selected filmography

• The White Horse Inn (1952)
• Salto Mortale (1953)
• The Monastery's Hunter (1953)
• Rose-Girl Resli (1954)
• The Winemaker of Langenlois (1957)
• Mädchen in Uniform (1958)
• First Love (1959)
• The Last Days of Pompeii (1959)
• Toto, Fabrizi and the Young People Today (1960)
• The Last Pedestrian (1960)
• Town Without Pity (1961)
• Via Mala (1961)
• A Man Named Rocca (1961)
• Constantine and the Cross (1961)
• The Phony American (1961)
• Escape from East Berlin (1962)
• Terror After Midnight (1962)
• Taras Bulba (1962)
• Swordsman of Siena (1962)
• Wild and Wonderful (1964)
• Love Birds (de) (1969)
• Das Bastardzeichen (1970, TV film)
• Wie ein Blitz (de) (1970, TV miniseries)
• Murders in the Rue Morgue (1971)
• Der Kommissar: Traum eines Wahnsinnigen (1972, TV)
• Der Tod der Maria Malibran (fr) (1972)
• Willow Springs (fr) (1973)
• World on a Wire (1973, TV film)
• Zum Abschied Chrysanthemen (1974)
• Auf Biegen oder Brechen (1976)
• Derrick - Season 4, Episode 02: "Hals in der Schlinge" (1977, TV)
• Red Rings of Fear (1978)
• Der ganz normale Wahnsinn (1979, TV series)
• Egon Schiele – Exzess und Bestrafung (1980)
• Day of the Idiots (1981)
• Lili Marleen (1981)
• Lola (1981)
• Monaco Franze – Der ewige Stenz (1982, TV series)
• The Roaring Fifties (1983)
• Bagdad Café (1988)
• Hard to Be a God (1989)
• Wenn das die Nachbarn wüßten (1990, TV series)
• Im Namen des Gesetzes: Dunkle Ahnung (2008, TV)