Christine Kaufmann obit

 

Christine Maria Kaufmann, Actress and Ex-Wife of Tony Curtis, Dies at 72

The 1961 Golden Globe winner became a beauty magnate in Germany, with her own line of cosmetics, health and fitness books.

She was not on the list.

Christine Maria Kaufmann, the German-Austrian actress who won a Golden Globe at 17, married Tony Curtis at 18 and had a second career as beauty and cosmetics magnate, died Monday after a long battle with leukemia. She was 72.

Kaufmann was born in Austria in 1945 to a French makeup artist and a German engineer and grew up in Munich. She entered show business early, performing in the German musical The White Horse Inn at the age of 7. But it was Rose Girl, a 1954 drama, where she played the orphan child of the title, that launched her career.

A series of Bavarian melodramas followed before she got her international break, starring in The Last Days of Pompeii (1959) alongside Hercules actor Steve Reeves. Several Hollywood roles followed, including, in 1962, Town Without Pity with Kirk Douglas, and Taras Bulba, a Romeo & Juliet story set in 16th century Ukraine that also starred Curtis.

Kaufmann and Curtis married a year later (after his first marriage to actress Janet Leigh ended). She was 18, he was 38. They had two daughters, Alexandra and Allegra, who became actresses, before divorcing in 1968.

Years later, on a German TV show, she admitted to having had an affair with Warren Beatty.

Kaufmann returned to Germany, where she continued acting, appearing in dozens of films and TV series, including Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s Lili Marleen and Lola and in Percy Adlon’s 1987 cult classic Baghdad Cafe.

She married three more times: to TV director Achim Lenz (1974-76), musician and actor Reno Eckstein (1979-82) and illustrator Klaus Zey (1997-2011).

While Kaufmann continued to make television appearances and do the occasional cameo — she played Aunt Polly in a German film version of Tom Sawyer & Huckleberry Finn in 2014 — in later life she was best known in Germany for her business ventures, including her own line of cosmetics and numerous books on health and beauty.

A stunner well into her 60s, she was known as “ the most beautiful grandmother in Germany.”

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Einsatz Hamburg Süd

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1998

 

A.S. (1995)

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Nadja Seewald

1998

1 episode

 

Park Hotel Stern (1997)

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Frederike Kogel

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Ein flotter Dreier

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Weihnachten mit Willy Wuff II - Eine Mama für Lieschen (1995)

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1995

 

Harald und Eddi (1987)

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2 episodes

 

Birkenhof & Lerchenau

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Theres

1994

 

Verliebt, verlobt, verheiratet

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Maja Kunert

1994

 

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4.7

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1993

 

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1993

1 episode

 

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1990–1991

8 episodes

 

Andrew Bednarski, Jesse Collins, and Rudolph Von Holstein III in Rin Tin Tin: K-9 Cop (1988)

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6.6

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Mrs. Katts

1989–1991

3 episodes

 

Hard to Be a God (1989)

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6.5

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1989

 

Christine Kaufmann and Udo Schenk in Der Geschichtenerzähler (1989)

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6.9

Clara Lilienthal

1989

 

Julius Caesar (1988)

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TV Movie

Portia

1988

 

Lorentz & Söhne (1988)

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TV Series

Corinna von Hauschild

1988

8 episodes

 

Bagdad Cafe (1987)

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7.4

Debby

1987

 

Die Insel

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Margit

1987

6 episodes

 

Ein heikler Fall

TV Series

1986

1 episode

 

Pankow '95 (1983)

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6.5

Laura Zart

1983

 

Die Schaukel (1983)

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6.4

Mme. Lautenschlag

1983

 

Dominique Horwitz, Christine Kaufmann, Peter Kern, Juraj Kukura, Sona MacDonald, Eva Mattes, Sunnyi Melles, Freddy Quinn, and Beatrice Richter in The Roaring Fifties (1983)

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5.4

Natascha

1983

 

Monaco Franze - Der ewige Stenz (1983)

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8.3

TV Series

Olga Behrens

1983

10 episodes

 

Inflation im Paradies (1983)

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5.0

TV Movie

Laverne Schuhmann (segment "Testschock")

1983

 

Alexandra Curtis in The Gold of Love (1983)

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6.1

Patricias Mutter (uncredited)

1983

 

Ziemlich weit weg

1983

 

The Excluded (1982)

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6.8

TV Movie

Frau von Pachthofen

1982

 

Die Laurents (1981)

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1981

3 episodes

 

Carole Bouquet in Tag der Idioten (1981)

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6.2

Ruth

1981

 

Barbara Sukowa in Lola (1981)

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7.4

Susi

1981

 

Lili Marleen (1981)

Lili Marleen

7.1

Miriam

1981

 

Egon Schiele: Excess and Punishment (1980)

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6.0

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1980

 

Danièle Lebrun in Joséphine ou la comédie des ambitions (1979)

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TV Mini Series

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1979

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Jacques Weber in The Count of Monte Cristo (1979)

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1979

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Red Rings of Fear (1978)

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Christina

1978

 

Die Ängste des Dr. Schenk

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1978

 

Das Männerquartett

TV Movie

Nina Huf

1978

 

Die Jüdin von Toledo

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1977

 

Derrick (1974)

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Marion Kless

1977

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1976

1 episode

 

Goldflocken (1976)

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1976

 

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5.1

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1976

 

Rüdiger Bahr in Lockruf des Goldes (1975)

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7.1

TV Mini Series

Margret 'Labiskwee'

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1975

 

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1974

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1974

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1974

 

Chaplins Hut

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1973

 

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7.7

TV Mini Series

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1973

2 episodes

 

Christine Kaufmann and Magdalena Montezuma in Willow Springs (1973)

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6.5

Christine

1973

 

Immobilien

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Jasmin Strothmann

1973

 

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6.5

1972

 

Der Kommissar (1969)

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7.7

TV Series

Eva Raßner

1972

1 episode

 

Murders in the Rue Morgue (1971)

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5.2

Madeleine Charron

1971

 

Christine Kaufmann in Gestrickte Spuren (1971)

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6.6

TV Movie

Fanny Elßler

1971

 

Wie ein Blitz (1970)

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6.7

TV Mini Series

Diana Valesco

1970

2 episodes

 

Das Bastardzeichen

8.2

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Mariette

1970

 

Komm, süßer Tod (1969)

Komm, süßer Tod

6.0

La Contessa

1969

 

Zärtliche Haie (1967)

Zärtliche Haie

6.1

1967

 

Tony Curtis, Monsieur Cognac, and Christine Kaufmann in Wild and Wonderful (1964)

Wild and Wonderful

6.0

Giselle Ponchon

1964

 

Tony Curtis, Yul Brynner, and Christine Kaufmann in Taras Bulba (1962)

Taras Bulba

6.3

Natalia Dubrov

1962

 

Christian Doermer and Christine Kaufmann in Terror After Midnight (1962)

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8.2

Julie Elgin

1962

 

Christine Kaufmann and Don Murray in Escape from East Berlin (1962)

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6.6

Erika Jurgens

1962

 

Swordsman of Siena (1962)

Swordsman of Siena

5.8

Serenella Arconti

1962

 

William Bendix, Christine Kaufmann, and Ron Randell in The Phony American (1961)

The Phony American

6.2

Inge

1961

 

Man Called Rocca (1961)

Man Called Rocca

6.4

Geneviève Adé

1961

 

Via Mala (1961)

Via Mala

7.2

Sylvia Lauretz

1961

 

Kirk Douglas, Richard Jaeckel, Robert Blake, Christine Kaufmann, Mal Sondock, and Frank Sutton in Town Without Pity (1961)

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7.2

Karin Steinhof

1961

 

Christine Kaufmann and Cornel Wilde in Constantine and the Cross (1961)

Constantine and the Cross

5.8

Livia

1961

 

The Last Pedestrian (1960)

The Last Pedestrian

5.9

Christine Cornelius

1960

 

Red Lips (1960)

Red Lips

6.6

Baby

1960

 

Aldo Fabrizi, Christine Kaufmann, and Totò in Totò, Fabrizi e i giovani d'oggi (1960)

Totò, Fabrizi e i giovani d'oggi

6.8

Gabriella Cocozza

1960

 

The Fabulous Fraud (1960)

The Fabulous Fraud

4.0

Christine Wilkens

1960

 

Christine Kaufmann and Steve Reeves in The Last Days of Pompeii (1959)

The Last Days of Pompeii

5.6

Elena

Ione (as Cristina Kaufmann)

1959

 

Vacanze d'inverno (1959)

Vacanze d'inverno

6.2

Florence

1959

 

Gustav Knuth, Oskar Schnirch, Helen Vita, Wolfgang Becker, Beppo Brem, Boy Gobert, Erwin Halletz, Petra Himboldt, Christine Kaufmann, Peter Kraus, Hannelore Schroth, Ernst Steinlechner, and Peter Vogel in Everybody Loves Peter (1959)

Everybody Loves Peter

5.1

Kitty Steiner

1959

 

Lorella De Luca, Carla Gravina, and Raf Mattioli in First Love (1959)

First Love

7.3

Silvia (as Cristine Kofmann)

1959

 

Embezzled Heaven (1958)

Embezzled Heaven

6.5

Doris

1958

 

Sag ja, Mutti (1958)

Sag ja, Mutti

4.5

Evi

1958

 

Mädchen in Uniform (1958)

Mädchen in Uniform

7.0

Mia

1958

 

Widower with 5 Daughters (1957)

Widower with 5 Daughters

6.3

Ulla Scherzer

1957

 

Gunnar Möller and Herta Staal in Die Winzerin von Langenlois (1957)

Die Winzerin von Langenlois

4.9

Christl, Münchner Ferienkind

1957

 

Die Stimme der Sehnsucht (1956)

Die Stimme der Sehnsucht

4.8

Eva

1956

 

Gert Fröbe, Christine Kaufmann, and Grethe Weiser in Ein Herz schlägt für Erika (1956)

Ein Herz schlägt für Erika

6.9

Erika Kayser

1956

 

Wenn die Alpenrosen blüh'n (1955)

Wenn die Alpenrosen blüh'n

4.6

Christine

1955

 

Der schweigende Engel (1954)

Der schweigende Engel

6.6

Angelika Helmer

1954

 

Rosen-Resli (1954)

Rosen-Resli

6.1

Resli

1954

 

Der Klosterjäger (1953)

Der Klosterjäger

6.0

Vronerl

1953

 

Salto Mortale (1953)

Salto Mortale

6.9

Dascha

1953

 

Staatsanwältin Corda (1953)

Staatsanwältin Corda

7.0

Berta Neidhart

1953

 

Im Weissen Rössl (1952)

Im Weissen Rössl

6.0

Kleines Mädchen (uncredited)

1952