Brunette, plump comic actress, all-round entertainer, singer and drama coach. She was the daughter of a locomotive driver whose membership in the Communist Party led to his internment in a concentration camp by the Nazi regime. Her career took off in 1957, when she joined the Berlin cabaret 'Tingel-Tangel'. She scored a big hit on the German pop charts and subsequently emerged as a popular TV personality on chat shows and variety programs. Between 1977 and 1986, she operated her own stage company in Cologne.