1. Hannelore Elsner first performed on stage in Munich, and later starred in popular films and television series such as Die Schwarzwaldklinik, and as the lead character, Inspector Lea Sommer, in the series Die Kommissarin.
13 Facts About Hannelore Elsner
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Hannelore Elsner was recognized internationally for her lead role in the 2000 film Die Unberuhrbare, shown at the Cannes Film Festival.
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Hannelore Elsner was born Hannelore Elstner in Burghausen on 26 July 1942.
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Hannelore Elsner's father died from tuberculosis when she was eight.
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Hannelore Elsner was the first to appear nude on stage at the Kammerspiele.
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Hannelore Elsner appeared in her first film, Alt Heidelberg, in 1959 at age 17.
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Hannelore Elsner was discovered for more serious acting by Edgar Reitz, who cast her alongside Elke Sommer for a lead role in the 1973 film Die Reise nach Wien, her first role outside Germany.
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Hannelore Elsner is remembered for the title role, Inspector Lea Sommer, in the German detective series Die Kommissarin which aired on public television in 66 episodes from 1994 to 2006.
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Hannelore Elsner was the first woman to play an inspector in a television series.
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Hannelore Elsner achieved international recognition for her lead role in the 2000 film Die Unberuhrbare, which recounts the last days in the life of a writer, based closely on the life of Gisela Hannelore Elsner, who died by suicide in 1992.
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Hannelore Elsner worked in an association exhorting people not to forget the Holocaust.
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Hannelore Elsner wrote her memoirs in 2011, titled Im Uberschwang: Aus meinem Leben, which describe in detail how she grew up in Bavarian provincial surroundings and recount tragic episodes from her childhood.
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Hannelore Elsner died of cancer in a clinic in Munich on 21 April 2019.