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Katharina Thalbach, born January 19, 1954, in Berlin, is the daughter of an actress and a director. She made her TV debut already at the age of four and starred in several children's parts. From 1969 on, Thalbach performed at Berliner Ensemble and from 1972 on at Volksbühne Berlin. During the mid-1970s, Thalbach starred in two films by Egon Günther. In the role of Ottilie, she outplayed leading actress Lilli Palmer in "Lotte in Weimar" and starred in her first leading role as Lotte in "Die Leiden des jungen Werther" ("The Sorrows of Young Werther") in 1976. Thalbach also left East Germany in that year and went to West Berlin together with Thomas Brasch.
Besides her success at the theatre, Thalbach became known for her innocent, yet sexy and experienced air in several important films: In Margarethe von Trotta's "Das zweite Erwachen der Christa Klages" ("The Second Awakening of Christa Klages"), Thalbach played a bank accountant who pursues a bank robber on her own account. She also starred as little Oskar's young stepmother and lover Maria in Volker Schlöndorff's "Die Blechtrommel" ("The Tin Drum"). Thalbach played her most important parts in films by Thomas Brasch. In Brasch's debut film "Engel aus Eisen" ("Angels of Iron"), Thalbach starred in the leading part of Lisa Gabler who was a member of the – authentic – Gladow gang that utilised the unstable conditions in the early post war years for a series of robberies in the politically divided Berlin.
To this day, Katharina Thalbach is still seen regularly in films and TV productions. She for instance starred in Doris Dörrie's "Paradies" ("Paradise" 1986), in Mika Kaurismäki's "Helsinki Napoli" ("Helsinki-Naples All Night Long" 1987), in Thomas Brasch's "Der Passagier – Welcome to Germany" ("The Passenger - Welcome to Germany" 1987/88), in Thomas Mitscherlich's "Die Denunziantin" ("The Denunciation" 1992/93), in Leander Haussmann's "Sonnenallee" ("Sun Alley" 1998/99), or in Heinrich Breloer's TV movie "Die Manns – Ein Jahrhundertroman" (2000/01).
Between 2004 and 2008 in particular, Thalbach (partly in supporting roles) starred in a series of top-class and ambitious movie productions, including Leander Haußmann's comedy "NVA" as well as his Schiller adaptation "Kabale und Liebe", Didi Danquart's "Offset", and Detlev Buck's highly praised children's film "Hände weg von Mississippi" ("Hands Off Mississippi").
Thalbach played one of her most important parts under "Blechtrommel" director Volker Schlöndorff: In "Strajk – Die Heldin von Danzig" ("Strike", 2006), Thalbach portrayed the legendary Polish trade unionist Agnieszka. She was also critically praised for her performance in the social comedy "Du bist nicht allein" (2007), directed by Bernd Böhlich – with whom Thalbach collaborated again one year later for the romantic comedy "Der Mond und andere Liebhaber".
The following year, she played alongside Henry Hübchen in the TV crime drama "Commissario Laurenti - Der Tod wirft lange Schatten". She also appeared in Jo Baier's period piece "Henri 4" (2010), the children's film "Hanni & Nanni" (2010), Til Schweiger's box office hit "Kokowääh" (2011 and the drama "Almanya – Willkommen in Deutschland", which premiered in the competition of the 2011 Berlin International Film Festival.
In 2012, Thalbach played the aged King Friedrich in "Friedrich - Ein deutscher König" (TV), reprised her role as French teacher Mademoiselle Bertoux in the sequel "Hanni & Nanni 2", appeared as a woman with a dark secret in the psychological thriller "Du hast es versprochen" ("Forgotten"), was the mother of mathematician Carl Friedrich Gauß in "Die Vermessung der Welt" ("Measuring the World") and portrayed Queen Marie of Bavaria in "Ludwig II". Moreover, she voiced characters in the animation features "Der Mondmann" ("Moon Man") and "Der kleine Rabe Socke".
The following year turned out to be equally busy for the actress, who appeared in the fantasy epic "Rubinrot" ("Ruby Red"), the satire "Der Minister" and the comedy "Hai-Alarm am Müggelsee", and also returned for "Hanni & Nanni 3".
Continuing her success with child-friendly family fare, Thalbach had starring roles in "Rico, Oskar und die Tieferschatten" ("The Pasta Detectives"), the fantasy film "Saphirblau" ("Sapphire Blue") and in Til Schweiger's box office success "Honig im Kopf". Thalbach next shone in the role of an employee of a bankrupt drugstore chain who teams up with her colleagues to take their corrupt boss hostage in Uwe Janson's "Die Schlikkerfrauen" (2014). In 2015, she reprised her role of the mischievous Ellie Wandbek for "Rico, Oskar und das Herzgebreche" ("The Pasta Detectives 2") and played a supporting role "Ich bin dann mal weg", the screen adaptation of Hape Kerkeling's eponymous bestselling novel.
In "Bibi & Tina 3: Mädchen gegen Jungs" (2016), she played the likable chef of a camp, and in the fantasy film "Smaragdgrün" ("Emerald Green", 2016), she again starred as the kind-hearted great aunt Maddy. On TV she appeared in leading roles in the crime caper "Wir sind die Rosinskis" (2016) as well as in the much-acclaimed comedy "Zwei Bauern und kein Land" (2017).
On the big screen, Thalbach continued to appear in prominent supporting roles: as a teacher in "Hanni & Nanni: Mehr als beste Freunde" (2017), a neighbor in the love story "Wuff - Folge dem Hund" ("Woof – Follow the Dog", 2018) and as grandmother in the societal comedy film "100 Dinge" (2018). In Yilmaz Arslan's coming-of-age drama "Sandstern" (2018), she starred as the grandmotherly neighbour of a 12-year-old Turkish boy, who only recently moved to Germany. She then played the headmistress in the children's film "Alfons Zitterbacke - Das Chaos ist zurück" ("Alfons Zitterbacke - The Return of the Chaos", 2019). Philipp Stölzl cast her in a leading role in the musical "Ich war noch niemals in New York" (2019) as a woman with amnesia leaving for America.
Also in 2019, the French Ministry of Culture awarded her the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres, an award to "persons who have distinguished themselves through their work in the artistic or literary field or through their contribution to the influence of the arts and literature in France and throughout the world".
Over the next few years, Thalbach played the grandmotherly landlady of the main character in the comedy "Extraklasse 2+" (2021,TV ) and its sequel "Extraklasse - On Tour" (2022); in the crime movie parody "Miss Merkel - ein Uckermark-Krimi" (2023), she played Angela Merkel, the retired German chancellor, who finds a new vocation as an amateur detective and solves a murder case.
At Berlin's Komödie am Kurfürstendamm theater, she played the sharp-witted detective Hercule Poirot in "Mord in Orient im Orientexpress" in 2022 – and was awarded the Golden Curtain Audience Award for this part. In the cinema, she was part of the cast of the spy comedy "Kundschafter des Friedens 2" (2024).
Katharina Thalbach's daughter Anna (born 1973) is also a film and TV actress.