Alice and Ellen Kessler, the identical twins who became German entertainment stars known as the Kessler Sisters, have died at age 89, reportedly in a joint assisted suicide.
Police were called to the sisters’ home outside Munich on Monday. Authorities did not release details, but the German Humanist Association in Berlin said the pair had chosen an assisted death.
The Kessler twins, celebrated for their singing and dancing, reached the height of their fame in Germany and across Europe after World War II. Born in the 1930s in East Germany, they fled with their family to Düsseldorf following the war. They studied ballet and launched their international careers at Paris’ Lido cabaret before the age of 20.
For about five years, they performed in Parisian cabarets, and their careers expanded globally in the 1960s. They appeared on stages around the world alongside performers such as Frank Sinatra, Fred Astaire and Harry Belafonte, earning widespread acclaim. They later settled in Rome, where they enjoyed major popularity in Italy.
According to reports, the sisters — who never married and lived together throughout their adult lives — requested that their ashes be placed in a single urn after their deaths.