Brigitte Mira

From Hamburg, German Empire [now Germany] • 1910 - 2005

Brigitte Mira (German: [bʁiˈɡɪ.tə ˈmi.ʁaː̯] , 20 April 1910 – 8 March 2005) was a German actress. She worked in both theater and film, and on many occasions, with Rainer Werner Fassbinder. Believed to have been born in Hamburg, she moved when young to Berlin. Mira's mother was German, and her father was Russian Jewish. During the Nazi era, Mira took part in the propaganda series Liese und Miese. She played Miese (germ. bad one): the bad role model, according to Nazi ideology, who listened to enemy radio stations and stockpiled rationed food. However, her acting skills turned the "bad" character she portrayed into a likeable one. The series was cancelled for being counterproductive. The propaganda directors did not know that Mira was half-Jewish because she had false papers. Although she insisted on her naivete as a young woman and that she had to conceal her origins, she was criticized later by some for taking part in these ads at all. Notable performances include Emmi Kurowski in Ali: Fear Eats the Soul (1974), a role for which she won a German Film Award. In the 1980s, Mira achieved another big success with the television series Drei Damen vom Grill. She appeared in the 1991 stage production of Stephen Sondheim's Follies in Berlin. (Via Wikipedia)