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They performed together with Frank Sinatra. With Harry Belafonte. With Fred Astaire. And on Monday, Germany’s Kessler twins \u2014 Alice and Ellen \u2014 ended their lives together at age 89.<\/p>\n
Police confirmed the death to the Associated Press<\/a>, stating in an email that it was a \u201cjoint suicide.\u201d The women shared a house in the suburb of Gr\u00fcnwald, just south of Munich,<\/p>\n Read more:<\/b> Sally Kirkland, Oscar nominee and Golden Globe winner for ‘Anna,’ dies at 84<\/a><\/p>\n The sisters, who were born in the town of Nechau on Aug. 20, 1936, \u201cno longer wanted to live\u201d and \u201chad chosen to end their lives together,” the German outlet Bild<\/a> reported Monday, according to an automated translation. Medically assisted dying is allowed in Germany under certain conditions, the outlet said, for people who are legally capable and acting of their own free will.<\/p>\n The women were inseparable in life as well as death, learning to dance when they were children and applying their skills with the Leipzig Opera children\u2019s ballet, the AP said. In 1952, after World War II ended and the family found itself living in the newly created German Democratic Republic, East Germany, they all fled to West Germany.<\/p>\n The tall twosome \u2014 reportedly 5-foot-10 \u2014 was discovered three years later while dancing in D\u00fcsseldorf in 1955, by the director of Paris’ Lido cabaret, according to German news agency DPA International<\/a>. That launched an international career for the Kesslers, who moved to Rome, toured the world and performed with luminaries, DPA said.<\/p>\n They refused an offer to appear in “Viva Las Vegas” with Elvis Presley, the AP said, not wanting to get pigeon-holed in American musical films. But according to IMDb, they had a decent career in film and TV, which included mostly Italian and German projects. They sang on “The Ed Sullivan Show” three times in the early 1960s and on “The Red Skelton Show” in 1963.<\/p>\n Read more:<\/b> Diane Ladd, three-time Oscar nominee and mom to Laura Dern, dies at 89<\/a><\/p>\n The Kesslers worked well into their 80s, telling DPA at one point, “Being on the road as a duo only has advantages. You’re stronger together.”<\/p>\n The women told Bild in 2024 that they had “stipulated in [their] wills” that they wanted to be buried in the same urn, alongside their mother and a beloved dog. They never married.<\/p>\n On Monday, Radio Monte Carlo posted a tribute to Ellen and Alice Kessler on social media.<\/p>\n “Alice and Ellen Kessler left together, just as they lived: inseparable,” the radio station, which broadcasts out of Monaco and Milan, said in Italian on Instagram<\/a>. “Born in 1936, they were an absolute symbol of European spectacle, including music, dance and television. In Italy, they became celebrities as the ‘legs of the nation,’ icon[s] of elegance and stage presence since the Fifties.<\/p>\n “A unique artistic couple, capable of leaving an indelible imprint on the collective imagination.”<\/p>\n Get notified when the biggest stories in Hollywood, culture and entertainment go live. Sign up for L.A. Times entertainment alerts. <\/a><\/p>\n This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n