Person Biography:
Hildegard Frieda Albertine Knef was born on December 28, 1925, in Ulm, Germany. She began studying acting in 1940 and made her film debut even before the fall of the Third Reich. To avoid being raped by Soviet soldiers, she disguised herself as a young man and was sent to a prisoner-of-war camp, from which she escaped and returned to war-torn Berlin. She started her stage career and gained recognition for her performances.
Her film career took off with the movie "Murderers Among Us" (1946),which made her a star. David O. Selznick offered her a contract, but she refused to change her name or pretend to be Austrian instead of German. She returned to Germany and continued to work in the film industry, causing a scandal with her appearance in the film "The Sinner" (1951),which the Roman Catholic Church protested against.
She tried to launch a Hollywood career again, changing her surname to Neff, but only received a supporting role in the film "The Snows of Kilimanjaro" (1952). She became a leading lady in German, French, and British films and eventually achieved stardom on the Broadway stage as Ninotchka in the play "Silk Stockings".
In 1963, she started a new career as a singer, surprising audiences with her deep, smoky voice and writing many of her own song lyrics. She wrote the autobiographical bestseller "Der Geschenkte Gaul" in 1970 and gained sympathy worldwide for her fight against cancer, which she defeated several times.
After German reunification, Hildegard Knef moved back to Berlin and passed away on February 1, 2002, at the age of 76 due to a lung infection.
