Alice and Ellen Kessler: Legendary twin performers die at 89

Alice and Ellen Kessler, the twin entertainers who began their careers in the 1950s and shared the stage with stars such as Fred Astaire, Frank Sinatra, and Harry Belafonte, have passed away at the age of 89, according to German police. 

Without citing any specific sources, the German newspaper Bild and news agency dpa reported on the twins’ deaths in Grünwald, a wealthy Munich neighborhood where they shared a home, on Monday. In an email statement, Munich police confirmed the deaths on Tuesday, stating that it was a “joint suicide.”

The Kessler twins joined the Leipzig Opera children’s ballet after learning to dance at an early age. When they were 16, their family migrated to West Germany in 1952, and they performed in a revue theater in Düsseldorf. The sisters’ international fame began when the director of the Lido cabaret theater in Paris found them in 1955.

The Kessler twins traveled the world, relocated to Rome, and shared the stage with Astaire, Sinatra, and Belafonte during the 1960s. They declined an invitation to co-star with Elvis Presley in “Viva Las Vegas” in 1964 out of concern that musical films in America would define them, according to dpa.

The Kessler twins traveled the world, relocated to Rome, and shared the stage with Astaire, Sinatra, and Belafonte during the 1960s. They declined an invitation to co-star with Elvis Presley in “Viva Las Vegas” in 1964 out of concern that musical films in America would define them, according to dpa.

The sisters performed on stage in a musical at the age of 80. They most likely wouldn’t have been able to perform for so long on their own, Alice remarked just before their 80th birthday.