WE LIVE TOGETHER, WE DIE TOGETHER
Twins Alice and Ellen Kessler were born in Nerchau in the eastern part of Germany in 1936. Their parents were Paul, a mechanical engineer, and Elsa.
They had two older brothers.
It was a very unhappy childhood as their father was an abusive alcoholic who beat their mother. He never hit the twins, but they described their upbringing as, ‘A childhood of fear’.
Both their older brothers died. One contracted jaundice and died in childhood, whilst the other returned from war with typhus (aged just seventeen) and passed away shortly afterwards.
The girls said home life was filled with sadness.
They started ballet classes at the age of six.
At eleven, the girls were signed up to Leipzig Opera’s child ballet programme where they were also taught aerobatics and learned how to play the accordion.
In 1952, when the twins were sixteen, their parents smuggled the whole family out of communist-controlled East Germany by illegally using a visitor visa.
In the West, they settled in the city of Dusseldorf.
By now, both girls were just short of six feet tall.
Very quickly, the dancing, singing twins, were signed up to the Paris Lido, despite not speaking a word of French. They joined the Bluebell Girls dance troupe, which required had a minimum height of five feet nine inches.
Regular guests at the Lido included the Duke and Duchess of Windsor, Maria Callas and Sophia Loren.
Ellen had a one-night stand with actor Burt Lancaster. He didn’t impress her much. “I’d never been to bed with a statue before.”
Actor John Wayne sent a member of staff over to Alice, to ask if she would join him for a drink. Alice went over to Wayne and said, “If you can’t ask me yourself, I’m not interested.”
It was whilst performing at the Lido in 1959, that they met Elvis Presley who was on leave from the US Army. The twins had a joint date with Elvis, but found him, “Insecure and shy.”
That same year, they represented West Germany in the Eurovision Song Contest held in Cannes. Their song was called ‘Tonight we want to go Dancing’. They came eighth out of eleven contestants.
Whilst at the Lido, they met American-born Italian choreographer, Don Luro, who persuaded the girls to come and work with him in Italy, where the twins became instant stars, appearing on the RAI television show, ‘Studio Uno’.
After a famous dance routine called ‘Da-Da-Un-Pa’, they earned the nickname, ‘The Legs of the Nation’ because they were the first women to ever show their legs on Italian television).
They became renowned for their talent, elegance and female independence, contrasting with the conservative, Catholic values of the time.
The Vatican used to send a representative to watch their rehearsals. He would make recommendations, and the twins would disappear with their choreographer for half an hour.
They danced their ‘revised’ routine – and the Vatican man would leave, satisfied. They admitted later that they never made a single amendment to their dances.
RAI had a strict dress code, so the twins always appeared on television wearing thick black stockings.
They said, “We were scantily clad on TV, but we think we were always elegant, never vulgar. There were criticisms – but that was a plus for us.”
The most impressive about their act was the co-ordination and synchronisation.
They also appeared on the ‘Red Skelton Hour’ in the USA and unexpectedly became successful there.
The twins also performed on the Danny Kaye Show, the Dean Martin Show and the Ed Sullivan Show, and appeared on stage with Frank Sinatra, Fred Astaire, Sammy Davis Jnr. and Harry Belafonte. They also had a residency in Las Vegas.
Alice and Ellen appeared in the film ‘Sodom and Gomorrah’, which led to a photo shoot on the cover of Life Magazine.
The twins appeared in twelve movies but turned down Elvis’ personal request to appear in ‘Viva Las Vegas’, as they didn’t want to become typecast.
They conquered Europe and toured the world – but were never very successful in the United Kingdom.
The girls were once labelled, ‘The most beautiful women in the world.’
Both girls had high-profile romances. Alice dated French singer Marcel Amont followed by Italian actor Enrico Maria Salerno.
Ellen had a twenty-year romance with Italian actor Umberto Orsini.
Her holidays with Orsini were the longest time the twins ever spent apart.
Alice admitted she was a little less selective with her men friends than her sister. “Ellen was with a man for twenty years. I had twenty men in one year.”
Despite this, neither of the girls ever married, having made a pact not to do so. This was partly because they had witnessed their father abusing their mother – “We didn’t want to depend on a man in any way.”
The twins lived together for the whole of their lives.
In 1976, an Italian journalist wrote about them, ‘The Kesslers are no longer the youngest and no longer the most beautiful’.
In response, they shocked the country by appearing on the front cover of Italian Playboy (and nude inside). They were forty years old. Ellen admitted it took her some time to persuade Alice who was shyer.
The edition sold out in just three hours – and remains the biggest selling edition of a magazine in Italian history.
In 1986, the twins moved back to Germany, living in Grunwald, a small town in Bavaria, very close to Munich.
They had luxurious apartments next to each other (with sliding doors connecting them) and met for lunch every midday.
They received many awards, including separate ones from both the Italian and German governments for promoting positive relations between the two countries.
They published a joint autobiography entitled ‘One Plus One Equals One.’
Reflecting on their careers, the twins said, “We were feminists…but from the age of fifteen we were earning our own living. We’ve always been independent. Perhaps in the end we became a little dependent on each other.”
They added, “We earned very well, never threw our money away and invested it wisely.”
The very last stage performance they made was in a musical when the twins were eighty years old. Their careers had lasted seven decades.
Alice commented, “Being a twosome only has advantages. Together, you’re stronger.”
Shortly afterwards, Ellen had a debilitating stroke and Alice became her full-time carer.
Gradually, Alice’s health deteriorated as well.
Both of them suffered heart problems as well as a loss of smell.
Their last two public appearances were in July 2025, when they received the Bavarian Order of Merit, and late October 2025, when they attended a film premier (just three weeks before their deaths).
The twins had previously been interviewed on an Italian news programme in 2024. They announced they both wanted to die together, on the same day.
That is exactly what they did – announcing they no longer wanted to live. “We were born with discipline and with discipline we will say goodbye.”
Assisted suicide became legal in Germany in 2020. The twins recruited the German Society for Humane Dying, and aided by doctors and lawyers, they both died together.
Their lawyer said, “Their decision had been made over a long period of time and was well thought through though. There were no mental health issues.”
However, because the twins were high-profile celebrities, it has re-opened the debate in Germany about the ethics of assisted suicide.
The twins were buried next to their mother, Ellen, and their dog, Yello.
Their estate was totally bequeathed to a number of charities including UNICEF and Doctors Without Borders (and many others). Ellen said just before she died, “There are so many people who need donations.”
To reflect the twins’ enduring appeal, RAI dedicated a whole evening to them, showing all of their old programmes and TV appearances.
RIP – Remained In Partnership
