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Vera Chekhova in 2023

Photo: Kirsten Nijhof / dpa / picture alliance

After a short, serious illness, actress and director Vera Chechowa died in Berlin. The Ute Nicolai agency announced this on Thursday, citing the family.

Chekhova was born in Berlin in 1940 as the daughter of the actress and film manager Ada Chekhova and the doctor Wilhelm Rust. She originally wanted to become a set designer, but then changed her mind. She learned the craft of acting in Berlin and Munich. Chechowa made her film debut in 1957 in “Widower with Five Daughters” alongside Heinz Erhardt.

An encounter with Elvis Presley also occurred during this era. The young Chekhova was once brought to a photo shoot with Elvis when he was stationed as a US soldier in Bad Nauheim. Later there was another encounter with him. When Chekhova played in the theater in Munich, a man bought all the tickets for the performance. And so he sat in the hall, his feet on the back of the chair in front of him, and didn't understand a word. The man was Elvis. At least that's what the legend says.

Chekhova appeared in almost 100 roles from the 1950s to the 1990s. There were also engagements at major German theaters. Chechowa received the Federal Film Prize in 1962 for the Böll film adaptation “The Bread of the Early Years”. The audience also knows her from films such as “Time of Sensitivity”, “Rausch der Verwandlung” or from appearances in television series such as “Tatort” or “Ein Fall für zwei”.

In the 1980s, with her then-husband Vadim Glowna, she shot the Cannes entry “Desperado City,” the Max Frisch film adaptation “Bluebeard” and the documentary feature “Chekhov in My Life” about her famous Russian family. She was the great-grandniece of the playwright Anton Chekhov.

After many films, she had had enough: "At some point the scripts just didn't get any better, they got much worse." She didn't want to work below her level; she could live without the spotlight. Since the 1990s, Chekhova preferred to be behind the camera rather than in front of it, portraying film colleagues such as Katja Riemann, Klaus Maria Brandauer and Michael Ballhaus.

Vera Chekhova was 83 years old.

ipp/dpa