Brigitte Horney
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Brigitte Horney (born March 29, 1911 in Berlin - died July 27, 1988 in Hamburg) was a notable German theatre and film actress. Best remembered was her role as Empress Katherine the Great in the 1943 version of the UFA film version of Baron Munchhausen directed by Josef von Baky with Hans Albers in the title role.
[edit] Life and work
Brigitte Horney was the daughter of noted psychiatrist Else Danielsen and grew up in Dahlem. She was for more than a decade engaged by Berlin's Volksbühne. When she accepted the starring role in the highly popular film Liebe, Tod und Teufel (Love, Death and the Devil, 1934). A new star was born with the Leitmotif song "So oder so ist das Leben".
Horney was a good friend of the actor Joachim Gottschalk and appeared in four films with him. Although Gottschalk had fallen from favor with Nazi officials, Horney attended Gottschalk's funeral (Germany, 1941), regardless of the political and career implications of doing so.
After the Second World war she became an American citizen, but continued to visit Germany frequently, where she had a house in Bavaria. She continued to work in films and television (i.e. Oliver Twist) until her death in 1988.
