Senta Berger

Since February 2003, Senta Berger has been president of the German Film Academy, who want to advance the new generation of actors and actresses in Germany and Europe and who will decide the assignment of the German Film Awards in the future. Siân Phillips portrayed Mrs Patrick Campbell in the 1975 miniseries "Jennie: Lady Randolph Churchill," which starred Lee Remick. In the same year, she also started a career as a singer of Chansons. She and her first husband had two children, Beo and Stella. Afterwards further serial hits follow, like “The fast Gerti”, where she plays a taxi driver. She died in Pau, France. In 1985/86, she started a comeback in front of German-speaking audiences in the very poular TV serial “Kir Royal”. In her later years, Mrs Patrick Campbell made notable appearances in motion pictures, including "One More River" (1934), "Rip Tide" (1934), and "Crime and Punishment" (1935).

Between 1974 and 1982, she played the “Buhlschaft” in the play “Jedermannn” at the Salzburg Festival with Curd Jürgens and Maximilian Schell. In 1914, she played Eliza Doolittle in the original production of Shaw's Pygmalion; though much too old for the part, she was the obvious choice, being by far the biggest name on the London stage. She successfully played at the Burgtheater in Vienna, at the Thaliatheater in Hamburg and at the Schillertheater in Berlin. Fourteen years after the death of her first husband in 1900, she became the second wife of George Cornwallis-West (born 1874) -- a dashing writer previously married to Jennie Jerome, the mother of Winston Churchill -- but she continued to use "Mrs Patrick Campbell" as her stage name. The birth of her two sons caused Senta to turn back to the theatre. She made her stage debut in 1888, four years after her marriage to Patrick Campbell, and became successful as a result of starring in Sir Arthur Wing Pinero's play, The Second Mrs Tanqueray, in 1893. Berger continued to develop her European career in France and Italy. She was born Beatrice Stella Tanner in Kensington, London, of English and Italian parents.

Other internationally successful films made by the duo included, amongst others, Die weiße Rose, The terrible girl (Das schreckliche Mädchen) and Mutters Courage. Mrs Patrick Campbell (9th February 1865 - 9th April 1940) was a British stage actress, the most successful of her generation. In 1970, she starred for the first time in a film produced by her own company and directed by her husband. And they're so close together!". In 1966, they married, after starting up their own film production company the previous year. On actress Norma Shearer: "She has such pretty little eyes. In 1963, Berger met Michael Verhoeven, son of the German film director Paul Verhoeven (not the Dutch Paul Verhoeven). To the loquacious George Bernard Shaw: "When you were quite a little boy, somebody ought to have said 'hush' just once.".

An offer for a series role, which would have brought an obligation of several years with itself, was the reason for their return to Germany. On success: "Success is the ability to go from failure to failure without losing your enthusiasm.". In 1962, she went to Hollywood and worked with stars such as Charlton Heston, Frank Sinatra, John Wayne and Yul Brynner. On homosexuals: "Does it really matter what these affectionate people do, so long as they don’t do it in the streets and frighten the horses?". Brauner used Senta Berger in several films, but soon she tired of musicals. More and more directors and producers wanted to work with her, for example Bernhard Wicki and Arthur Brauner, who produced the film The Good Soldier Schweijk with Berger and Heinz Rühmann, a famous German actor.

Her ambition was still to be a film actress. In 1958, she became the youngest member of the Josefstadt theatre in Vienna. She applied for the Max Reinhardt Seminar, a famous acting school in Vienna, and was accepted, shortly afterwards was forced to leave, because she had accepted a film role without permission. In 1957, she won her first small role in a film.

Berger then took private acting lessons. But her dream of a career as a dancer was destroyed by her last teacher, who did not like the physical changes in Senta during puberty. At the age of five she started ballet lessons. With him, Senta first appeared on stage at the age of four, where he accompanied his daughter's singing on the piano.

Her father, from whom she probably inherited talent, was a musician. Senta Berger's parents were not rich, but tried everything to meet the desires of their daughter. Senta Berger (born May 13, 1941, in Vienna) is an Austrian actress and producer.