Gisela Uhlen

Gisela Uhlen (right), with Robert Ley (left) and Heinrich George, 1941: during a guest appearance of the Berliner Schiller-Theater in occupied France

Gisela Uhlen (16 May 1919 – 16 January 2007) was a German film actress and occasional screen writer.

Biography

Uhlen was born Gisela Friedlinde Schreck^[1] in Leipzig, Germany as fourth child of Luise Frieda and distillery owner and former opera singer Augustin Schreck.^[2]

At the Leipziger Konservatorium she enrolled in a modern dance class, and learnt classical ballet and acrobatics at the opera school. At 15 she decided to become a theatre actress and chose the stage-name Gisela Uhlen. After her final examination as a dancer and during her training period she married ballet teacher Herbert Freund.^[2]

At 17 she appeared for the first time at the Schauspielhaus Bochum. In 1938 Heinrich George brought her to the Berliner Schiller-Theater, where she was active until the end of the war. But even before her first stage appearance she had made film tests with Universum Film AG (Ufa), and thereby obtained the leading actress role in the 1936 film Annemarie. Die Geschichte einer Jungen Liebe. After the war performance of this film was prohibited. Uhlen played a young organist whose lover volunteered to go to the front and there died.^[2]

From 1936 through 1960, Uhlen appeared in 23 films, and in 1960 she steered her career into television. Her career was active throughout her lifetime, with her having more than 56 television appearances into 2006, entirely in the German and European realm.

She married six times, most notably to German writer, director and producer Hans Bertram, with whom she had daughter Barbara Bertram, who also became an actress, but with little success. With Wolfgang Kieling she had a daughter Susanne Uhlen,^[1] who is now a successful German actress. During the Cold War, and following her divorce from Hans Bertram, Uhlen fled into East Germany to avoid a custody battle over their daughter, an unusual move in a time when most people were attempting to escape from East Germany, but moved to West Berlin in 1960.

Filmography

1936: Annemarie. Die Geschichte einer jungen Liebe 1938: Liebelei und Liebe 1938: Tanz auf dem Vulkan 1939: Mann für Mann 1939: Morgen werde ich verhaftet 1940: Zwischen Hamburg und Haiti 1940: Die unvollkommene Liebe 1940: Die Rothschilds 1941: Ohm Krüger 1942: Symphonie eines Lebens 1942: Rembrandt 1942: Zwischen Himmel und Erde Destiny (1942) 1942: 5 June 1943: Die beiden Schwestern 1944: Die Zaubergeige 1945: Der stumme Gast 1949: Eine große Liebe 1950: Der Fallende Stern 1951: Der schweigende Mund 1952: Türme des Schweigens 1956: Das Traumschiff 1958: Emilia Galotti 1960: Mit 17 weint man nicht 1962: Das Mädchen und der Staatsanwalt 1962: Der Gärtner von Toulouse 1962: The Door with Seven Locks 1963: The Indian Scarf

1963: Aufstand der Gehorsamen 1965: Hotel der toten Gäste A Holiday with Piroschka (1965) 1965: Die eigenen vier Wände 1966: Geschlossene Gesellschaft 1966: Der Bucklige von Soho 1967: Der Panamaskandal 1967: Der Tod läuft hinterher 1968: Emma Hamilton 1969: Die Zimmerschlacht 1969: Dr. med. Fabian – Lachen ist die beste Medizin 1971: Leiche gesucht 1974: Drei Männer im Schnee 1975: Tatort: „Als gestohlen gemeldet“ (as Frau Stumm) 1975: Bis zur bitteren Neige 1976: Die Hellseherin 1977: Frauen in New York 1978: Derrick - Season 5, Episode 12: "Ute und Manuela" 1979: Die Ehe der Maria Braun 1980: Derrick - Season 7, Episode 6: "Die Entscheidung" 1982: Wir haben uns doch mal geliebt 1982: Meister Eder und sein Pumuckl 1983: Die zweite Frau 1991: Toto the Hero 1992: Zürich – Transit 1996: Die Katze von Kensington 1997: Der Coup 1998: Edgar Wallace: Das Haus der toten Augen 1989–2006: Forsthaus Falkenau

Stage appearances

1953: Minna von Barnhelm von Gotthold Ephraim Lessing 1957: Lysistrata nach Aristophanes 1958: Die Dreigroschenoper von Bertolt Brecht 1962: Die kleinen Füchse von Lillian Hellman 1964: Der Mann von nebenan von Norman Ginsbury 1964: Ein Leben lang von William Saroyan 1966: Geschlossene Gesellschaft von Jean-Paul Sartre 1969: Die Zimmerschlacht von Martin Walser 1972: Heiraten von George Bernard Shaw 1974: Das Mißverständnis von Albert Camus

1976: Frauen in New York von Clare Booth 1977: Marie Tudor von Victor Hugo 1977: Wer hat Angst vor Virginia Woolf? von Edward Albee 1984: Der Besuch der alten Dame von Friedrich Dürrenmatt 1986: Die Irre con Chaillot von Jean Giradoux 1990: Die Physiker von Friedrich Dürrenmatt 1992: Die Glasmenagerie von Tennessee Williams 1993: Hedda Gabler von Henrik Ibsen 1997: Mord im Pfarrhaus von Agatha Christie

Books

• Umarmungen und Enthüllungen. Berlin : Parthas-Verl., 2002. ISBN 3-932529-33-2
• Meine Droge ist das Leben. Weinheim : Beltz, Quadriga, 1993. ISBN 3-88679-199-8
• Mein Glashaus. Frankfurt/M : Ullstein, 1991. ISBN 3-7770-0178-3

Notes

1. "DNB, Katalog" (in German). Deutschen Nationalbibliothek. Retrieved 2009-03-09. (German national library entry)
2. "filmportal.de / Gisela Uhlen / ( Gisela Friedlinde Schreck )" (in German). Deutsches Filminstitut. Retrieved 2009-03-09.

External links

• Gisela Uhlen in the German National Library catalogue
• Gisela Uhlen at the Internet Movie Database
• Gisela Uhlen Partial Filmography with Plot Synopsis
• Gisela Uhlen - Postcards, movie cards, covers, books and articles
• German wikiquote entry