Frank Sinatra. Harry Belafonte. Fred Astaire. Elvis Presley. These are just some of the big names the Kessler Twins, Alice and Ellen, performed with in their lifetime. And at 89 years old, the German twins who dazzled Europe and America decided to bow out the same way they entered: together.
Police confirmed the sisters’ passing in Grünwald, a well-heeled suburb just outside Munich. Authorities described it as a joint suicide, with Germany’s laws allowing medically assisted death under specific conditions. According to reports, the Kesslers felt their time on the world’s stage was complete. They shared both life and death together.
Born on Aug. 20, 1936, in Nechau, Germany, the two began dancing at a very young age. The Leipzig Opera’s children’s ballet became their first big gig. And after World War II, their family ended up in East Germany. But at 16, in 1952, they fled to West Germany. Three years later, the tall pair—reportedly 5’10″—were spotted in Düsseldorf by the director of Paris’ famed Lido cabaret. Rome became their second home. World tours followed.
The Kessler twins sang on The Ed Sullivan Show three times and even appeared on The Red Skelton Show in 1963. Hollywood wanted them for “Viva Las Vegas” with Elvis Presley, but they turned The King down. They weren’t about to get boxed into predictable musical roles. Their careers stretched across Italian and German screens, from TV variety shows to film roles. In fact, Radio Monte Carlo once crowned them “the legs of the nation.”
Alice once spelled out their secret sauce: “Discipline, every day. Gratitude, time and again. Humility, not cockiness. And togetherness. Until death.”
Even in their 80s, they were performing. The Kesslers were still taking curtain calls. “Being together only has advantages. Together you’re stronger,” they told DPA.
The Kessler twins never married. With a bond so tight there probably wasn’t room for anyone else. They even wrote into their wills that they wanted to be buried in the same urn, alongside their mom and their dog.
Their final act of the Kessler twins was their decision. A choice made with full awareness and love for the only person who truly understood every beat of their story. Radio Monte Carlo captured it cleanly: “Alice and Ellen Kessler left together, just as they lived: inseparable.”
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