German actress
The Cover Photo in the Kinorevue is correct Winnie Markus and not as wrong mentioned Franziska Kinz. (Kinorevue Date 4.1.1942, Volume VIII, Issue No. 23).
Blonde, high-cheek-boned German leading actress of the 1940s and 50s. Born in Bohemia, she grew up in Prague where she studied ballet. Moved to Vienna at the age of sixteen and attended the Max Reinhardt Seminar. First on stage at the Theater in der Josefstadt (1939-45), subsequent engagements in Berlin. In films from the late 1930s, with first leading roles during the war years. Along with Rudolf Prack, Markus became an important actress of the Heimatfilm genre during the 1950s. Came out of a lengthy retirement in the 1980s to act on German television.
She took ballet lessons before she entered the Max-Reinhardt-Seminar in Vienna where she studied from 1937 to 1939.
The busiest time came after the war. First she founded the "Studio 45-Film GmbH" together with Viktor de Kowa but their first movie "Sag die Wahrheit" was a failure. It followed engagements at theaters and finally she appeared in Helmut Kutners movie "In jenen Tagen" .
Winnie Markus continued her career during wartime and became soon established as a popular leading actress in movies.
She was a close friend of the actress Mady Rahl.
In 1946 she married the Zellermayer, a hotelier from Berlin. They had a son, Alexander who died in 1982.
The actress Winnie Markus attended the Reinhardt-Seminar in Vienna and made her theater debut in 1919 at the Theater in der Josefstadt.
In 1939 she was engaged at the Theater in der Josefstadt (until 1945) and in the same year she made her movie debut in "Mutterliebe (directed by Gustav Ucicky; Paula Wessely helped her to get the part). In 1939 she also appeared in "Brand im Ozean".
Winnie Markus died as a result of pneumonia - and not , as the magazine Stern claims to addiction of pills.
Several heights influenced her last years, among others she got the Filmband in gold in 1986 and the Bundesverdienstkreuz in 1988.
Winnie Markus had to bear a bad blow in 1982 when her son died in an accident.
For decades, the actress swallowed daily up to 30 tablets. She died after a collapse in a Munich clinic. All organs were sick by the time abuse , she had poisoned herself.
She was invited to go to Hollywood, but she preferred to stay in Germany where she was in 60 movies and many theatre productions.
She made her film debut in the same year with "Mutterliebe" , which was the prelude to a great career which had the height in the German post-war film in the 50s.
When Winnie Markus got married with the "salt baron" Adi Vogel she retired from the acting and concentrated to the management of her husbands company. When the company collapsed in 1976 he had to flee through different countries because of the enormous debts. After that Winnie Markus ventured a comeback at the theater which she succeeded in an impressive way.
Shortly before the end of the war her leg was hit by a bullet that was fired at random by a drunken Russian soldier.
