Biography:

Ilse Steppat was born in Wuppertal on November 11, 1917. In 1933, she started her theater career at the Städtisches Theater in Theydt. Then, in 1937, she became a member of the theater ensemble of the Volksbühne Berlin, where Joachim Gottschalk had been performing as a guest actor since the spring. The two actors played opposite each other in the leading roles in Goethe’s Clavigo (premiere: March 29, 1938).

Ten years later Steppat’s film debut was as Elisabeth in Kurt Maetzig’s DEFA film, Ehe im Schatten—a role based on the story of Gottschalk and his wife. She appeared in only two more films before leaving the DEFA Studio: Die Brücke and Die blauen Schwerter. In the 1950s, Steppat appeared in many award-winning films, including: Robert Siodmak’s Die Ratten, which won at the Berlin International Film Festival; Kurt Hoffmann’s Bekenntnisse des Hochstaplers Felix Krull, honored at the Golden Globes; and Ósmy dzien tygodnia, a film by Aleksander Ford nominated for the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival.

After playing in crime movies based on the work of author Edgar Wallace (Die Gruft mit dem Rätselschloss, Der unheimliche Mönch), Ilse Steppat was cast as Irma Bunt in the James Bond movie On Her Majesty’s Secret Service, her only English language role. Unfortunately, she was unable to capitalize on her newly acquired fame outside of Germany, as she died on December 22, 1969, only a few days after the movie’s international premiere.