Biography:

Lissy Tempelhof was born in Berlin in 1929, where she experienced WWII as a teenager. To earn her living after the war, she worked as a Trümmerfrau clearing rubble and, later, as a streetcar conductor and secretary. After performing with amateur theater groups and cabarets in her free time, she was hired as an actress at the Theater Anklam.

Tempelhof studied acting at the Ernst Busch Schauspielschule in Berlin from 1950 to 1953. Engagements at prestigious theaters followed, including at the Staatstheater Dresden and the Maxim Gorki Theater in Berlin. In 1963, she moved to the Deutsches Theater Berlin, where she was a member of the ensemble for more than 35 years, working with such renowned directors as Adolf Dresen, Friedo Soler and Benno Besson.

Parallel to her work in theater, Tempelhof played in many film and television productions from the early 1950s on. Her first leading role was as the physician Inge Ruoff, a member of the Nazi party who sides with a prominent Jewish doctor, in Konrad Wolf’s drama Professor Mamlock. She also appeared in Kurt Barthel’s Fräulein Schmetterling and Heiner Carow’s WWII movie, Die Russen kommen, both which were banned in the GDR.Tempelhof was awarded the Jury and Audience Award at the East German National Film Festival in 1980 for her performance as the brigade leader Maria Boltzin in Iris Gusner’s Alle meine Mädchen. 

Since the 1990s, Tempelhof continued to act in television productions and series, including Der Landarzt and Für alle Fälle Stefanie. She was also known as a chasonnière and sang the title song in Sonnensucher (1958, dir. Konrad Wolf) and released several records, including Nie bist du ohne Nebendir (You Are Never without Beside You, 1973), based on lyrics by Joachim Ringelnatz, and Begeistert von Berlin (Thrilled by Berlin, 1972). Since the 1990s, she continued to act in television productions and series, including Der Landarzt and Für alle Fälle Stefanie.

Lissy Tempelhof, who was married to actor Dietrich Körner, died in 2017.

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