Abeßer, Doris

In Professor Mamlock © DEFA-Stiftung, Walter Ruge
Biography:
Doris Abesser was born in Berlin on March 15, 1935. She started taking acting classes at the age of sixteen and attended the Deutsches Theater drama school from 1952 to 1956. After graduating, she was engaged at the theater in Senftenberg before becoming a member of the company at the Staatstheater Dresden and then moving on to the Volksbühne in Berlin.
Abesser was cast for the film Roman einer jungen Ehe by director Kurt Maetzig while she was still a student. Roles in films by Frank Beyer (Eine alte Liebe), Heiner Carow (Septemberliebe), and Konrad Wolf (Professor Mamlock) followed, and she became an audience darling.
However, her role in Der Frühling braucht Zeit—which was banned shortly after its premiere because of its critical portrayal of East Germany’s planned economy—abruptly interrupted her movie career. Although she had been a permanent employee of the DEFA Studio for Feature Films since 1963, she was blacklisted and offered no new roles.
Abesser returned to acting on stage, working at the Metropol Theater in Berlin for almost three decades until it closed in 1997. While she did not appear in a feature film again until much later, as of the 1970s she started acting in television productions, including Polizeiruf 110, Geschichten übern Gartenzaun, Edel & Stark, In aller Freundschaft, and Dr. Martin.
Besides acting in film and theater, she has also dubbed films and worked on radio dramas, including Brigitte Reimann’s Franziska Linkerhand (1985), Mikhail Bulgakov’s The Master and Margerita (1998, 30-part series) and Dylan Thomas’s Under Milk Wood (2003).
Filmography:
2012 | SOKO Wismar (Special Unit: Wismar, TV series) |
2010 | Deadline – Jede Sekunde zählt (Deadline: Each Second Counts, TV series) |
2009 | Doktor Martin (Dr. Martin, TV series) |
2008 | Hallo Robbie (Hi Robbie, TV series) |
2008 | KDD–Kriminaldauerdienst (KDD-24/7 Criminal Investigation, TV series) |
2008 | Der Landarzt (The Country Doctor, TV series) |
2005 | In aller Freundschaft (In All Friendship, TV series) |
2003 | Edel & Stark (Noble & Strong, TV series) |
2001 | Berlin is in Germany |
1983 | Zille und ick (Zille and Me) |
1982-85 | Geschichten übern Gartenzaun (Stories over the Garden Fence, TV series) |
1977-97 | Polizeiruf 110 (Police Call 110, TV series) |
1968 | Hauptmann Florian von der Mühle (Captain Florian of the Mill) |
1965 | Der Frühling braucht Zeit (Spring Takes Time) |
1964 | Das Lied vom Trompeter (The Song of the Trumpeter) |
1961 | Professor Mamlock |
1960 | Septemberliebe (September Love) |
1959 | Das Leben beginnt (Life Begins) |
1959 | Eine alte Liebe (An Old Love) |
1956 | Zwischenfall in Benderath (Incident in Benderath) |
1952 | Roman einer jungen Ehe (The Story of a Young Couple) |