Twin sisters who worked with entertainers including Frank Sinatra and Fred Astaire have died aged 89.
Alice and Ellen Kessler, who were usually referred to as the Kessler Twins, were sisters from Germany who worked in singing, dancing and acting throughout Europe in the 1950s and 1960s.
Throughout their career they also worked with stars including Sammy Davis Jr., Dean Martin, Bing Crosby, and Eddie Fisher.
However, this week it was announced the pair decided to end their lives together, dying on Monday in their home near Munich.
As per German newspaper Bild, the sisters chose to die by medical aid, which is legal in Germany.
According to the publication, the sisters ‘no longer wanted to live’ and ‘they had chosen to end their lives together’.
Police were reportedly notified after the process was completed. Authorities later confirmed their deaths in Grünwald, where they shared connecting flats that were divided by a sliding wall.
Born in the Nerchau area of Germany in 1936, the sisters began ballet classes aged six, before then joining the Leipzig Opera’s child ballet program when they were 11.
In 1952, when the twins were 16, their parents used a visitor’s visa to allow the family to escape East Germany.
After reaching the city of Düsseldorf, the sisters performed at the Palladium, going on to appear on stage at The Lido in Paris too.
In 1959 they went on to represent West Germany at the Eurovision Song Contest, where they finished in eighth place with the song Heute Abend wollen wir tanzen geh’n (Tonight we want to go dancing).
Three years later they moved to Italy, where their public profiles grew more with appearances on the variety show Studio Uno.
It was in Italy that they also became known as ‘the nation’s legs’.
Aged 40 they also posed on the cover of the Italian edition of Playboy, with that issue becoming the fastest-selling Italian Playboy to that date.
Outside of Europe, the sisters also became well-known in the United States – appearing on The Red Skelton Hour and The Ed Sullivan Show.
Throughout their career, the twins also appeared in films including The Count of Luxemburg, Love and the Frenchwoman, Erik the Conqueror, Wedding Night in Paradise, and Dead Woman from Beverly Hills.
In 1986 they moved back to Germany, settling in Grünwald.
While minimal details of their deaths have been shared publicly, they told Bild last year that they wanted their ashes to be buried in the same urn, along with those of their mother and their dog, Yello.
While euthanasia is illegal in Germany, medical aid is legal and allows the patients themselves administer prescribed drugs to end their lives, rather than a doctor.
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