Alice and Ellen Kessler were born performers. The pretty twin blonds joined the Leipzig Opera Company in their native Germany as children. Later, they were featured performers at famed Le Lido on the Champs-Élysées in Paris. There, met even met Elvis Presley while he was on leave from the US Army.
Alice and Ellen went on to represent West Germany in the 1959 Eurovision Song Contest. They moved to Italy in the 1960s and were regular performers on Italian television. They posed for the Italian version of Playboy, in what became the fastest selling issue of the European magazine. They eventually made their way to America, where their popularity blossomed on variety shows like The Ed Sullivan Show, The Red Skelton Show and The Danny Kaye Show. The sisters appeared as dancers in the 1962 film Sodom and Gomorrah and found themselves on the cover of Life magazine the same year. They moved back to Germany and continued performing for adoring crowds.
The Kessler sisters experienced declining health in their later years. Ellen suffered a stroke in October 2025. They made it very clear that they did not wish to be dependent on nursing care, and wanted to die together. They agreed upon and arranged for an assisted suicide. Alice and Ellen Kessler were born on August 20, 1936. They died on November 17, 2025.
Together.