Alice and Ellen Kessler, twin dancers and singers who launched their profession within the Nineteen Fifties and carried out with Fred Astaire, Frank Sinatra and Harry Belafonte, amongst others, have died, police in Germany stated Tuesday. They have been 89.
German twin dancers Alice and Ellen Kessler maintain gorilla twin infants Alice and Ellen, they feed with milk bottles on August 30, 1967 on the Zoo in Frankfurt, Germany.
Goettert / AP
The Kessler twins discovered to bounce at a younger age and joined the Leipzig Opera youngsters’s ballet. In 1952, once they have been 16, their household fled to West Germany, the place they danced in a revue theater in Düsseldorf. In 1955, the sisters have been found by the director of the Lido cabaret theater in Paris, the place their worldwide profession took off.
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Ellen and Alison Kessler at Heathrow airport in June 1967.
Victor Crawshaw/Mirrorpix through Getty Photos
Within the Nineteen Sixties, the Kessler twins toured worldwide, moved to Rome and carried out with Astaire, Sinatra and Belafonte. They turned down a suggestion to seem with Elvis Presley in “Viva Las Vegas” in 1964 for worry of turning into outlined by musical movies in America, dpa reported.
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German twin dancers Alice (with longer slacks) and Ellen Kessler strive a brand new dancing step within the seaside of the Excelsior Lodge on the Lido of Venice, Italy on August 20, 1961.
Gerolamo di Majo / AP
Even at 80, the sisters appeared on stage in a musical. Alice stated shortly earlier than their eightieth birthday that they most likely wouldn’t have managed to carry out for thus lengthy alone.
Being a twosome “only has advantages,” she stated. “Together you’re stronger.”
Requested in regards to the secret of their success, she remarked: “Discipline, every day. Gratitude, time and again. Humility, not cockiness. And togetherness. Until death.”
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Ellen Kessler and her twin sister Alice Kessler through the theatre premiere of “Das perfekte Geheimnis” at Komödie im Bayerischen Hof on April 11, 2024 in Munich, Germany.
Gisela Schober / Getty Photos
The twins advised the German tabloid Bild in April 2024 that they wished to be buried in the identical urn, together with the ashes of their mom and canine. “That’s what we stipulated in our wills,” Ellen Kessler advised Bild.
Assisted suicide is authorized in 9 nations in Europe in addition to Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Colombia, Cuba and Ecuador, in response to the nonprofit Dignity in Dying.
Within the U.S., dying with medical help is authorized in 10 states and Washington, D.C., however a minimum of eight different states are contemplating comparable legal guidelines this yr, in response to Loss of life with Dignity.
Presently, some New York lawmakers and advocates are calling for Gov. Kathy Hochul to signal the “Medical Aid In Dying” invoice, also called MAID. The invoice would legalize giving terminally ailing grownup sufferers who’ve six months or much less to reside the choice to have a physician prescribe them a mix of a deadly medicine.
For those who or somebody you realize is in emotional misery or a suicidal disaster, you possibly can attain the 988 Suicide & Disaster Lifeline by calling or texting 988. You can too chat with the 988 Suicide & Disaster Lifeline right here.
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