Katharina Thalbach (German: [kataˈʁiːna ˈtaːlbax] ; actually Katharina Joachim genannt Thalbach; born 19 January 1954) is a German actress and stage director. She played theater at the Berliner Ensemble and at the [Volksbühne Berlin], and was an actress in the film The Tin Drum. She worked as a theater and opera director.
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Life and work
Born in East Berlin, Katharina Thalbach's father Benno Besson was a director, her mother Sabine Thalbach, was an actress. Her half-brother Pierre Besson and her stepmother Ursula Karusseit are actors as well.
At the age of four, Thalbach was playing children's roles on stage, on television, and in films. After the death of her mother in 1966, Helene Weigel took her under her care. In 1967, she made her debut as the whore Betty (later the Polly) in Erich Engel's production of Brecht's Dreigroschenoper. She completed her Abitur at the Max-Planck-Oberschule. She obtained her stage maturity examination (Bühnenreifeprüfung) as a master student of Helene Weigel, Berliner Ensemble. Thalbach played at the Berliner Ensemble and at the Volksbühne Berlin, where her father worked as artistic director.
