Marianne Sägebrecht
About
Biography
Filmography
Family & Companions
Biography
This Rubanesque character player with a heart-shaped face and child-like features began her career as a leading producer and performer of Germany's alternative theater/cabaret scene. The eclectic background of Marianne Sagebrecht included stints as a medical lab assistant and magazine assistant editor before she found her calling in show business. Claiming to be inspired by Bavaria's mad King Ludwig II, she became known as the "mother of Munich's sub-culture" as producer and performer of avant-garde theater and cabaret revues, particularly with her troupe Opera Curiosa. Spotted by director Percy Adlon in a 1977 production of "Adele Spitzeder" in which she essayed the role of a delicate prostitute, Sagebrecht was cast as Madame Sanchez/Mrs. Sancho Panza in Adlon's TV special "Herr Kischott" (1979), a spin on "Don Quixote." The director put her in his 1983 feature "The Swing" in a small role and then created the leading role of Marianne, an overweight mortician in love with a subway conductor, in "Sugarbaby" (1985) especially for her.
American films beckoned as well and Sagebrecht was often cast in roles tailored to her unique abilities. Paul Mazursky reworked the part of a Teutonic masseuse for her in "Moon Over Parador" (1988) while Danny De Vito tailored the part of the German housekeeper for a divorcing couple in "The War of the Roses" (1989). Returning to Germany, she shone as the timid maid in the 1930s who marries her Jewish employer for convenience then falls in love in "Martha and I" (1990; released in the USA in 1995). Sagebrecht headlined the black comedy as an unhappy wife whose straying husband plots her death in "Mona Must Die" (1994) and had small supporting parts in "The Ogre" (1996) and "Lost Luggage" (1998).
Filmography
Cast (Feature Film)
Life Events
1961
Trained as medical lab assistant
1975
Assistant photography editor of COLORS magazine
1977
Spotted playing a prostitute in "Adele Spitzeder" in Munich by Percy Adlon
1980
TV debut as Mrs. Sanchez (Mrs. Sancho Panza) in Percy Adlon's "Monsieur Kischott"
1982
Created the cabaret revue "Talzewurm"
1983
Screen acting debut in Adlon's "The Swing"
1985
First leading film role in "Sugarbaby/Zuckerbaby", directed by Adlon
1988
First English-language film, "Bagdad Cafe", also directed by Adlon
1989
Had lead in Adlon's "Rosalie Goes Shoppping"
1989
Co-starred in the US-produced "The War of the Roses"
1990
Played a German maid who marries her Jewish employer in "Martha and I"
1994
Portrayed a wife whose husaband was constantly trying to kill her in the black comedy "Mona Must Die"
1996
Had featured role in Volker Schlondorff's "The Ogre"
1998
Played supporting role of heroine's mother in "Left Luggage", directed by Jeroen Krabbe