Kessler Twins
Alice and Ellen Kessler (born 20 August 1936), usually credited as the Kessler Twins (; ), are German twin sisters who as singers, dancers and actresses were popular in Europe, especially Germany and Italy, during the 1950s and 1960s. The Kessler sisters enjoyed a significant degree of popularity in the US as well, making their American television debut on the CBS variety show The Red Skelton Hour and appearing on national television programs such as The Ed Sullivan Show. They also appeared in the 1963 film Sodom and Gomorrah as dancers and were featured on the cover of Life Magazine that same year. Lives and careers
Twin sisters Alice and Ellen Kessler were born in Nerchau, Saxony to parents Paul and Elsa Kessler. The girls started  ballet classes at the age of six, and they joined the Leipzig Opera's child ballet program at age 11. When the twins were 18, their parents used a visitor's visa for the family to escape East Germany. After they reached Düsseldorf, the sisters performed at the Palladium. Between 1955 and 1960, they performed at The Lido in Paris. There they met American singer Elvis Presley, who was on leave from the army on 17 June 1959. The twins  represented  in the Eurovision Song Contest 1959, finishing in 8th place with "" ("Tonight we want to go dancing"). In 1960, the twins moved to Italy, where they gradually worked into more serious roles. They became very popular through the RAI television variety show  (1961–1966). At the age of 40, they agreed to pose on the cover of the Italian edition of Playboy. That issue became the fastest-selling Italian Playboy to that date. The Kessler twins moved back to Germany in 1986 and live in Grünwald, Bavaria. They have received two awards from both the German and Italian governments for promoting German-Italian cooperation through their work in show business. Selected filmography
 As Long as There Are Pretty Girls (1955)
 The Beggar Student (1956)
 The Count of Luxemburg (1957)
 The Twins from Zillertal (1957)
 (1958)
  (1960)
 Love and the Frenchwoman (1960)
 Erik the Conqueror (1961)
 The Bird Seller (1962)
 Sodom and Gomorrah (1962)
 Wedding Night in Paradise (1962)
 The Thursday (1963)
 Dead Woman from Beverly Hills (1964)

References

External links 
 
 
 
 Interviewed by the CBC, ca. 1960 (the interview, made while they were employed at The Lido, starts halfway through the clip)
 Kessler Sisters on Scopitone

1936 births
Living people
People from Grimma
People from Saxony
German child actresses
German women singers
German film actresses
20th-century German actresses
Eurovision Song Contest entrants for Germany
Eurovision Song Contest entrants of 1959
Recipients of the Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany
German twins
Identical twin actresses
Twin musical duos
Actresses from Munich
Identical twin females
Female musical duos
German female dancers