  senta berger (born 13 may 1941) is an austrian film, stage and television actress, producer and author. regarded by critics as one of the greatest actresses of the post-war period, and frequently named as one of the leading german-speaking actresses in polls, berger has received many award nominations for her acting in theatre, film and television; her awards include three bambi awards, two romys an adolf grimme award, both a deutscher and a bayerischer fernsehpreis, and a goldene kamera. berger married director and producer michael verhoeven in 1966. they are the parents of actors simon and luca verhoeven. ==early life== berger is the daughter of musician josef berger and teacher therese jany.http://www.mdr.de/riverboat/1187234.html she first appeared on stage at the age of four, when her father accompanied her singing on the piano. at the age of five she started ballet lessons. berger also took private acting lessons. in 1957, she won her first small role in one of the final films directed by austrian auteur willi forst. she applied for the max reinhardt seminar, a famous acting school in vienna, and was accepted, but she left shortly afterwards after accepting a film role without permission. in 1958, she became the youngest member of the josefstadt theatre in vienna. ==career== bernhard wicki and artur brauner produced the film the good soldier schweijk with berger and the german actor heinz rÃ¼hmann. brauner used berger in several films, but she soon tired of musicals. in 1962, she went to hollywood and worked with stars such as charlton heston, dean martin, frank sinatra, richard widmark, john wayne and yul brynner. she returned to germany to accept an offer for a role in a series, which would have brought an obligation of several years.  in 1963, berger met michael verhoeven, son of the german film director paul verhoeven (not to be confused with the dutch paul verhoeven). they started their own film production company in 1965. in 1966, sen
1941_births Actresses_from_Vienna Austrian_film_actresses Austrian_stage_actresses Austrian_television_actresses Living_people Officers_Crosses_of_the_Order_of_Merit_of_the_Federal_Republic_of_Germany Recipients_of_the_Austrian_Cross_of_Honour_for_Science_and_Art,_1st_class Writers_from_Vienna