Brigitte Mira

Brigitte Mira (1910-2005) was a German actress best remembered for her character roles (often starring or principal parts) in Rainer Werner Fassbinder's films. She guest starred on Sesamstrasse in 1982, playing a marketplace ice cream vendor in Folge 872. The plot centers on Lilo betting Samson and Manfred that she can disguise herself and be unrecognized, so they assume Mira's character is Lilo in costume and makeup.
Mira began her career in musicals, operetta, ballet, and as a comic performer in cabaret. Her earliest film work was during World War II in Nazi Germany. Although she had a Jewish father, she'd falsified papers to hide the fact and appeared in 1940s propaganda shorts (as the bad role model who would listen to Allied radio broadcasts and horde rationed goods). She continued to work steadily postwar, with film credits including Schlag auf Schlag (with Peter Alexander) and Der Partyphotograph (with Rolf Zacher). These were usually small and supporting roles, however, although she also made appearances as herself performing on the variety and talk show circuit in the 1960s. 
Her profile as a dramatic actress, however, increased after Rainer Werner Fassbinder saw her on stage in 1972. That year, he cast her to type as a controlling mother in one episode of his miniseries Eight Hours Don't Make a Day, but then starred her in 1974's Ali: Fear Eats the Soul as a middle-aged widow who falls in love with a younger Moroccan man. Also in 1974, she had a large supporting role in Werner Herzog's The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser, receiving third billing.
Mira starred for Fassbinder again in 1975's Mother Küsters Goes to Heaven (as a housewife coping with her husband suddenly committing murder and suicide) and worked with Fassbinder six more times total, alternating between major supporting roles and cameos. She starred on the soap opera Drei Damen vom Grill (1977-1991) and made guest appearances on Derrick, Der Alte, and Grossstadtrevier. She acted on radio beginning in the 1950s and recurred on the 1989-1990 German recreations of The Marx Brothers radio sitcom Flywheel, Shyster and Flywheel (playing most of the Margaret Dumont-style society matrons). Dubbing assignments, which were fewer compared to her prolific work elsewhere, were mainly in animation, in Disney's Winnie the Pooh and the Blustery Day (Rabbit), 101 Dalmatians (Nanny), and The Fox and the Hound (Widow Tweed), as well as the goose in Charlotte's Web. 
==External links==
*IMDB
*Steffi-line.de - Biography in German
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Category:International Celebrities
Category:Sesamstrasse Guest Stars