02 April 2020

Nicole Heesters

Austrian actress Nicole Heesters (1937) is the daughter of Dutch-born film star Johannes Heesters. With a rich film and stage career, she stepped out of the shadow of her famous father. As a film actress, she became known in the 1950s with such films as Dieses Lied bleibt bei Dir/Cabaret (Willi Forst, 1954). Later she played in dozens of TV films and series.

Nicole Heesters in Liebe, die den Kopf verliert (1956)
Austrian postcard by Kellner-Fotokarte, Wien, no. 715. Photo: Vogelmann / Wessely-Film. Nicole Heesters in Liebe, die den Kopf verliert/Love that loses its head (Thomas Engel, 1956).

Nicole Heesters
Austrian postcard by Austriapost, Wien, no. 108 A. Photo: Schistal, Wien.

Johannes's daughter


Nicole Heesters was born in 1937 in Potsdam, Germany. Her father was Dutch born actor and singer Johannes Heesters and her mother Belgian stage actress and operetta singer Louise Ghijs. Nicole's older sister Wiesje (1931) is a pianist in Vienna, Austria.

Nicole grew up in Austria and made her film debut as one of the daughters of Attila Hörbiger and Paula Wessely in the comedy Ich und meine Frau/I and My Wife (Eduard von Borsody, 1953).

During the 1950s, she also starred in such films as Dieses Lied bleibt bei Dir/Cabaret (Willi Forst, 1954) and the comedy Drei Männer im Schnee/Three Men in the Snow (Kurt Hoffmann, 1955), starring Paul Dahlke and based on the eponymous novel by Erich Kästner.

In 1954, she made her stage debut in the title role of Gigi at the Wiener Volkstheater. Next she was engaged by the Düsseldorfer Schauspielhaus.

Nicole Heesters in Dieses Lied bleibt bei Dir (1954)
German postcard by Kunst und Bild, Berlin, no. A 1102. Photo: Carlton / NF / Brünjes. Nicole Heesters in Dieses Lied bleibt bei Dir/Cabaret (Willi Forst, 1954).

Nicole Heesters in Drei Männer im Schnee (1955)
German postcard by Kolibri-Verlag no. 1530. Photo: Ringfilm / Deutsche London / Meroth. Nicole Heesters in Drei Männer im Schnee/Three Men in the Snow (Kurt Hoffmann, 1955).

The first female commissioner in Tatort


During the following decades, Nicole Heesters focused on stage and TV. In the theatre, she worked with such directors as Peter Stein, Boy Gobert and Andrea Breth.

Since 1973, she is a member of the Freien Akademie der Künste in Hamburg. On screen, she appeared in the TV film Geliebter Mörder/Beloved Murderer (Heinz Schirk, 1972).

She was Catherine II in the TV Mini-series Die unfreiwilligen Reisen des Moritz August Benjowski/Benjowski (Fritz Umgelter, 1975) with Christian Quadflieg, and she played opposite Rainer Werner Fassbinder in the Sci-Fi thriller Kamikaze 1989 (Wolf Gremm, 1982).

She was also the first female commissioner in the popular Krimi series Tatort/Crime Scene (1978-1980). More recently she played the title role of Lou Andreas-Salomé in The Audacity to be Free (Cordula Kablitz-Post, 2016).

In 1958, she married stage director Pit Fischer, and the couple remained together till his death in 2010. They had two children, including actress Saskia Fischer.

Nicole Heesters'newest film is the family film Die Wolf-Gäng/The Wolf Gang (Tim Trageser, 2020) with Christian Berkel.

Nicole Heesters
German autograph card. Photo: Lore Bermbach.

Sources: Wikipedia and IMDb.

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