West German postcard by Ufa/Film-Foto, Berlin-Tempelhof, no. FK 3776. Photo: Lilo / Hansa Film / Günter Matern. Chariklia Baxevanos in Von allen geliebt / Of All Loved (Paul Verhoeven, 1957).
West German postcard by Rüdel-Verlag, Hamburg-Bergedorf, no. 2173. Photo: Hansa Film / Deutsche Film Hansa / Lilo. Chariklia Baxevanos in Von allen geliebt/Of All Loved (Paul Verhoeven, 1957).
A versatile and promising talent
Chariklia Baxevanos was born in 1936 to Greek parents in Zurich. Her father was the operatic tenor Peter Baxevanos, who later sang at the Volksoper in Vienna, and was a theatre director in Athens.
Chariklia grew up in Vienna, attending the gymnasium ‘Sacré Coeur’. Helene Thimig, Max Reinhardt's widow, convinced her parents of their daughter's talent and invited her to study acting at the Max Reinhardt Seminar in Vienna. She studied for two years at the Max-Reinhardt Seminar and graduated there with distinction in 1953.
She had her first success in the same year with ‘Gigi’ at the Wiesbaden State Theatre. Her ‘Mamsell Nitouche’ at the Munich Kammerspiele was her second major stage success.
Since then, several major theatres engaged the versatile and promising actress. For eight years she played at the Theater in der Josefstadt in Vienna. Among others, she played the title role in Terence Rattigan's ‘The Prince and the Dancer’. She was ‘Leonore’ at the Zurich Schauspielhaus, and played in Henrik Ibsen's ‘Wildente’ (The Wild Duck) and Jean Anouilh's ‘Leocadia’.
On the German stage (latterly at Berlin's Theater am Kurfürstendamm under the direction of her then-husband Christian Wölffer), Chariklia Baxevanos headlined as Eliza Doolittle, Anne Frank, Bernadette of Lourdes, Irma La Douce and Rosalinde in William Shakespeare's 'As You Like It'.
West German postcard by Irma-Verlag, Stuttgart-W. Photo: Arthur Grimm / CCC-Film / Herzog-Film. Sent by mail in 1958.
West German autograph card. Photo: Lothar Winkler, Berlin-Dahlem.
Schlager and holiday films
At the age of 16, Chariklia Baxevanos made her film debut in a small role in in the Austrian comedy Schäm' dich, Brigitte! / Shame on You, Brigitte! (E.W. Emo, 1952), starring Heinz Rühmann, Theo Lingen and Hans Moser. She played the younger sister of Mozart's wife Constanze (Gertrüd Kückelmann) in the biopic Mozart (Karl Hartl, 1955), starring Oskar Werner.
In the 1950s, she was frequently seen in Schlager and holiday films, such as Musikparade / Music Parade (Géza von Cziffra, 1956) with Georg Thomalla and Peter Alexander and Ein Stück vom Himmel / A Piece of Heaven (Rudolf Jugert, 1957) with Toni Sailer. She played the leading role alongside Joachim Fuchsberger in Eva küßt nur Direktoren / Eva Kisses Only Directors (Rudolf Jugert, 1957). In her last outing on the big screen, she provided comic relief, in the Edgar Wallace adaptation of Das Ungeheuer von London-City / The Monster of London City (Edwin Zbonek, 1964) with Hans-Jörg Felmy.
Better known on television, she starred as the eponymous heroine of the short-lived drama series Wilhelmina (Thomas Engel, 1968) with Brigitte Mira. She made guest appearances in several episodes of the Science Fiction series Unterwegs nach Atlantis / On the Way to Atlantis (Thomas Fantl, 1982) in addition to a memorable performance in the all-star, Francis Durbridge inspired Mini Series Verräter / Traitor (Michael Braun, 1967).
As a voice actress, she provided the German dubbing for, among others, Carole Landis, Shirley MacLaine, Madeline Kahn and Virna Lisi. 'Baxi' was married twice. Her first husband was the actor Horst Frank, remembered as one of the great European screen villains of the era. He is the father of their daughter Désirée. They divorced a year later.
She then had a ten-year-long relationship with actor Harald Juhnke. They never married and parted ways in 1971, presumably as a consequence of Juhnke's problems with alcoholism. Her second husband was the stage director, writer and actor Christian Wölffer (1942-2015), co-owner, partner and part of the management team of the Berlin Theater am Kurfürstendamm. Her last film with him was the comedy Zwiebeln und Butterplätzchen / Onions and Butter Biscuits (Christian Woelffer, 1990) with Peer Schmidt and Elisabeth Volkmann.
West German postcard by Rüdel Verlag, Hamburg-Bergedorf, no. 2867. Photo: CCC-Film / Deutsche Film Hansa / Arthur Grimm. Chariklia Baxevanos in Abschied von den Wolken/Rebel Flight to Cuba (Gottfried Reinhardt, 1959).
West German postcard by Ufa-Film-Foto, Berlin-Tempelhof, no. FK 4775. Photo: Arthur Grimm.
Sources: I.S. Mowis (IMDb), Munzinger (German), Wikipedia (English and German) and IMDb.
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