Actress. Original name Gisela Friedlinde Schreck. Her career spanned more than seven decades and nearly 100 roles, starting with UFA Film in the late 1930s, and she made numerous TV appearances in recent years. She was not related to "Nosferatu" actor Max Schreck but to avoid confussion adopted the moniker Uhlen soon after she started working on stage and film in 1936. A well-known diva during the Third Reich, her roles included the patriotic propaganda picture "Ohm Krueger." She continued working in film after the war, first in West German films, and then she crossed the border and worked for East Germany's DEFA Film under the direction of her then-husband, Herbert Ballmann. She was married six times, including marriages to actor Wolfgang Kieling, and director Hans Bertram. Although she gave some preference to theater, she returned to West Berlin and continued appearing in mainstream films including the successful German Edgar Wallace adaptations of the 1960s. As was the case with some other vintage thespians, she was rediscovered by arthouse auteurs of the 1970s, and her role as Hana Schygulla's mother in Rainer Werner Fassbinder's "The Marriage of Maria Braun" brought her the Bundesfilmpreis national film award in 1979. She had another late boost of popularity on prime time TV in the family saga "Forsthaus Falkenau."
Actress. Original name Gisela Friedlinde Schreck. Her career spanned more than seven decades and nearly 100 roles, starting with UFA Film in the late 1930s, and she made numerous TV appearances in recent years. She was not related to "Nosferatu" actor Max Schreck but to avoid confussion adopted the moniker Uhlen soon after she started working on stage and film in 1936. A well-known diva during the Third Reich, her roles included the patriotic propaganda picture "Ohm Krueger." She continued working in film after the war, first in West German films, and then she crossed the border and worked for East Germany's DEFA Film under the direction of her then-husband, Herbert Ballmann. She was married six times, including marriages to actor Wolfgang Kieling, and director Hans Bertram. Although she gave some preference to theater, she returned to West Berlin and continued appearing in mainstream films including the successful German Edgar Wallace adaptations of the 1960s. As was the case with some other vintage thespians, she was rediscovered by arthouse auteurs of the 1970s, and her role as Hana Schygulla's mother in Rainer Werner Fassbinder's "The Marriage of Maria Braun" brought her the Bundesfilmpreis national film award in 1979. She had another late boost of popularity on prime time TV in the family saga "Forsthaus Falkenau."
Bio by: José L Bernabé Tronchoni
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