Marianne Sagebrecht Biography

Marianne Sägebrecht
(Austria) Actress

Marianne Sägebrecht was born in the Bavarian town of Starnberg, close to Munich. After working as the assistant to a psychiatrist, she became a photographer before opening Tatzelwurm, a café which doubled up as a theatre, and forming her own theatre company. She also created the Opera Curiosa and set up numerous theatre festivals in Munich, Berlin and Hamburg. In 1979 Martin Sperr directed Adele Spitzeder at Munich’s Studiotheater, a play in which Marianne featured as Bella. It was there that she was noticed by director Percy Adlon who found her acting extremely moving. A year later Adlon asked her to work with him on the TV film he was directing, Herr Kischott, which was to mark the beginning of their extraordinary partnership. In 1985 she starred in Adlon’s film Zuckerbaby. Two years later Percy Adlon directed her again in Out of Rosenheim (Bagdad Café), a film made in the USA, in which she conducts a love affair with the character played by Jack Palance. Bagdad Café’s fabulous success at the box-office contributed to Marianne’s huge popularity stateside, and in 1989 she went on to star in Rosalie Goes Shopping, another Percy Adlon film.
Marianne Sägebrecht has featured in numerous films over the course of her career, some of the most notable ones being Im Himmel ist die Hölle los (1983), Crazy Boys (1987) by Peter Kern, Moon over Parador (1988) by Paul Mazursky with Richard Dreyfuss, The War of the Roses (1989) by Danny DeVito (with Kathleen Turner and Michael Douglas), Martha et moi (1990), by Jiri Weiss (with Michel Piccoli), Dust Devil (1991, TV) by Richard Stanley, Mr. Bluesman (1992) by Sönke Wortmann, The Milky Life (1993), Run of Hearts, Ein fast perfektes Verhältnis by Donald Reiker (with Uwe Ochsenknecht), Eine Mutter kämpft um ihren Sohn, Ohne Hose, All Men Are Mortal (1994) by Ate de Jong, Der Unhold (1995), by Volker Schlöndorff, Lorenz im Land der Lügner, by Jürgen Brauer, Soleil, by Roger Hanin, Eine Frau nach Maß (all in 1996), Spanish Fly, by Daphna Kastner, Left Luggage by Jeroen Krabbé (with Isabella Rossellini and Maximilian Schell), the European production Asterix and Obelix vs. Caesar (1998) by Claude Zidi (with Gérard Depardieu and Christian Clavier), Ganz unten, ganz oben, by Matti Geschonneck, Die Sekretärin des Weihnachtsmannsde by Dagmar Damek, Ich wünsch dir Liebe (1999), Marga Engel schlägt zurück, Der kleine Lord - Retter in der Not, Scheidung auf Amerikanisch, by Sherry Hormann, Das Findelkind (2000), Marga Engel kocht vor Wut, Großglocknerliebe - Kein Heimatfilm (2002), Charlotte und ihre Männer, Marga Engel gibt nicht auf (2004), and Bezaubernde Marie (2007).