Closing Chapter for the Kessler Twins, Icons of Italy’s Golden Postwar Period, at 89

Alice and Ellen Kessler, the German-born twin performers who became household names in Italy’s postwar entertainment scene, died at age 89 in Grünwald, near Munich.

Police confirmed the deaths Monday after officers were called to the home where the sisters lived in adjoining flats separated by a sliding wall. Authorities said there were no signs of foul play.

German daily Bild reported that the twins had chosen medically assisted suicide, a procedure permitted in Germany under specific conditions. Police were notified only after the process had been completed.

Born in 1936 in the village of Nerchau, the Kessler twins began performing as children with the Leipzig Opera ballet. In 1952, they left East Germany for Düsseldorf, launching a career that took them across Europe and the United States, including collaborations with Frank Sinatra and Fred Astaire.

At 19, they joined the Bluebell Girls at the Lido in Paris before moving into Italian television, where they became fixtures of prime-time variety shows such as Giardino d’inverno and Studio Uno. Under director Antonello Falqui, their routines — and the signature “Da-da-un-pa” number — made them icons of the era and earned them the enduring nickname “the nation’s legs.”

According to Bild, the sisters left a joint testament requesting that their ashes be placed in a single urn, alongside those of their mother Elsa and their dog Yello. “That’s what we decided in our will,” Ellen said in a 2024 interview, explaining their wish to remain together in death as they had in life.