Kessler twins Ellen and Alice, singer-dancers who performed with Sinatra and Belafonte, dead at 89

Los Angeles Times ^ | Nov. 18, 2025 12:18 PM PT | Christie D'Zurilla

[E. Pluribus Unum]

• German twin entertainers Alice and Ellen Kessler died together in Munich at 89 through medically assisted death, inseparable to the end.
• The sisters performed with Frank Sinatra, Harry Belafonte and Fred Astaire, launching an international career in 1955 after fleeing a few years earlier from East Germany to what was then West Germany.
• The women never married and requested to be buried together in one urn alongside their mother and beloved dog.

They performed together with Frank Sinatra. With Harry Belafonte. With Fred Astaire. And on Monday, Germany’s Kessler twins — Alice and Ellen — ended their lives together at age 89.

Police confirmed the deaths to the Associated Press, stating in an email that it was a “joint suicide.” The women shared a house in the suburb of Grünwald, just south of Munich.

[Paladin2]

A sad loss of DNA.

[nwrep]

Yup. I don’t care. They did not make America great.

[chief lee runamok]

   Kessler Twins Alice and Ellen Kessler, RIP.

[bigdaddy45]

What a stupid comment.

[OrangeHoof]

You can find several of their performances on YouTube. Absolutely amazing how synchronized their dancing was.
I’ve never before seen mention of a prepared a mutual suicide. So did they include their dog in their final act or was the dog somehow spared? I guess at age 89, they weren’t thinking this through.

[Don W]

You make me wonder how utterly unconnected to reality someone can be.

These girls were a huge entertainment act in their part of the world LONG before DJT was born.

Kindly explain to the intelligent folks among us what your posting had to do with the physical, REAL world?

[GranTorino]

I hope I’m not driven to suicide.
I’d like to go to heaven.

[Albion Wilde]

The dog had previously died and his ashes were buried near the twins’ mother, where they also want to be buried. I guess you weren’t thinking this through.

[nwrep]

Sorry, but we have so many problems and these Hollywood stars have done nothing about them. Not even verbal support.