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.

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KEYWORDS: medicallyassisted

[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.