Mady Rahl

Mady Rahl (3 January 1915 – 29 August 2009) was a German stage and film actress. Born Edith Gertrud Meta Raschke in Neukölln, now part of Berlin, Rahl trained as an actress and dancer. In 1935 she made her stage debut in Leipzig under the direction of Douglas Sirk and started her film career in 1936 with the movie The Mysterious Mister X. With her role in the circus drama Truxa (1937), Rahl became known to a wider audience. After the war, she sang with her friend Elfreide Datzig for the USO. She ultimately appeared in approximately 90 movies, several of them for UFA. In later years, she appeared frequently on television, while also pursuing her career in the theatre. She was also the German voice of many cartoon characters and of Lucille Ball. Rahl's first marriage was to financier Theodor Reimers, her second was to producer Wilhem Sperber, and her third was to architect Werner Bürkle. All three marriages ended in divorce, and she had no children. Late in life she painted in the Impressionist style. Whilst she died of cancer, Rahl was also almost blind and suffering from dementia. She lived in a retirement home in Munich, where her minder was Thomas Speyerer. Her grave is in the Nordfriedhof Cemetery in Munich (plot 178-U-66), where her sister Ellen had been buried in 1995.