Jester Naefe

Here is a great song, performed by Hildegard Knef, chosen to underline the beauty of Jester Naefe.
Beautiful, Austrian born actress Jester Naefe (1924-1967) had a short film career in the German cinema with highlights in the late 1940s and the mid 1950s. Because of her roles and her sexy looks the press labeled her the "German Marilyn Monroe".
Jester-Helene Naefe was born in Vienna, Austria. She was the daughter of a truck driver. At the age of 16, Jester went to Berlin to follow acting lessons at the Ackermann Theater School. Soon she appeared on stage in the Breslauer Schauspielhaus in Breslau and in the Intimen Theater in Hamburg. In 1948 producer-director Rolf Meyer gave her her first film part in the short film Sie sind nicht gemeint ("You were not meant", 1948, Answald Krüger). This debut was soon followed by more secondary roles in Diese Nacht vergess ich nie ("I'll never forget that night", 1949, Johannes Meyer), Der Bagnosträfling ("The prisoner", 1949, Gustav Fröhlich), Wer bist du, den ich liebe? ("Who is this person I love?", 1949, Géza von Bolváry), and Das Fräulein und der Vagabund ("The girl and the tramp", 1949, Albert Benitz). In 1949 she married the rich, Hungarian business entrepreneur Alfred Tauszky. Jester stopped making films to concentrate on family life. Naefe and Tauszky had two daughters, Vivian (1952) and Silvia (born 1953). In 1953 Tauszky deserted his family and fled to Caracas, Venezuela. Jester returned with her daughters to Germany, first to Hamburg, later to Munich. Jester Naefe took up her film career in 1954 and the flamboyant beauty would make twelve films in the following three years. Among her films were Die kleine Stadt will schlafen gehen ("The little town will go to sleep", 1954, Hans H. König), Das Bekenntnis der Ina Kahr ("Confession of Ina Kahr", 1954, Georg Wilhelm Pabst), co-starring with Curd Jürgens, Stern von Rio ("Star from Rio", 1955, Kurt Neumann), and Die goldene Brücke ("The golden bridge", 1956, Paul Verhoeven). Her most famous role was as Lydia in the remake of the 1932 operetta Der Kongress tanzt ("Congress dances", 1955, Franz Antel). In 1957, during the shooting of the Italian-German coproduction La ragazza della salina ("Sand, love and salt", 1957, František Cáp) in Portoroz, Yugoslavia, she had a fighting scene with lead actress Isabella Corey. During the scene, she fell and hit the back of her head on a rock. She soon started getting bad headaches, and the headaches were followed by temporary paralysis. Despite her illness she finished the film, costarring Marcello Mastroianni. Easter 1958 her illness seemed vanished, and she went to the USA for a TV show. Hollywood star Gregory Peck reportedly called her “one of the most attractive and beautiful women of the world”. In 1959 she was treated again at a Munich hospital, and her illness was diagnosed as multiple sclerosis. Jester Naefe had to retire from the film business. In the 1960s she retired to live with her mother, in her modest home in Wolfratshausen in Upper Bavaria. After a long and painfull period of illness she died in 1967 in Geretsried, near Wolfratshausen, forgotten by her colleagues and the public. She was only 42 although the obituaries gave her age as 37. Her daughter Vivian Naefe is now a celebrated film and tv director.
Enjoy Jester Naefe's great beauty!