Karin Baal
- Actress
Blonde, blue-eyed Karin Baal was born as Karin Blauermel in Berlin. She grew up fatherless, raised by her mother who toiled as a seamstress and factory worker. After completing secondary school at age sixteen, Karin commenced training as a fashion illustrator. By pure chance, she learned that the director Georg Tressler was in the process of casting for a 'Marina Vlady'-type as the female lead for his new film Die Halbstarken (1956). Without any formal acting training whatsoever, Karin passed her audition and was selected for the coveted role as one among 700 other hopefuls. Due to her lack of experience, she was dubbed by Brigitte Grothum.
In 1959, Karin completed her acting and voice training under Luise Berger and Ilse Bonger. This opened up roles for her in the theatre. In the course of succeeding decades, she appeared regularly on stages in Berlin, Munich and Zurich. The high point of her performing career were successful tours in plays by Heinrich Böll ('Die verlorene Ehre der Katharina Blum'), Jean-Paul Sartre and Francis Durbridge.
On screen, Karin's role in Teenage Wolfpack set the tone for her subsequent gallery of young rebels, delinquents and temptresses in films like Der Jugendrichter (1960), Die junge Sünderin (1960) (which garnered her a 1960 Bambi as Best Upcoming Actress) and Das Mädchen Rosemarie (1958). Conversely, she also portrayed 'damsels in distress' in the Edgar Wallace potboilers Die toten Augen von London (1961) and Der Hund von Blackwood Castle (1968).
By the 70s, Karin had begun to work increasingly in television. Many of her guest appearances were supporting roles in 'Krimis' (crime shows), like Der Kommissar (1969), Sonderdezernat K1 (1972), Derrick (1974), Der Alte (1977) and Tatort (1970). She also featured in a trio of Rainer Werner Fassbinder productions: Berlin Alexanderplatz (1980) (as the niece of Franz Biberkopf, played by Günter Lamprecht), as a resistance fighter in Lili Marleen (1981) and as the mother of madam Lola (1981) (Barbara Sukowa).
Karin's final screen appearance was in 2011. A year later, she published her memoirs under the title Ungezähmt - Mein Leben. In it, she has recounted her tormented personal life, including four failed marriages, problems with depression, alcohol and cocaine addiction and frequent resulting trips to rehab clinics.
By 2016, and on the road to recovery, she confirmed her retirement from acting, saying that everything (in show biz) today felt 'too impersonal' and 'machine-like'. Karin Baal has latterly resided in Berlin-Charlottenburg, subsisting on a modest pension. In 2018, she was honoured with the inaugural Götz-George-Prize for her lifetime contribution to film.
In 1959, Karin completed her acting and voice training under Luise Berger and Ilse Bonger. This opened up roles for her in the theatre. In the course of succeeding decades, she appeared regularly on stages in Berlin, Munich and Zurich. The high point of her performing career were successful tours in plays by Heinrich Böll ('Die verlorene Ehre der Katharina Blum'), Jean-Paul Sartre and Francis Durbridge.
On screen, Karin's role in Teenage Wolfpack set the tone for her subsequent gallery of young rebels, delinquents and temptresses in films like Der Jugendrichter (1960), Die junge Sünderin (1960) (which garnered her a 1960 Bambi as Best Upcoming Actress) and Das Mädchen Rosemarie (1958). Conversely, she also portrayed 'damsels in distress' in the Edgar Wallace potboilers Die toten Augen von London (1961) and Der Hund von Blackwood Castle (1968).
By the 70s, Karin had begun to work increasingly in television. Many of her guest appearances were supporting roles in 'Krimis' (crime shows), like Der Kommissar (1969), Sonderdezernat K1 (1972), Derrick (1974), Der Alte (1977) and Tatort (1970). She also featured in a trio of Rainer Werner Fassbinder productions: Berlin Alexanderplatz (1980) (as the niece of Franz Biberkopf, played by Günter Lamprecht), as a resistance fighter in Lili Marleen (1981) and as the mother of madam Lola (1981) (Barbara Sukowa).
Karin's final screen appearance was in 2011. A year later, she published her memoirs under the title Ungezähmt - Mein Leben. In it, she has recounted her tormented personal life, including four failed marriages, problems with depression, alcohol and cocaine addiction and frequent resulting trips to rehab clinics.
By 2016, and on the road to recovery, she confirmed her retirement from acting, saying that everything (in show biz) today felt 'too impersonal' and 'machine-like'. Karin Baal has latterly resided in Berlin-Charlottenburg, subsisting on a modest pension. In 2018, she was honoured with the inaugural Götz-George-Prize for her lifetime contribution to film.
