Constanze Engelbrecht (6 January 1955 - 21 July 2000) was a German actress, who was one of the most popular actresses in the country between 1980 and 1990. She appeared in more than seventy films from 1960 to 1998. Her daughter Julie Engelbrecht is also an actress, as was her husband an actor.

Biography

Constanze Engelbrecht was born on 6 January 1955 in Munich, Germany to actress Alice Franz and sculptor Gen Golch. Her very first role was as the voice actress for the character "Jeff" in the German version of the TV series Lassie, which she performed for six years. She debuted as a television actress at ten years old in the TV movie Und nicht mehr Jessica (1965) with Horst Naumann and Sascha Hehn. Engelbrecht's original goal was to become a classical soprano and she studied at the Richard Strauss Conservatory of Munich, at the Salzburg Mozarteneum and finally at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London before changing to acting and studying under the direction of Rosemarie Fendel. She performed in both live theater and television. Engelbrecht was well known at the theaters of Munich and also performed in Paris at the "Theatre de la ville".

Beginning in the 1970s, she worked in television, playing such roles as Derrick, Der Alte, Tatort and in 1979 she appeared as Gabrielle d'Estrées in a 12-part historical drama Heinrich, der gute König. In 1980, she and her husband, French writer, director and actor François Nocher, moved to Paris, but she continued to act in German television. During the 1980s, she starred in many mini-series, including Unter der Trikolore (1980), in the seven-part Feuchtwanger adaptation Exil (1981) and the lead actress in Tiefe Wasser (1982). She also appeared in films on the big screen during this period with roles in Der Fall Sylvester Matuska (1983) as Ilona with Armin Mueller-Stahl; in Is' was, Kanzler (1984) as the character "Rosi", with Dieter Hildebrandt, Günter Lamprecht, and Tommi Piper; in Wenn ich mich fürchte (1984) as "Rita" with Horst Buchholz and Uwe Ochsenknecht and in Sierra Leone with Christian Redl.

Between 1987 and 1990 Engelbrecht became known throughout Germany as Brigitte Sanders for the role she played in the television series in Diese Drombuschs. She was the devious ex-wife of Dr. Martin Sanders (played by Michael Degen), who will do whatever she can to destroy the new relationship her ex-husband is having with Vera Drombuschs (played by Witta Pohl). In 1990, she made a television movie, Der Eindringling which was one of her most acclaimed performances. Throughout the 1990s, she worked in television completing the miniseries Die Frauen von Bonne Espérance (1990) and several successful series like Eurocops (1990), Der Alte (1991), Ein Fall für zwei (1992), Freunde fürs Leben (1993), Praxis Bülowbogen (1994), Schlosshotel Orth (1997), among others. She received praise for the TV movie Der Schattenmann (1996) with Maria Adorf, Heinz Hoenig, Heiner Lauterbach and Günter Strack and for her lead role in Die Beischlafdiebin (1998). Her last role was with Gerard Depardieu in a television production of the "Count of Monte Cristo".

Engelbrecht succumbed to cancer on 21 July 2000 at the Frauenklinik des Roten Kreuzes Hospital in Munich. She had been fighting breast cancer since 1998 and it had spread to the liver and brain. Engelbrecht was 45 years old.