Ellen Schwiers (11 June 1930 – 26 April 2019) was a German actress of stage, film, and television.

She was featured in world premieres of plays by Dürrenmatt and Frisch at the Schauspielhaus Zürich, and appeared as the Buhlschaft in Jedermann at the Salzburg Festival. In a career from 1949 to 2015, she also appeared in more than 200 films and television shows, including popular series such as Tatort. She also directed plays, founded a touring theatre company in 1982, and was Intendant of a festival from 1984.

Career

Schwiers was born in Stettin on 11 June 1930, the daughter of Lutz Schwiers [de], a travelling actor who trained her. Her earliest theatre engagement was at the Theater Koblenz from 1949, and she was then engaged by Heinz Hilpert at the Theater Göttingen in 1953. Her first major role was the title role in Lessing's Minna von Barnhelm. She played in the world premieres of Dürrenmatt's Der Meteor [de] and Frisch's Biografie: Ein Spiel [de] at the Schauspielhaus Zürich. She was internationally recognised for playing the Buhlschaft in Jedermann at the Salzburg Festival, a role that she also played in a 1961 film alongside Walther Reyer in the title role.

Schwiers appeared in more than 200 television productions, including popular series such as Tatort, Der rote Schal and Doktor Martin.

Schwiers first directed a play at the Burgfestspiele Jagsthausen [de], Shakespeare's Was ihr wollt (Twelfth Night). In 1984, she became Intendant of the festival.

Schwiers married Peter Jacob in 1956. Their daughter Katerina Jacob [de] also became an actress. Their son Daniel, also an actor, died of cancer in 1985 at the age of 21. Ellen Schwiers founded a touring theatre company with both, Das Ensemble, which she kept running after her husband's death in 1992, and then passed to her daughter. She last appeared on stage at the age of 84 in the comedy Altweiberfrühling, with her daughter and her brother Holger Schwiers.

Schwiers died at her home in Starnberg on 26 April 2019.

Films

The first film role for Schwiers was Hildegard in Heimliches Rendezvous [de] in 1949, directed by Kurt Hoffmann. She appeared in more than 60 films, including:

• Between Time and Eternity (1956)
• The King of Bernina (1957)
• The Story of Anastasia (1956), as Princess Katharina
• Arms and the Man (1958), as Louka
• The Cow and I (1959), as Josépha
• When the Bells Sound Clearly (1959)
• Med mord i bagaget [sv] (1959), as Nina Christians
• The Last Witness (1960), as Ingrid Bernhardy
• The Inheritance of Bjorndal (1960), as Gunvor
• Jedermann (1961), as Buhlschaft
• The Brain (1962), as Ella
• God's Thunder (1965), as Françoise
• 4 Schlüssel (1966), as Irene Quinn
• The Strangler of the Tower (1966)
• Ballad of a Gunman (1967), as Maruja's Mother
• 1900 (1976), as Amelia
• Fedora (1977), as Nurse
• 3096 (2013), as Grandmother

Awards

• 1989 Officer's Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany
• 1995 Medal of Baden-Württemberg
• 2013 Deutscher Schauspielpreis [de] in the category "Starker Auftritt" for In den besten Jahren