Rosel Zech

Collaborating with a famous/notorious director can work wonders on a career. That's what helped Rosel Zech become one of the most prominent and respected actresses in Germany. A fateful meeting while shooting her film debut, the serial killer drama "Tenderness of the Wolves" (1973), brought her to the attention of the film's producer, Rainer Werner Fassbinder, who subsequently cast her in a pair of movies he directed. In the first, she played a supporting role as Frau Schuckert, the wife of one of the male leads, in the tragedy "Lola" (1981). Just after this, she stepped up to the title role in Fassbinder's dark 1982 drama, "Veronika Voss." In that movie, she gave a riveting and heartbreaking performance as a drug-addicted actress who becomes increasingly disconnected from reality. That role propelled her into the elite of her country's thespians. Zech subsequently appeared in numerous high-profile German films, usually with name directors. Among the more notable of these efforts was Percy Adlon's curiously titled and bizarre "Salmonberries" (1991). In the movie, the actress played a lonely émigré living in Alaska who befriends and then falls into a romantic relationship with an inarticulate Eskimo played by singer k.d. lang. Zech won a Bavarian Film Award for Best Actress for her work. Throughout her career, she also played in many TV series, generally appearing in guest-star roles. These included several parts over three decades in the durable police procedural "Tatort" (1973).