SUKOWA, BARBARA

(1950- )

Actress. Sukowa has enjoyed an extraordinary career that began almost as soon as she left high school. She made her professional debut in the 1971 world premiere ofPeterHandke'sDer Ritt über den Bodensee(The Ride across Lake Constance) underClaus Peymannat the Schaubühne, a production that attracted international critical attention and engendered enormous controversy. She then departed for engagements in several theaters outsideBerlin, many of them in Frankfurt am Main andHamburg. Sukowa remained in Hamburg until 1980 as a member of the Thalia Theater company, but then left to work with Rainer Werner Fassbinder in his television miniseries filming of Alfred Döblin's epicBerlin Alexanderplatz. In it, Sukowa played the temperamental love interest of the central character Franz Biberkopf, and her performance won her several awards along with critical acclaim. She followed up that role with a stunning portrayal of the title character in Fassbinder's filmLola, based on Josef von Sternberg's 1931Der blaue Engel(The Blue Angel). In 1983 Sukowa returned to the theater forPeterZadek's 1983 production of Henrik Ibsen'sThe MasterBuilderat the Bavarian State Theater. That production was subsequently invited to the BerlinerTheatertreffenas one of the best productions of the year, andTheater Heuteawarded Sukowa its "actress of the year" commendation for her portrayal of Hilde Wrangel.

In 1986 Sukowa attained worldwide attention for her portrayal of the doomed revolutionary Rosa Luxemburg in Margarete von Trotta's (1942- ) film of the same name; she won the Cannes Golden Palm award for her performance, one she has never equaled in the more than 20 movies she has made since.