Biography
Ellen Widmann was a Swiss actress. Born on 15 December 1894 in Biel, she began her stage career in Germany in 1914, appearing in theatres in Düsseldorf, Bochum, Mannheim and Essen, and later at Berlin's Volksbühne and with Erwin Piscator.
She returned to Switzerland in 1939 and spent twenty years at the Schauspielhaus Zürich. In 1951 she founded the Kammersprechchor Zürich, which toured Europe, and she worked extensively in radio and as a speech teacher. Her students included Anne-Marie Blanc, Peter Brogle, Paul Bühlmann and Jörg Schneider.
Widmann made her screen debut as Frau Beckmann in Fritz Lang's M (1931). She appeared in several Swiss dialect films from 1939 onwards and in television productions after 1963. She died on 22 October 1985 in Zurich.
