At the age of 81
Karl May actress Marie Versini has died
French actress Marie Versini died at the age of 81. Photo: Henning Kaiser / dpa
© dpa-infocom GmbH
In the 1960s she became a star in Germany as Winnetou’s sister Nscho-tschi. A role with which Marie Versini identified throughout her life. Now the French actress has died.
The actress Marie Versini, who became a star in the 1960s through Karl May adventures, is dead.
The French, who conquered the German audience as Winnetou’s sister Nscho-chi, died on Monday at the age of 81, as the Karl May Verlag in Bamberg confirmed on Wednesday to the German press agency, citing the family. Versini was inseparable from her role all her life: «I was Nscho-chi. And I’m still, just a little older, ”she said in an interview at the age of 70.
She died as Nscho-chi in the arms of Lex Barker
Versini says he was born on August 10, 1940 in Paris. She first appeared in front of the camera in 1956 in “Mitsou and the Men”, followed around seven years later in “Winnetou Part 1”, which premiered in Munich in December 1963. The then 23-year-old actress died as Nscho-chi in the arms of Old Shatterhand. The scene with Lex Barker, where she breathes “I love you” in Indian, went down in film history.
The actress appeared in other Karl May films, including “Der Schut”, “Im Reiche des Silber Löwen” and again as Nscho-chi in “Winnetou and his friend Old Firehand”. In France it was mainly through the period film «Is Paris Burning?» known. Her most beautiful role for Versini, however, remained as Winnetou’s sister, as she said all her life. In 2003 she published her autobiography, “I was Winnetou’s Sister: Pictures and Stories of a Career”.
Versini later began writing novels, children’s books, and screenplays. In 1974 she married the writer and director Pierre Viallet, who died in 2013, in whose films she also participated in some films such as “Homage to Robert Schumann”. She lived on the Atlantic island of Île de Ré and in Paris. According to information on the website Marie-Versini.de, the actress died in Guingamp in Brittany. “She thanks all her fans for their friendship and loyalty,” it said.