Ingrid Steeger is dead. According to consistent media reports, the actress died at the age of 76. Steeger became known as the pain in the ass “Gabi”. ARD series “Klimbim”.
The actress Ingrid Steeger, who became known through Germany’s first comedy series “Klimbim”, is dead. Her family confirmed her death to ZDF. The “Bild” newspaper had previously reported, with reference to a friend, that Steeger died at the age of 76 in a hospital in Bad Hersfeld, Hesse.
In the 1970s, Steeger made her television career in her star and favorite role as the annoying “Gabi”. She had already withdrawn from active show business a long time ago. According to “Bild”, Steeger was admitted to hospital a few days ago with a diagnosis of intestinal obstruction. She had been suffering from health problems for years.
Between sex symbol and joke noodle
Steeger was born in Berlin on April 1, 1947 and initially worked as a secretary. In the 1960s she was discovered by a photographer and worked as a model. A few years later she became known nationwide as the new shooting star of the soft sex film industry.
At the age of 26, Steeger made her breakthrough as an actress in 1973 with her roles in the ARD series “Klimbim”, which became legendary for its anarchic humor. She walked between sex symbol and joker. “If I showed my breasts, it was just comedy! Otherwise people wouldn’t have accepted it,” she said in an interview. She was considered an icon of slapstick. Whoever said “Ulknudel” meant Ingrid Steeger.
She only managed to switch to the serious genre later with her role in the television series “The Great Bellheim” by director Dieter Wedel, whose lover she was for several years. The series remained Steeger’s greatest television success in the serious sector.
Ingrid Steeger as a number girl in the TV show “Treffpunkt Herz” on June 14, 1975.
A life full of drama and sadness
Even though she made millions of people laugh, her own life was full of drama and sadness. In her biography, the Berliner talked about violence in the family and her failed relationships.
“Five of us lived in a room and had little to eat,” she recalled to “Die Zeit” a few years ago. But the poverty was only one thing – the coldness in the family was another: “I was treated badly and beaten, experienced sexual violence at an early age, I certainly wasn’t loved, my parents didn’t care what I thought or felt.” She was only able to speak freely when she was well into adulthood because she grew up so intimidated.
Free from all conventions
As free from all conventions as Steeger played in “Klimbim”, that’s how she lived. In 1973 she married the cameraman Lothar Elias Stickelbruck. Just a year later, director Pfleghar became her secret partner before she disappeared to Kenya with a big game hunter in 1977. Many other relationships followed. A second marriage to Tom LaBlanc from the USA failed. She was the director Dieter Wedel’s lover for several years.
This was a turning point for Steeger because he cast his lover in the successful production “The Great Bellheim”. Wedel, who was confronted with allegations of abuse in the last years of his life and died before the investigation was completed, gave her a lot of self-confidence, she said. The affair with Wedel ended unhappy, like so many of her relationships and friendships.
Steeger had no contact with show business for a long time. In her early 60s, depression, false friends and debt dominated her life. The past few years have been marked by health problems and financial hardships. Most recently she lived in a nursing home in Bad Hersfeld.