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Bruno Ganz was an acclaimed Swiss actor who was a prominent figure in German language film and television for over fifty years. He is internationally renowned for portraying Adolf Hitler in the Academy Award-nominated film Downfall (2004).

Ganz was born in Zürich, to a Swiss mechanic father and a northern Italian mother. He decided to pursue an acting career by the time he entered university. He debuted at the theatre in 1961, and gained a reputation as a reflective, charismatic and technically brilliant stage actor. In 1970, he and Peter Stein founded the theatre company 'Schaubühne' in Berlin, Germany. On stage, Ganz portrayed Dr. Heinrich Faust in Peter Stein's staging of Faust, Part One and Faust, Part Two in 2000.

In cinema, Ganz became one of the best-known and most acclaimed actors in the German language, collaborating with many of the most respected European actors and directors of his time. He also starred in international features that reached a global audience. His film debut was The Gentleman in the Black Derby (1960). He also starred in Unknown (2011), The Counselor (2013), and The Party (2017).

Ganz died from cancer on 16 February 2019 at his home in the village of Au, in Wädenswil, Switzerland.

With almost fifty years in the music business, Tina Turner became one of the most commercially successful international female rock stars. Her sultry, powerful voice, her incredible legs, her time-tested beauty and her unforgettable story all contributed to her legendary status.

Born to a share-cropping family in the segregated South, Anna Mae Bullock and her elder sister were abandoned by their sparring parents early on. After her grandmother's death, she eventually moved to St. Louis, Missouri to reunite with her mother. This opened up a whole new world of R&B nightclubs to the precocious 16-year-old. Called up to sing onstage with Ike Turner's Kings of Rhythm in 1956, she displayed a natural talent for performing which the bandleader was keen to develop. Soon, Anna Mae's aspirations of a nursing career were forgotten and she began to hang around with the group. When the singer booked to record "A Fool in Love" failed to turn up for the session, Ike drafted Anna Mae to provide the vocal with the intention of removing it later. However, once he heard her spine-tingling performance of the song, he soon changed his plans. He changed her name to Tina Turner, and when the record became a hit, Tina became a permanent fixture in Ike's band and his quest for international stardom. One thing led to another: they were married in Mexico after the births of Tina's two sons - the first a result of an earlier relationship with a musician, the second with Ike.

Before too long, the Ike and Tina Turner Revue was tearing up large and small R&B and soul venues throughout the early and mid-1960s. The hits were relatively few, but the unsurpassed energy and excitement generated by the live stage show, primarily Tina, made the Revue a solid touring act, along with the likes of James Brown and Ray Charles. Their greatest attempt to "cross over" came in 1966 with the historic recording of the Phil Spector production, "River Deep, Mountain High". While it was a commercial flop in the United States, it was a monster hit in Europe - and the start of Tina's European superstar status, which never faded during her long stint of relative obscurity in America in the late 1970s. The Revue entered that decade as a top touring and recording act, with Tina becoming more and more recognized as the star power behind the group's international success. Ike, while having been justly described as an excellent musician, a shrewd businessman and the initial "brains" behind the Revue, was also described (by Tina and others) as a violent, drug-addicted wife-beater who was not above frequently knocking Tina (and other women) around both publicly and privately. Despite hits such as "Proud Mary" and Tina's self-penned "Nutbush City Limits", further mainstream success eluded the group and Ike blamed Tina. After years of misery and a failed suicide attempt, Tina finally had enough in July 1976, when she fled the marriage (and the Revue) with the now-famous 36 cents and a Mobil gasoline credit card.

Tina, nearing 40, endured a long and, at times, humiliating trek back to superstardom through working many substandard gigs and performing a repertoire of current Top 40 hits and old Ike & Tina tunes in hotel ballrooms and supper clubs. She later admitted she was having the time of her life at this point, simply putting together her own show and performing. She refused to wrangle for a settlement from the divorce, despite being in huge debt to all the tour promoters she had let down by fleeing the Revue. After an appearance on Olivia Newton-John: Hollywood Nights (1980), Tina - in a wise business move - persuaded Newton-John's management team to take her on. With Roger Davies at her side, Tina's profile began to rise, and performances alongside the likes of Rod Stewart and The Rolling Stones introduced her to the rock market she so wanted to pursue.

The European release of her cover of Al Green's "Let's Stay Together" in 1983 was a major turning point in Tina's career. The record hit #6 on the British chart, and Capitol Records were soon demanding a full album. "Private Dancer" was hurriedly produced in England in two weeks flat. The rest is rock and roll history. The next single - "What's Love Got to Do with It?" - became Tina's first #1 single the following year, and the album hung around the Top 10 for months, spawning two further hits. At the 1985 Grammy Awards, her astonishing comeback was recognized with nominations in the rock, R&B and pop categories and rewarded with four trophies. After that time, the successes just kept coming: a starring role in Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome (1985); duets with Bryan Adams, David Bowie, Eric Clapton and Mick Jagger amongst others; several sell-out world tours; a string of hit albums and awards; a bestselling autobiography, "I, Tina"; and the blockbuster biopic What's Love Got to Do with It (1993) chronicling her life.

After her "Twenty Four Seven Millenium Tour" in 2000, Tina announced she would retire from the concert stage, but continue to record and play live on a smaller scale. Four years later, at age 65, she released a career retrospective entitled "All the Best" featuring new recordings, and reached #2 in the American album chart, her highest ever placing for an album there. She ended 2005 as one of five recipients of the Kennedy Center Honors, the highest form of recognition of excellence in the arts in America. Despite changing the direction of her working life, she will always be remembered as a dynamic live performer and recording artist, able to thrill audiences like no other woman in music history. Tina Turner is the undisputed Queen of Rock and Roll.

With his whitish blond crew-cut, slow, menacing drawl and Germanic manner, Van Eyck was destined to be typecast as stereotypically scowling, arrogant Nazi officers. This was ironic, because he was an avowed anti-fascist who had left Germany in 1931 -- two years before Adolf Hitler came to power. The son of an aristocratic Prussian land owner, his father had intended him to embark on a military career. Instead, Peter spent his education in Berlin, where he trained as a musician.

In 1937, Van Eyck arrived in New York via Havana, Cuba, and became acquainted with the composer Aaron Copland. This led to a collaboration, as well as solo efforts, as composer and lyricist on a variety of songs for revue and cabaret. He also moonlighted as a pianist in bars and nightclubs. Around this time, he also began to work as a stage manager and arranger for Irving Berlin. Not afraid to try any job that came along, he tried his hand at driving a truck, and this, somehow, led him to Hollywood where he became a protege of the director Billy Wilder. Wilder prompted him to appear in front of the camera. In 1943, Peter commenced his career in films, by this time, as a naturalized American citizen. For the remainder of the decade, he had little to do but act an assembly line of parts as German officers and Gestapo henchmen in films like Five Graves to Cairo (1943) and Address Unknown (1944).

After the war, Van Eyck returned to Germany, where he was ironically cast as an American officer in Hallo, Fräulein! (1949). He also appeared in the comedy Royal Children (1950) ,with Jenny Jugo), as yet another American. He gave one of his very best performances in the role of Bimba in Henri-Georges Clouzot's high octane thriller The Wages of Fear (1953). In this famous French classic, he played one of a group of daredevil truck drivers traversing an impenetrable South American jungle with a deadly load of nitroglycerin.

Down the track, he found other good roles: as the womanising Frenchman Fribert in Rosemary (1958); as a police inspector investigating a famous murder in Dr. Crippen lebt (1958),aka ('Dr.Crippen lives'); a starring role as Paul Decker, who attempts the perfect murder of his wife in The Snorkel (1958); and one of two industrialist brothers in Helmut Käutner''s The Rest Is Silence (1959).

During the 60's, Van Eyck appeared increasingly in international co-productions of variable quality. Having settled in Switzerland and maintaining a residence in Paris, he was ideally placed to alternate between French, English and German film roles. He made three potboilers about the master criminal Dr. Mabuse which were extremely popular in Germany. His best performances during this period were as the East German intelligence officer Mundt, who is the target of The Spy Who Came in from the Cold (1965) and as Colonel General von Brock in the absorbing war drama The Bridge at Remagen (1969), which was also his last film.

Van Eyck died near Zurich in July,1969, of septicemia, just short of his 58th birthday.

H.R. Giger was born on 5 February 1940 in Chur, Switzerland. He was a director, known for Alien (1979), Alien vs. Predator (2004) and Aliens (1986). He was married to Carmen Maria Scheifele and Mia Bonzanigo. He died on 12 May 2014 in Zurich, Switzerland.

Classically-trained actor, former chemist, whose formative years on the stage were spent in Bern (Switzerland) and, from 1909, the Deutsches Theater Berlin under Max Reinhardt's direction. Specialised in Shakespearean roles ('Richard III', 'Hamlet') and was a famous interpreter of the plays of Henrik Ibsen. He delivered his screen debut in a silent version of 'Dr.Jekyll and Mr.Hyde' (Der Andere (1913)). Bassermann remained active in motion pictures throughout the 1920's, also frequently appearing on stage in Austria and Switzerland. His wife, Elsa Bassermann, nee Schiff, was Jewish, and the discrimination shown towards her in his native country so outraged him that he emigrated with her to the United States in 1939.

At the age of 72, he carved out another career in Hollywood as a celebrated character actor. It took him some time to come to terms with the English language, but he was soon cast in a small part in Dr. Ehrlich's Magic Bullet (1940), as Dr.Robert Koch. He also played a sympathetic chemistry professor in Knute Rockne All American (1940). That same year, he appeared as Van Meer in Alfred Hitchcock's Foreign Correspondent (1940) and was promptly nominated for an Academy Award as Best Supporting Actor. His distinguished-looking countenance and serious demeanour lent itself to being assigned a variety of consular or professorial roles: he was excellent as Consul Magnus Barring in A Woman's Face (1941) with Joan Crawford; Professor Jean Perote in Madame Curie (1943); and a dying German music teacher in Rhapsody in Blue (1945).

At the age of 83, he made a triumphant return to the German/Austrian stage in Ibsen plays. Albert Bassermann died of a heart attack en route from New York to Zurich on May 15 1952.

Born to a wealthy family in Vienna, Niki Lauda did not use the conventional methods of a man his means to become a world champion race driver. Far from it, his family disapproved and refused to finance his career, but Lauda plodded on, racing in the lesser ranks before getting his first break in Formula 1 with March. After a couple of fruitless seasons in F1, he caught the attention of legendary car builder Enzo Ferrari, and was soon driving for the famed "Prancing Horse." Lauda came close to winning the World Championship in 1974, but secured the coveted title the next year with a stellar season. Lauda was well on his way to winning again in 1976, but was nearly killed in a fiery crash at Nurburgring, Germany. In nothing short of a miracle, Lauda was back racing in six weeks despite being scarred in the face from his burns, yet nearly won the title, losing by only a single point to James Hunt. Lauda recaptured the F1 world title in 1977, raced one more year before announcing his retirement in 1978, to devote more time to his fledgling Lauda Air. His retirement was short as he came back to race, this time for McLaren, in 1982. With McLaren, Lauda won his third and final championship in 1984, and retired for good in 1985 with 25 career wins and the admiration of the racing world. He is the founder, CEO and occasional pilot at Lauda Air, which is the second largest commercial airlines in Austria, and is a consultant for Ferrari.

Luisa Mattioli was born on 23 March 1936 in San Stino di Livenza, Veneto, Italy. She was an actress, known for The Night of the Great Attack (1959), La bella Lola (1962) and Romulus and the Sabines (1961). She was married to Roger Moore. She died on 5 October 2021 in Zurich, Switzerland.

Herbert Fux was born on 25 March 1927 in Hallein, Salzburg, Austria. He was an actor and writer, known for The Three Musketeers (1993), Asterix and Obelix vs. Caesar (1999) and Stockinger (1996). He was married to Edith Fux. He died on 13 March 2007 in Zurich, Switzerland.

Margie Schmitz was born in 1941 in Königsberg, East Prussia, Germany [now Kaliningrad, Russia]. She was married to Curd Jürgens and Klaus Hermann Schmitz. She died on 1 August 2003 in Zürich, Switzerland.

Gustav Knuth was born on 7 July 1901 in Brunswick, Germany. After he received acting lessons from Casimir Paris, a well known actor at that time, he made his stage debut at the Stadttheater Heidelberg in 1918. Later, he played in Hamburg and also in Basel, Switzerland, but finally returned to Hamburg. In 1935, his first movie Der Ammenkönig (1935) became a unexpected success and many more such as the legendary Great Freedom No. 7 (1944) or the Sissi (1955) trilogy in the 1950s followed. After World War II, his stage career continued in Switzerland, where he lived in Küsnacht and was ensemble member at the Schauspielhaus Zurich. On 1 February 1987, he died of a stroke in Neu-Münster near Zurich, Switzerland.

Joyce was born at 41 Brighton Square, Rathgar, Dublin, on 2 February 1882. His father invested unwisely, and the family's fortunes declined steadily. Joyce graduated from University College Dublin (UCD), in 1902. He briefly studied medicine in Paris but his mother's impending death from cancer brought him back to Dublin. In 1904, Joyce began "Stephen Hero", which he later re-worked as "A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man". He also met Nora Barnacle, a chambermaid, and on 16 June 1904 they went walking at Ringsend, at the Liffey's mouth; Joyce later chose that date for the events recorded in Ulysses.

Having briefly shared a Martello tower at Sandycove, County Dublin, with Oliver St. John Gogarty, he sailed from Dublin with Nora in October 1904. Joyce found work in a language school in Trieste. In 1909, he made two trips to Dublin, to arrange publication of Dubliners, and to open a short-lived cinema. His last visit was in 1912, when he failed to overcome his publisher's doubts about Dubliners. In 1914 the book was published in England, and "A Portrait" was serialised in a London magazine. With the outbreak of World War I, Joyce moved to Zurich in neutral Switzerland, where, in 1917, he underwent the first of many operations for glaucoma. "Ulysses", his masterpiece, was serialised in New York in 1918-20, but eventually halted by a court action.

Joyce returned to Trieste in 1919, then moved to Paris, where, in 1922, "Ulysses" was published by Sylvia Beach, owner of a celebrated bookshop. Its portrait of Dublin, and of the Jewish advertisement canvasser Leopold Bloom, revolutionised the novel with its 'stream of consciousness' technique; it was not published in Britain until 1936. In 1923, Joyce began the almost impenetrable "Finnegans Wake", which was published in 1939. Joyce and Nora finally married in 1931. In 1940, the couple returned to Zurich, where he died on 13 January 1941, aged 58.

Thomas Mann was probably Germany's most influential author of the 20th century, receiving the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1929. Born on 6 June 1875 in Lübeck, his family moved to Munich in 1893, where he lived until 1933 and wrote some of his most successful novels like "Buddenbrocks" (1901), "Death in Venice" (1912) or "The Magic Mountain" (1924). After the Nazi takeover, the humanist and anti-fascist, married to Katia Pringsheim, daughter of a secular Jewish family, emigrated to Switzerland, then to Princeton and Pacific Palisades in the United States, where he finished his great tetra-logy "Joseph and His Brothers" in 1942. Two years later, he became a naturalized US citizen, but finally returned to Europe in 1952. The famous analyst and critique of the German and European soul died on 12 August 1955 in Kilberg near Zurich.

Otto Klemperer was born on 14 May 1885 in Breslau, Silesia, Germany [now Wroclaw, Dolnoslaskie, Poland]. He is known for The Darjeeling Limited (2007), Jude (1996) and Shadows and Fog (1991). He was married to Johanna Klemperer. He died on 6 July 1973 in Zurich, Switzerland.

Carl Gustav Jung was born in Kessewil, Switzerland, on July 26, 1875. His father Paul was a rural preacher, and began to teach his son Latin when Carl was six years old, stoking his interest in language and literature (Jung was later able to read most European languages and several ancient ones, such as Sanskrit). He was not a particularly good student because he did not like the regimentation of school and was especially averse to competition (at boarding school in Basel he developed a habit of fainting under pressure).

After graduating he attended the University of Basel intending to major in archeology, but developed an interest in medicine and studied under renowned neurologist Richard von Krafft-Ebing. As a result, he decided on a career in psychiatry. Upon graduation from the university, he took a job in a Zurich mental hospital and began to specialize in the study and treatment of schizophrenia. He began to teach classes at the University of Zurich, and in addition started his own private practice. It was during this time that he developed what is known today as the system of word association.

Jung had long been an admirer of the famed Sigmund Freud, and in 1907 the two met in Vienna. They connected from the beginning, and Freud came away from the meeting convinced that Jung was at the top of the field in psychoanalysis and his "heir apparent". Jung, however, was not entirely convinced that Freud's theories were correct, and it wasn't long before matters came to a head. During a 1909 trip to the United States, things soured and Freud broke off their relationship.

The era of World War I was a painful one for Jung personally, but his professional career flowered and it was during this period that he developed his famous theory of personality. After the war he traveled extensively throughout the world, spending much time among primitive tribal societies in Africa and India and visiting and studying many Native American tribes in the U.S.

Jung retired in 1946, and after the death of his wife in 1955 he became somewhat reclusive. He died in Zurich, Switzerland, on June 6, 1961.

Louis V. Arco was born on 24 July 1899 in Baden, Austria-Hungary. He was an actor, known for Sacco und Vanzetti (1927), Underground (1941) and Die Försterchristl (1931). He died on 3 April 1975 in Zurich, Switzerland.

Peter Ehrlich was born on 25 March 1933 in Leipzig, Germany. He was an actor, known for Berlinger (1975), Ein Mann namens Harry Brent (1968) and Tatort (1970). He was married to Elisabeth Roon. He died on 26 July 2015 in Zurich, Switzerland.

Johnny Winter was born on 23 February 1944 in Beaumont, Texas, USA. He was an actor and composer, known for The Accused (1988), Sliver (1993) and Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (1978). He was married to Susan Warford. He died on 16 July 2014 in Zurich, Switzerland.

Benoît Régent was born on 19 August 1953 in Nantes, Loire-Atlantique, France. He was an actor, known for Three Colors: Blue (1993), Three Colors: Red (1994) and Du fond du coeur (1994). He was married to Marilyne Canto. He died on 22 October 1994 in Zurich, Switzerland.

Gisela Fischer was born on 21 April 1929 in Berlin, Germany. She was an actress, known for Torn Curtain (1966), Frau Cheneys Ende (1961) and Heinrich IV. (1967). She died on 19 June 2014 in Zürich, Switzerland.

Swiss-born René Eugène Hubert studied at the Kunstgewerbeschule in St. Gallen and at the Beaux Arts in Paris and subsequently worked for the noted fashion designer Jean Patou. He did some costume design for theatrical revues in Berlin and France (including for the Folies Bergère at the Casino de Paris), where his work attracted the attention of star actress Gloria Swanson. Swanson managed to persuade Hubert to join her in Hollywood as personal designer for her entire personal and professional wardrobe and he ended up signed to a two-year contract at Paramount in 1924 (inevitably specialising in Gloria's pictures, beginning with Madame Sans-Gêne (1925)). After his contract expired, Hubert made the rounds of other studios: MGM (1927-1931); under the auspices of Charles Le Maire at 20th Century Fox (1931-1935); at Alexander Korda's London Films (1935-1938), where he designed the futuristic costumes for Things to Come (1936); then back at Fox (1943-1950).

He excelled at period costume and was engaged on many A-grade historical dramas, including Fire Over England (1937), That Hamilton Woman (1941), Jane Eyre (1943), Dragonwyck (1946), Forever Amber (1947) and Anastasia (1956). Hubert died in June 1976 at the age of eighty, leaving behind a rich legacy of distinctive watercolour and pencil sketches of his designs.

Johanna Spyri was born on 12 June 1827 in Hirzel, Switzerland. She was a writer, known for Heidi (1937), S'Waisechind vo Engelberg (1956) and Heidi. She was married to Johann Bernhard Spyri. She died on 7 July 1901 in Zurich, Switzerland.

Natasha Lytess was born on 16 May 1911 in Ekaterinoslav, Yekaterinoslav Governorate, Russian Empire [now Dnipro, Ukraine]. She was an actress and writer, known for Once Upon a Honeymoon (1942), Comrade X (1940) and The House on Telegraph Hill (1951). She died on 12 May 1963 in Zurich, Switzerland.

Heidemarie Hatheyer was an Austrian actress, singer and cabaret artist. She was born in Villach, Carinthia, Austria. After finishing high school she started to be a journalist but went instead to Vienna to play at the cabaret "Atelier am Naschmarkt". In 1936 she had her first stage engagement at the Theater an der Wien with Zarah Leander in "Axel an der Himmelstür" with music by Ralph Benatzky and lyrics by Paul Morgan and Hans Weigel.

In 1937 she worked at the Kammerspiele, Munich. And in 1942 an der Staatstheater Berlin. Luis Trenker discovered her for his film Der Berg ruft! (1938) , in which she became the leading lady. After that she signed a contract with Tobis Films. She played in Die Geierwally (1940) and I accuse (1941). After the war, because of her acting in this last Nazi-propaganda film, she was forbidden to play in cinema. Nevertheless, she played on stage in Germany, Switzerland and Vienna. From 1949 she was allowed to play again in cinema and on TV. In 1952 she married the author Curt Riess.

In the 60s she got many awards. In 1984 she got the German Filmband in Gold for her work in the German cinema and in 1989 the Filmband in Gold for acting in 1989 "Martha Jellneck".

Ellen Schwanneke was born on 11 August 1906 in Berlin, Germany. She was an actress, known for Mädchen in Uniform (1931), Kinder vor Gericht (1931) and Not a Word About Love (1937). She died on 16 June 1972 in Zurich, Switzerland.

Maria Becker was born on 28 January 1920 in Berlin, Germany. She was an actress, known for Mary Stuart (1974), Ein Monat auf dem Lande (1960) and A Glass of Water (1977). She was married to Robert Freitag. She died on 5 September 2012 in Uster, Kanton Zürich, Switzerland.