Little Known Spaghetti Western Actors ~ Berta Drews

[These daily posts will cover little known actors or people that have appeared in more recent films and TV series. Various degrees of information that I was able to find will be given and anything that you can add would be appreciated.]

Berta Emilie Helene Drews was a German stage and film actress whose career spanned five decades, with appearances in over 60 motion pictures from 1933 to 1983. Born in Berlin on November 19, 1901, she debuted during the early Nazi era, including in propaganda productions such as “Über alles in der Welt” (1941), which promoted Germany's wartime objectives, and continued performing through the post-war period in both East and West German cinema. Married to prominent actor Heinrich George from 1932 until his death in 1946, Drews was mother to actors Götz George and Jan George, and her family ties linked her to the broader saga of German performing arts under National Socialism and its aftermath, marked by her husband's imprisonment and death in Soviet custody. Among her later notable roles was in Volker Schlöndorff's “The Tin Drum” (1979), an adaptation of Günter Grass's novel that critiqued Nazism and earned the Palme d'Or at Cannes and an Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. Drews' professional longevity reflected the pragmatic adaptations many German artists made amid political upheavals, though her early film work has drawn retrospective scrutiny for alignment with regime-supported projects.

Berta died in West Berlin, Germany on April 10, 1987 at the age of 85.

Berta Drews appeared in on Euro-western, “Der Kaiser von Kalifornien” (The Emperor of California) as Chansonette in 1936.

DREWS, Berta (aka Berth Drews) (Berta Emilie Helene Drews) [11/19/1901, Tempelhof, Berlin, Berlin, Germany – 4/10/1987, West Berlin, Berlin, West Germany] – author, theater, film, TV actress, singer, married to producer, director, actor Heinrich George (Georg August Friedrich Hermann Schulz) [1893-1946] (1932-1946) mother of director, writer, actor, photographer Jan George [1932-    ], producer, stuntman, actor Götz George [1938–2016].

The Emperor of California – 1936 (Chansonette)