Alice and Ellen Kessler, the German twins, breathed their last in Munich in age 89.
The musical artists died through a medically assisted death in order to remain inseparable to the end.
According to the German outlet Bild, they no “longer wanted to live” and “had chosen to end their lives together.”
Following their death, Radio Monte-Carlo, the radio station, which broadcasts out of Monaco and Milan, honoured the sisters in Italian, which translates, “Alice and Ellen Kessler left together, just as they lived: inseparable.”
It continued, “Born in 1936, they were an absolute symbol of European spectacle, including music, dance and television. In Italy, they became celebrities as the ‘legs of the nation,’ icon[s] of elegance and stage presence since the Fifties.”
“A unique artistic couple, capable of leaving an indelible imprint on the collective imagination,” it added.
The duo performed together with Frank Sinatra, Harry Belafonte and Fred Astaire. They also learned how to dance when they were children and applying their skills with the Leipzig Opera children’s ballet in 1947, the AP said.
Eight years later while dancing in Düsseldorf in 1955, they were discovered by director of Paris’ Lido cabaret, according to German news agency DPA International.
That launched an international career for the Kesslers, who moved to Rome, toured the world and performed with luminaries.
The Kesslers worked well into their 80s, telling the outlet that, “Being on the road as a duo only has advantages. You’re stronger together.”
Previously, in Bild they said that they had “stipulated in [their] wills” that they wanted to be buried in the same urn, alongside their mother and a beloved dog.
