Marianne Koch (German:[maˈʁi̯anəˈkɔx]ⓘ; born 19 August 1931) is a German actress of the 1950s and 1960s, best known for her appearances in Spaghetti Westerns and adventure films of the 1960s. She later worked as a television host and as a physician.
Career
Koch in 1968
Between 1950 and 1971, Koch appeared in more than 65 films. She had numerous leading roles in the German cinema of the 1950s and 1960s. In the 1954 American thriller Night People, she appeared in a supporting role alongside Gregory Peck. Koch also had major roles in the Hollywood films Four Girls in Town and Interlude, both released in 1957. She remains perhaps best known internationally for Sergio Leone's 1964 production A Fistful of Dollars, which showcased her with Clint Eastwood as a civilian tormented by ruthless local gangsters, torn between her husband and child and the villains.
In Germany, she was probably best known for her many years of participation as one of the regular panelists in the highly popular TV game show Was bin ich?, the German adaption of the American TV show What's My Line?, which ran from the 1950s until 1988 and achieved ratings of up to 75% at its peak.
In 1971, she resumed the medical studies she had broken off in the early 1950s to become an actress.[1] In 1974, she earned her degree and practiced medicine until 1997 as a specialist for internal medicine in Munich. Also in 1974, she was one of the initial hosts of Germany's pioneering talk show 3 nach 9 (Three After Nine), for which she was awarded the Grimme-Preis, one of the most prestigious awards of the German television industry. She also hosted other television shows, and in 2014, still had a medical advice program on radio.
In 1953, Koch married the physician Gerhard Freund (1922–2008), with whom she has two sons. The marriage ended in 1973 after Freund began an affair with Miss World 1956, Petra Schürmann, whom he later wed.[2] Koch later began a relationship with the writer Peter Hamm, which lasted from the mid-1970s until his death in 2019.[3]
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