Chariklia Baxevanos

Chariklia Baxevanos, known in the biz as 'Baxi', was born in Zurich, Switzerland, the only daughter of operatic tenor Peter Baxevanos. She attended the Gymnasium Sacré Coeur in Vienna and afterwards commenced her acting studies at the Max-Reinhardt Seminar, graduating with distinction in 1953. That same year, she had her first success on the stage in Gigi and Mamsell Nitouche, respectively in Wiesbaden and at the Munich Kammerspiele. During an eight-year long stint with the ensemble of the Theater in der Josefstadt, she essayed classical roles in plays by Rattigan, Anouilh and others. On the German stage (latterly at Berlin's Theater am Kurfürstendamm under the direction of her then husband Christian Wölffer) she has headlined as Eliza Doolittle, Anne Frank, Bernadette of Lourdes, Irma La Douce and Rosalinde in Shakespeare's As You Like It.

In films from the age of sixteen, she played the younger sister of Mozart's wife Constanze in the biopic The Life and Loves of Mozart (1955). Most of her later film roles were in lightweight operettas, romances and comedies. In her last outing on the big screen, the Edgar Wallace adaptation of The Monster of London City (1964), she provided the comic relief. Better known on television, she starred as the eponymous heroine of the short-lived drama series Wilhelmina (1968) and made guest appearances in several episodes of the science fiction series Unterwegs nach Atlantis (1982) in addition to a memorable performance in the all-star, Francis Durbridge-inspired ZDF miniseries Verräter (1967).

As a voice actress, she has provided the German dubbing for, among others, Carole Landis, Shirley MacLaine, Madeline Kahn and Virna Lisi.

'Baxi' was married twice. Her first husband (for just one year) was the actor Horst Frank, remembered as one of the great European screen villains of the era. She then had a ten year-long relationship with actor Harald Juhnke. Apparently, they never married and parted ways in 1971, presumably as a consequence of Juhnke's problems with alcoholism. Her second husband was the stage director, writer and actor Christian Wölffer (1942-2015), co-owner, partner and part of the management team of the Berlin Theater am Kurfürstendamm.