The actress Urte Blankenstein, known as "Frau Puppendoktor Pille" on GDR television, is dead. The 81-year-old died on Sunday in Berlin, her son confirmed to the German Press Agency. She appeared on stage for decades in the role of the woman in the doctor's coat, with braided black pigtails and huge black glasses - until the very end.
Blankenstein played the popular TV character from 1968 until the end of the episodes in the "Sandmännchen" evening show in 1988. It wasn't just puppet parents who sought advice in her consultation hours. She saw herself as a friend to the children and a comforter, giving them tips in her gentle voice on good behavior, proper nutrition and avoiding colds. "Many people thought I was a pediatrician or kindergarten teacher," she once said.
As a girl, the entertainer from East Prussia lived in a children's home for several years, where she sang a lot, and later studied acting. Until the sudden end of her career, Blankenstein was the Frau Puppendoktor in the children's program around 1,500 times. After that, she was no longer offered any other roles because she was recognizable by her voice - so she presented music programmes.
Puppet doctor Pille also on stage
Since the fall of the Berlin Wall, she has performed various programs on small stages or sung. In "Der Nächste bitte ...", a turbulent consultation hour with frog Quaki and paramedic Konstantin, she was also seen again and again in her TV show role. Unlike her two predecessors in glasses, smock and pigtail wig, Helga Liebau-Labudda and Angela Bronner, Blankenstein remained present - and popular - beyond the screen as "Frau Puppendoktor Pille".
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