Eva Mattes

A leading German actress of the 1970s and 80s, Eva Mattes achieved prominence as part of Rainer Werner Fassbinder's stock company, beginning with a brilliant turn embodying youthful corruption as a murderous nymphet in "Wildwechsel/Jailbait" (1971). This pretty, dark-haired daughter of composer Willy Mattes and film actress Margret Symo started her career as a child actor in stage productions. When she and her mother encountered Fassbinder at a disco in 1970, her mother extolled her abilities to the director who went on to use Mattes in several films. After her exceptional portrayal in "Jailbait," she was cast as the fashion designer's daughter in "The Bitters Tears of Petra von Kant" (1971) and appeared in such seminal efforts as "Fontane Effi Brest" (1974), Fassbinder's loose remake of "The Women" "Frauen in New York" (1977) and "In einem Jahr mit 13 Monden/In a Year of 13 Moons" (1979).