{{Short description|Austrian actress (1940–2002)}} {{Use dmy dates|date=January 2016}} {{Infobox person | name = Barbara Valentin | image = Barbara Valentin (cropped).jpg | caption = Valentin, c. 1959 | birth_name = Ursula Ledersteger | birth_date = {{Birth date|1940|12|15|df =y}} | birth_place = Vienna, Reichsgaue of the Ostmark, Nazi Germany | death_date = {{Death date and age|2002|2|22|1940|12|15|df =y}} | death_place = Munich, Germany | other_names = Barbara Valentine | occupation = Actress | years_active = 1959–2001 }} '''Barbara Valentin''' (born '''Ursula Ledersteger'''; 15 December 1940 – 22 February 2002)<ref>{{Cite web|title=Barbara Valentin, German actress|url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/Barbara-Valentin|access-date=2021-11-09|website=Encyclopedia Britannica|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200719152139/https://www.britannica.com/biography/Barbara-Valentin|archive-date=19 July 2020|language=en}}</ref> was an Austrian actress. She worked in film, often with Rainer Werner Fassbinder.

==Biography== Valentin was born in 1940 as Ursula Ledersteger in Vienna, Austria (then part of Nazi Germany).<ref name=":1">{{Cite book|title=Freddie Mercury: An Intimate Biography|last=Bret|first=David|year=2014|isbn=9781291819434}}</ref><ref name=":2">{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=pSei6TygFxoC|title=The A to Z of German Cinema|last1=Reimer|first1=Robert C.|last2=Reimer|first2=Carol J.|publisher=Scarecrow Press|year=2010|isbn=9781461731863|location=Plymouth, U.K.|pages=300}}</ref> Her father was the Austrian art director Hans Ledersteger and her mother the actress Irmgard Alberti. She had a half-brother, Alfred Ledersteger. She was married to German film director Helmut Dietl.<ref name=":1" />

During the early to mid-1980s, Valentin was close friends with Freddie Mercury, who lived with her and her daughter in her Munich apartment for some time.<ref name="bardola">{{cite book |title=Mercury in München: Seine besten Jahre |trans-title=Mercury in Munich: His best years |last=Bardola |first=Nicola |publisher=Heyne Verlag |year=2021 |isbn=978-3641276539}}</ref><ref name="BR_2021">{{cite AV media |title=Sechs Jahre hat Freddie Mercury in München gelebt - eine Spurensuche |trans-title=Freddie Mercury lived in Munich for six years - a search for clues |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YqhkiNg1OPg |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231025211821/https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=YqhkiNg1OPg |archive-date=25 October 2023 |publisher=Bayerischer Rundfunk |date=4 October 2021 |language=de |access-date=25 October 2023 |url-status=bot: unknown }}</ref> She is featured in the video for the Queen song It's a Hard Life.

During her career, Valentin was nicknamed "the German Jayne Mansfield".<ref name=":0">{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-HnGCwAAQBAJ|title=Obituaries in the Performing Arts, 2002: Film, Television, Radio, Theatre, Dance, Music, Cartoons and Pop Culture|last=Lentz III|first=Harris M.|publisher=McFarland|year=2003|isbn=0786414642|pages=309|via=Google Books}}</ref>

On 22 February 2002, Valentin died of a stroke in Munich at the age of 61.<ref name=":0" /> She was buried in the Ostfriedhof in Munich.

==Selected filmography== {| class="wikitable sortable" |+ !Year !Title !Role !Director !Notes |- |1959 |{{sort|Head|''The Head''}} |The hostess and a dancer |{{sortname|Victor|Trivas}} |<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.filmportal.de/en/movie/die-nackte-und-der-satan_ea43d4a7a79d5006e03053d50b37753d|publisher=Filmportal.de|title=Die Nackte und der Satan|accessdate=December 2, 2025|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20140203033300/https://www.filmportal.de/en/movie/die-nackte-und-der-satan_ea43d4a7a79d5006e03053d50b37753d|archivedate=February 3, 2014}}</ref> |- |1960 |''Horrors of Spider Island'' |Babs |Fritz Böttger |horror film |- |rowspan=3|1961 |''{{Interlanguage link multi|The Girl with the Narrow Hips|de|Das Mädchen mit den schmalen Hüften}}'' (German: ''Das Mädchen mit den schmalen Hüften'') |Beauty queen |{{ill|Johannes Kai|de}} | |- | ''The Festival Girls'' |Valentine |Leigh Jason | |- |''{{Interlanguage link multi|There Is Still Room in Hell|de|In der Hölle ist noch Platz}}'' (German: ''In der Hölle ist noch Platz)'' |Janet |{{Interlanguage link multi|Ernst R. von Theumer|de|Ernst von Theumer senior}} | |- |1965 |''Our Man in Jamaica'' |Gloria |{{Interlanguage link multi|Ernst R. von Theumer|de|Ernst von Theumer senior}} | |- |1966 |''{{ill|Call Girls of Frankfurt|de|In Frankfurt sind die Nächte heiß}}'' |Sonja |Rolf Olsen | |- |1967 |''Carmen, Baby'' |Dolores |Radley Metzger | |- |rowspan=2|1968 |''{{ill|Der Partyphotograph|de}}'' |Barbara |Hans Dieter Bove | |- |''The Star Maker'' |Hotel maid |John Carr | |- |1970 |''{{Ill|Love, Vampire Style|de|Beiß mich Liebling!}}'' |Rosi |Helmut Förnbacher | |- |1971 |''Furchtlose Flieger'' |Blondie |{{ill|Veith von Fürstenberg|de}}, {{ill|Martin Müller (filmmaker)|de|Martin Müller (Filmemacher)|lt=Martin Müller}} | |- |1972 |''King, Queen, Knave'' |Optician |Jerzy Skolimowski | |- |1973 |''World on a Wire'' (German: ''Welt am Draht)'' |Gloria Fromm |Rainer Werner Fassbinder<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/04/movies/04wire.html|title=A Bold Vision, Still Ahead of Its Time|last=Lim|first=Dennis|date=2010-04-10|work=The New York Times|access-date=2018-11-23|language=en}}</ref> |TV film |- |rowspan=3|1974 |''Ali: Fear Eats the Soul'' (German: ''Angst essen Seele auf'') |Barbara |Rainer Werner Fassbinder |A film about an older German woman who enters an Arab bar where she meets and marries a younger man from Morocco.<ref name=":2" /><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.festival-cannes.com/en/festival/films/angst-essen-seele-auf|title=Angst essen Seele auf|website=Festival de Cannes|language=fr|access-date=2019-08-30}}</ref> |- |''Martha'' |Marianne |Rainer Werner Fassbinder<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1994/09/24/movies/film-festival-review-fassbinder-on-the-painfully-tight-bonds-of-marriage.html|title=FILM FESTIVAL REVIEW; Fassbinder on the Painfully Tight Bonds of Marriage|last=Holden|first=Stephen|date=1994|access-date=2018-11-23|language=en}}</ref> |TV film |- |''Effi Briest'' |Marietta Tripelli |Rainer Werner Fassbinder | |- |1975 |''Fox and His Friends'' (German: ''Faustrecht der Freiheit'') |Max's wife |Rainer Werner Fassbinder | |- |rowspan=2|1976 |''{{Interlanguage link multi|Bomber & Paganini|de}}'' |Mona |Nikos Perakis | |- |''{{ill|An Isfahanian in the Land of Hitler|fa|یک اصفهانی در سرزمین هیتلر}}'' | |Nosratollah Vahdat | |- |1977 |''Women in Hospital'' |Angelika's mother |Rolf Thiele | |- |1978 |''Flaming Hearts'' |Karola Faber |Walter Bockmayer, Rolf Bührmann | |- |1980 |''Berlin Alexanderplatz'' |Ida |Rainer Werner Fassbinder |15½-hour television adaptation of Alfred Döblin's epic 1929 novel<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1983/08/10/movies/screen-by-fassbinder-berlin-alexanderplatz.html|title=Screen: By Fassbinder, 'BERLIN ALEXANDERPLATZ'|date=1983-08-10|work=The New York Times|access-date=2018-11-23|language=en}}</ref> |- |rowspan=2|1981 |''Lili Marleen'' |Eva |Rainer Werner Fassbinder | |- |''{{Ill|Looping (1980 film)|de|3=Looping (1980)|lt=Looping}}'' |Helma |Walter Bockmayer, Rolf Bührmann | |- |1984 |''{{ill|Im Himmel ist die Hölle los|de|Im Himmel ist die Hölle los (Film)}}'' |Erika Schrillmann |{{ill|Helmer von Lützelburg|de}} |Satirical film |- |1987 |''The Second Victory'' |Greta Mayer |Gerald Thomas | |- |2000 |''Fassbinder's Women'' |Herself |Rosa von Praunheim | |}

==References== {{reflist |64em}}

==External links== *{{IMDb name|0884157}} {{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Valentin, Barbara}} Category:1940 births Category:2002 deaths Category:Austrian expatriates in West Germany Category:Austrian film actresses Category:Austrian television actresses Category:Actresses from Vienna Category:20th-century Austrian actresses Category:Burials at the Ostfriedhof (Munich)

{{Austria-actor-stub}}