Christine Kaufmann made her acting debut at the age of seven in an uncredited role in the German musical ‘Im Weissen Rössl’ (‘The White Horse Inn’). Next year, she had supporting roles in several West German drama films like ‘Staatsanwältin Corda’, ‘Salto Mortale’ and ‘Der Klosterjäger’ (‘The Monastery's Hunter’). She gained recognition for playing the titular orphan child in the drama film ‘Rose-Girl Resli’ (‘Rosen-Resli’) in 1954, which year she also played the lead in the German melodrama ‘Der schweigende Engel’. Already established as a child star, she went on to find further success in more West German drama films such as ‘Wenn die Alpenrosen blüh'n’ (‘When the Alpine Roses Bloom’, 1955), ‘Ein Herz schlägt für Erika’ (1955), ‘Die Stimme der Sehnsucht’ (1956), ‘Witwer mit 5 Töchtern’ (‘Widower with 5 Daughters’, 1957), and ‘Embezzled Heaven’ (‘Der veruntreute Himmel, 1958), as well as the Austrian movies ‘Die Winzerin von Langenlois’ (‘The Winemaker of Langenlois’, 1957) and ‘Sag ja, Mutti’ (1958). In 1958, she also featured in the French-West German drama film ‘Mädchen in Uniform’, which had an all-female cast. However, she earned international recognition after she was cast, at the age of 13, as the love-interest of 32-year-old Steve Reeves’ character in the Italian epic action film ‘The Last Days of Pompeii’ (‘Gli ultimi giorni di Pompei’) in 1959. That year, she further appeared in the Italian romantic comedy-drama ‘First Love’ (‘Primo amore’), the West German musical comedy ‘Everybody Loves Peter’ (‘Alle lieben Peter’) and the French-Italian comedy ‘Vacanze d'inverno’. In 1960, she was seen in several European films like ‘The Fabulous Fraud’ (‘Un trono para Cristy’), ‘Totò, Fabrizi e i giovani d'oggi’, ‘Red Lips’ (‘Labbra rosse’), and ‘The Last Pedestrian’ (‘Der letzte Fussgänger’).
Christine Kaufmann made her Hollywood debut opposite Kirk Douglas in the 1961 crime-drama film ‘Town Without Pity’, an American-Swiss-West German co-production in which her portrayal of a young rape victim earned her the ‘Golden Globe Award for New Star of the Year’ as the first German actress at the age of 17. The following year, she was paired with her future husband Tony Curtis in the American-Yugoslav adventure drama ‘Taras Bulba’ and appeared in the American-West German thriller film ‘Escape from East Berlin’. During this period, her other film credits included the Italian-Yugoslav historical drama ‘Constantine and the Cross’ (‘Costantino il grande’); the West German drama films ‘Via Mala’, ‘The Phony American’ (‘Toller Hecht auf krummer Tour’) and ‘Terror After Midnight’ (‘90 Minuten nach Mitternacht’), as well as the French-Italian crime drama ‘Man Called Rocca’ (‘Un nommé La Rocca’) and adventure film ‘Swordsman of Siena’ (‘La congiura dei dieci’). Kaufmann, who entered showbiz to please her parents, had gladly agreed to retire from acting following her marriage to Curtis and last appeared opposite her husband in the 1964 American romantic comedy ‘Wild and Wonderful’.
Following her divorce from Curtis and her return to Europe, Christine Kaufmann resumed acting on stage and occasionally on-screen during the 1970s, starting with West German television series ‘Das Bastardzeichen’ and the miniseries ‘Wie ein Blitz’, the latter becoming a huge success. In 1971, she starred alongside Jason Robards and Herbert Lom in the American horror film ‘Murders in the Rue Morgue’. In the following years, she became well-known for appearing in several films by art house directors, such as ‘The Death of Maria Malibran’ (‘Der Tod der Maria Malibran’, 1972), ‘Willow Springs’ (1973), ‘Goldflocken’ (1976) and ‘Day of the Idiots’ (‘Tag der Idioten’, 1981) by Werner Schroeter; ‘Lili Marleen’ (1981) and ‘Lola’ (1981) by Rainer Werner Fassbinder; and ‘Die Schaukel’ (1983) and ‘Bagdad Café’ (1987) by Percy Adlon. Her other films during this period included ‘Zum Abschied Chrysanthemen’ (1974), ‘Auf Biegen oder Brechen’ (1975), ‘As of Tomorrow’ (‘Ab morgen sind wir reich und ehrlich’, 1976), ‘Red Rings of Fear’ (‘Enigma rosso’, 1978), ‘Der Durchdreher’ (1979), ‘Egon Schiele: Excess and Punishment’ (‘Egon Schiele – Exzesse’, 1980), ‘Ziemlich weit weg’ (1983), ‘The Roaring Fifties’ (‘Die wilden Fünfziger’, 1983), ‘Die Schaukel’ (1983), ‘Pankow '95’ (1983), ‘The Story Teller’ (‘Der Geschichtenerzähler’, 1989) and ‘Hard to Be a God’ (‘Es ist nicht leicht, ein Gott zu sein, 1989).
Christine Kaufmann continued to appear on television in series such as ‘Der Kommissar’, ‘Die Fälle des Herrn Konstantin’, ‘Der ganz normale Wahnsinn’, ‘Die Laurents’, ‘Monaco Franze - Der ewige Stenz’ (in which her hilariously witty portrayal of Olga Behrens made a lasting impression on German television), ‘Die Insel’, ‘Wenn das die Nachbarn wüßten’, and ‘Rin Tin Tin: K-9 Cop’, as well as the miniseries ‘The Count of Monte Cristo’, ‘Joséphine ou la comédie des ambitions’, and ‘Missione d'amore’. She also appeared in many telefilms including ‘Gestrickte Spuren’, ‘Immobilien’, ‘Chaplins Hut’, ‘Die Jüdin von Toledo’, ‘Das Männerquartett’, ‘Die Ängste des Dr. Schenk’, ‘The Excluded’ (‘Die Ausgesperrten’), ‘Inflation im Paradies’, ‘Julius Caesar’, ‘Birkenhof & Lerchenau’ and ‘Höllische Nachbarn’. She continued to appear on television and in films at the turn of the century, and was last seen in the American action adventure film ‘Tom Sawyer & Huckleberry Finn’ in 2014.
