Age: 54
female
Makatsch was born in Düsseldorf, Germany, the daughter of former German national ice hockey team goaltender Rainer Makatsch. She spent several months in New Mexico in 1988 in an effort to improve her English, and later studied politics and sociology at the University of Düsseldorf for four semesters, which was followed by an apprenticeship as a dressmaker until 1994. Her television career started in 1993, when she was hired by music channel VIVA, hosting shows such as Interaktiv and Heikes Hausbesuche; two years later, on August 13 1995, she became the host of the German chart show BRAVO TV, aired by RTL II, a position she kept until summer 1996. In 1997 she started hosting her own weekly, late night show titled Heike Makatsch Show. However, due to bad ratings, it was cancelled after only eight episodes. Makatsch first appeared in a movie in 1996, when she starred in Detlev Buck's Männerpension (English: "Jailbirds"); she received the Bavarian Film Award as most talented young actor for her performance. Since then, she has appeared in several German and English language productions.
Heike Makatsch
Elisabeth Reuter
for Elisabeth Reuter in The Sorrows of Young Werther
Suggested by sepanta_kazemi
The story follows Werther, a sensitive young artist who leaves behind everything familiar, hoping to escape the weight of his past. In his letters to his friend Wilhelm, he tries to understand his own heart, a heart that pulls him toward joy and despair with equal force. He settles in a quiet village in the spring of 1771, seeking rest, beauty, and a return to himself. But at a local gathering he meets Charlotte. She is kind, graceful, grounded — and already engaged to Albert. In that moment, Werther’s fate is sealed. What begins as admiration becomes an overwhelming love. Charlotte’s gentle presence becomes the center of his inner world. He spends long days speaking with her, walking with her, memorizing every gesture. She cares for him with warmth and honesty, yet always within the boundaries of loyalty to her fiancé. For Werther, this half-light becomes torture. He knows he cannot have her, yet cannot leave her. The conflict consumes him. His letters capture every shift of emotion — tenderness, jealousy, hope, guilt. The villagers around him seem cold, dull, hostile. He feels misunderstood, misplaced, trapped in a world that cannot hold the intensity of his feelings. Even his art dries up. Nature itself becomes an echo of his sorrow. Werther tries to leave the village, to free himself from the longing that is destroying him. But he returns, drawn back by a love that has already defined him. What he finds upon returning only deepens his despair. His guilt grows. His loneliness sharpens. His sense of shame and fear of public judgment haunt him. Werther sees no escape from the impossible triangle he is trapped in — Charlotte, Albert, and himself. To him, love becomes both a sanctuary and a prison, something sacred and yet unbearable. His final act emerges from a soul torn between passion, idealism, and the unbearable truth that the life he longs for will never exist. Werther’s name itself carries two meanings — “island” and “more precious” — perfectly capturing the essence of his character: isolated, idealistic, and set apart from the ordinary world by the sheer intensity of his heart.
