Rut Rex

German entertainer, the daughter of a furniture dealer. Rex was initially trained as a singer and dancer, the latter in Zurich under the noted choreographer and expressionist dance specialist Mary Wigman. She began her career on stage in her home town Saarbrücken as Rut Gerhard, singing and dancing in revues and musical comedies. In 1947, she married an ex-Luftwaffe officer and hypnotherapist, Dr. Gerhard Rex, and had a 12-year long hiatus from performing. In September 1958, she was engaged by Peter Kreuder to play Zarah Leander's daughter in his musical Madame Scandaleuse at the Viennese Raimundtheater. At this time, the journalist and producer Wolfgang Rademann (best known as the creator of the popular TV series Das Traumschiff (1981) and The Black Forest Hospital (1985)) prompted her name change to Rut Rex-Gerhard (which then became Rut Rex).

A very attractive and personable blonde, Rex continued to perform on the stage from 1962, appearing in Hamburg and Vienna opposite Freddy Quinn in the musical Heimweh nach St. Pauli and in Berlin as Helen of Troy in the play Das Opfer Helena. In 1967, she released her first music single, followed by six albums of chansons between 1972 and 1977. She was seen on the screen in a few movies and TV productions with musical content, including The White Horse Inn (1960) and Sexbombe mit Tick (1970). By that time she acquired the popular sobriquet 'Sexy Rexy'. There was to be one more name change: having divorced Rex in 1971, she got married the following year to the journalist and TV executive Joseph Viehöver (1925-1973) and has been henceforth known as Rut Rex-Viehöver. Her last screen appearance was in 2005.