First German Golden Globe winner Christine Kaufmann dies at 72

BERLIN -- Christine Kaufmann, an Austrian-born actor who became the country's first Golden Globe winner and was married to Tony Curtis in the 1960s, has died. She was 72.

Kaufmann died in Munich after a battle with leukemia, her management company told the dpa news agency Tuesday.

Born in 1945, Kaufmann made her acting debut in 1952 and won a Golden Globe for her 1961 Hollywood debut, "Town Without Pity," where she played alongside Kirk Douglas as a German girl raped by American soldiers.

She met Curtis the year later while filming "Taras Bulba" and the two married in 1963. They had two daughters before divorcing in 1968.

While continuing to act, Kaufmann later in life also wrote health and beauty books, and established her own line of cosmetics.

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  In this 1965 file photo American actor Tony Curtis poses holding hands with his wife Christine Kaufmann on the rocky beach of Cannes, France. Christine Kaufmann died Tuesday, March 28, 2017. She was 72. (AP Photo)