Elfie (Elfriede) Fiegert (born April 1946, in Freising, Bavaria, West Germany) is an

Afro-German Afro-Germans () or Black Germans () are German Citizens of Sub-Saharan African descent. Cities such as Hamburg and Frankfurt, which were formerly centres of occupation forces following World War II and more recent immigration, have substantial ...

film actor who became famous as a child actor for playing the lead role in the film ''

Toxi ''Toxi'' is a 1952 West German drama film directed by Robert A. Stemmle and starring Elfie Fiegert, Paul Bildt and Johanna Hofer. The film's release came as the first wave of children born to black Allied servicemen and white German mothers ...

'' (1952) filmed when she was five years old. This was followed in 1955 with the film '' The Dark Star'' which has erroneously been described as sequel. At the age of seventeen she had a small role in '' The House in Montevideo'' (1963).

Toxi

Elfie did not receive a credit for a role in ''Toxi''. She was described as playing herself. The publicity for the film suggested that the story of the film reflected Elfie's own origins, and she came to use the stage name Toxi. The name Toxi also became widely used as shorthand in the German media when referring to Afro-Germans and their social condition.

Later career

Reflecting upon Elfie's career as an example of racial stereotyping, Heide Fehrenbach suggests that whilst as a child actor, Elfie was typecast as a black child of the US occupation of Germany post 1945; the onset of puberty meant that she became exoticised, sexualised and geographically removed from Germany. In 1964, she married the Nigerian student Christopher Nwako in Munich, in 1965 they had a son - Okwudili John Nwako. After they divorced, she resumed her acting career. She also appeared in documentaries on

CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS (an abbreviation of its original name, Columbia Broadcasting System), is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainme ...

and

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a subsidiary of Comcast. It is one of NBCUniversal's ...

. In 1986, it was reported she had remarried, living in

Mallorca Mallorca, or Majorca, is the largest of the Balearic Islands, which are part of Spain, and the List of islands in the Mediterranean#By area, seventh largest island in the Mediterranean Sea. The capital of the island, Palma, Majorca, Palma, i ...

for the past 9 years and visiting Germany infrequently.

Filmography

Source: * Toxi (1952) * ''Stars Over Colombo (1953)'' * '' The Dark Star'' (1955) * ''

Two Bavarians in the Harem ''Two Bavarians in the Harem'' () is a 1957 West German comedy film directed by Joe Stöckel and starring Stöckel, Beppo Brem and Christiane Maybach. It was one of three sequels made to the 1956 hit '' Two Bavarians in St. Pauli''.Eppenberger & ...

'' (1957) * ''Our Nifty Aunts (1961)'' * ''The House in Montevideo (1963)'' * ''Our Nifty Aunts in the South Pacific (1963)'' * ''

Our Crazy Aunts in the South Seas ''Our Crazy Aunts in the South Seas'' () is a 1964 Austrian comedy film directed by Rolf Olsen and starring Gunther Philipp, Gus Backus, and Udo Jürgens. It was the final part in a trilogy of films that also included ''Our Crazy Aunts'' and '' ...

'' (1964) * Salto Mortale (1969) * ''NBC Experiment in Television'': ''Color Me German (1969)'' * '' Our Doctor is the Best (1969)'' * ''Half and Half: Mischlinge in Germany (1972)''

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Fiegert, Elfie 1946 births German people of African-American descent Living people