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Not only a versatile actress in film, theatre and television, but also a socially committed woman, Bibi Besch had a particularly intense and interesting life. A real source of pride for her native Austria.
Actress, activist, benefactress
A graceful face and elegant bearing. Blonde hair and blue eyes that immediately caught the attention of anyone who met her. She was the actress Bibi Besch, best known to the audience for her role in the feature film Star Trek II – The Wrath of Khan (Nicholas Meyer, 1982), where she played Dr Carol Marcus, but who, in the course of her forty-two-year career, has played over a hundred roles in film, television and theatre.
Bibi Besch, therefore, was one of those talents coming directly from Austria, who have been successful far from their homeland. In her case, therefore, it was the United States that welcomed her when she was still a child and made her world-famous in the years to come. Born in Vienna on February 1, 1942, Bibiana Maria Köchert was the daughter of the Burgtheater (and later Broadway) actress Gusti Huber and the racing driver Gotfrid Köchert, who served as a pilot for the Wehrmacht during World War II.
Her parents divorced when she was still very young and, during the war, Bibi stayed in Vienna with her mother and older sister Christiana, before moving to the United States (specifically to Chappaqua, New York) as early as 1946. Here her mother remarried radio executive Joseph Besch, from whom Huber’s daughters later took their surname. Passionate about acting from a very young age, Bibi soon dropped out of the Connecticut College for Women and moved to New York hoping to become an actress.
After a television debut in an episode of NBC’s Children Theatre show, Bibi Besch got her first film role in 1975, when she took part in the feature film Distance, directed by Anthony Lover. From then on, the actress’s career was definitely full of satisfaction, not only in the world of the seventh art, but also in television and theatre. Remaining in the film sphere, apart from Star Trek II – The Wrath of Khan, some of the most noteworthy films in which Bibi Besch took part include Hardcore (Paul Schrader, 1979), Who’s that Girl (James Foiley, 1987), He’s my Girl (Gabrielle Beaumont, 1987), Steel Magnolias (Herbert Ross, 1989) and Tremors (Ron Underwood, 1990).
Not only a versatile actress in film, theatre and television, but also a socially committed woman, Bibi Besch had a particularly intense and interesting life: from her marriage to the civil rights activist and US government official Donald B. Mathis (from whom she divorced in 1973) her daughter Samantha Mathis, also an actress, was born. In addition to being a member of the Screen Actors Guild Council for many years, Bibi was interested in the safeguarding of women in the working world and supported numerous associations in the field of preventive medicine. She passed away on September 7, 1996. The actress was, therefore, a source of pride for her native Austria. Even though she hardly ever returned to her homeland.