Susanne Lothar was born in Hamburg, Germany. She was the daughter of actors Hanns Lothar and Ingrid Andree, who divorced in 1965. She studied drama at the Hochschule fur Theater und Musik in Hamburg. For her first film Strange Fruits in 1983, she received the German Federal Film Prize. With Ulrich Muhe, she appeared as the victimized married couple in the original version of Michael Haneke`s Funny Games released in 1997. Lothar worked again with Haneke as Mrs. Schober in The Piano Teacher (2001) and in The White Ribbon (2009). Her three films with Haneke were shown at the Cannes Film Festival. She also worked in The Reader (2008) alongside Kate Winslet. She passed away on 21 July 2012.