She was born in Batavia (present-day Jakarta, Indonesia) to a Dutch father, merchant and plantation owner, and a German mother.

Werner was Dutch by birth; although she lived most of her life and spent her career with great successes in Austria and Germany, mainly during the time of the Third Reich.

Arriving in Frankfurt, Germany at the age of 10, Werner's family in 1934 moved to Vienna, where she attended the Max Reinhardt Seminar drama school and gave her debut at the Theater in der Josefstadt in 1937.

She also acted in theatre, worked as a dubbing actor, and recorded numerous songs and whistling performances.

She later lived in a retirement home in Lübeck, where she died peacefully in her sleep on 7 August 2005, having suffered from pneumonia.