Thiess began her career on the stage in her native Germany and by dubbing female voices in American films as Ursula Schmidt.

After that, she returned to do acting on stage, where she met and married her first husband, German film producer Georg Otto Thiess.

Her unusual beauty caught the eye of Howard Hughes, who made her a contract offer to join RKO Studios.

Ursula's two children, Manuela and Michael, had many adjustment problems adapting to their new life, and were often in trouble with the police, causing the family to suffer bad publicity as a result.

Her son, Michael, who had served a year in a German prison for attempting to poison his natural father, died of a drug overdose on May 26, 1969, shortly before Robert Taylor's own death.