Rainer Werner Fassbinder was born on May 31, 1945, in Bad Wörishofen, West Germany. His father was a doctor and his mother was a translator. After his parents' separation, Fassbinder lived with his mother, who would later appear in several of her son’s films under the pseudonym Lilo Pempeit or Liselotte Ender. In 1964, just before his graduation exams, Fassbinder dropped out of school.

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