Ernst Schröder (27 January 1915 – 26 July 1994) was a popular German theatre, film and TV actor.
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Ernst Schröder | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | 27 January 1915 |
| Died | 26 July 1994 (aged 79) Berlin, Germany |
| Years active | 1934–1992 |
| Spouse(s) | Inge Thiesfeld (1937-1945) (divorced) (2 children) Gesa Ferck (1946-?) (1 child) |
Life
Born in Herne, Schröder began his acting career at the nearby Bochum Theatre in 1934, under the director Saladin Schmitt. He worked there until 1936, also working as assistant director and Stage Designer. After working at Bielefeld and Wuppertal, he moved to the Schiller Theatre in Berlin in 1938, which became his artistic home and the location of his greatest triumphs, particularly after the Second World War.
During the war he served briefly in the army, was wounded, and returned to the Schiller Theatre in 1942. When in 1944 the theatre was closed, he returned to serve in the army, and ended the war in Italy as a prisoner. He returned to the theatre in 1946 and rapidly re-established his reputation.
He was a member of the jury at the 7th Berlin International Film Festival in 1957.[1]
He was considered one of the greatest character actors of the German theatre, enjoying larger than life roles. He was frequently compared with the pre-war star Heinrich George. In addition, he frequently acted in Zurich and Munich. Although he concentrated on stage work, both as actor and director, he occasionally appeared in film roles, most notably as German General Hans von Salmuth in the 1962 film The Longest Day.
He achieved broader popularity in the 1970s, appearing more frequently on television, particularly in crime shows like Derrick and Der Alte.
In 1980, his daughter, the actress Christiane Schröder (18 January 1942 – 17 September 1980), committed suicide by jumping off the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco.
In 1981, he staged a production of Shakespeare's King Lear at the Bad Hersfeld Festival. At the end of the 1980s he returned to television in the role of 'Lauritz Lorentz' in the series of Lorentz & Söhne (Lorentz and Sons).
In 1991–92, he appeared as the narrator in a dramatised radio version of The Lord of the Rings.
Throughout his career, Schröder also dubbed the voices of popular English-speaking actors into German. Amongst others, he provided the voices for Charles Boyer, James Cagney, William Conrad, Rex Harrison, Herbert Lom, Spencer Tracy and Peter Ustinov.
At the age of 79, Schröder was diagnosed with cancer at a Berlin hospital. He committed suicide on 26 July 1994 by jumping out of a window.
Theatre
| Year | Title | Role | Author | Director | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1937/38 | Clavigo | Clavigo | Johann Wolfgang von Goethe | ||
| 1938/39 | Konig Heinrich IV | Prinz Heinrich | William Shakespeare | Ernst Legal | |
| 1946 | Die Räuber | Karl Moor | Friedrich Schiller | Walter Felsenstein | |
| Fraulein Julie | August Strindberg | Ernst Schröder | |||
| Boubouroche | Georges Courteline | Ernst Schröder | |||
| 1948 | Caligula | Title role | Albert Camus | ||
| 1950 | Don Carlos | Domingo | Friedrich Schiller | Fritz Kortner | |
| 1952 | Urfaust | Mephisto | Goethe | Willi Schmidt | |
| 1953 | Die Räuber | Karl Moor | Friedrich Schiller | Hans Lietzau | |
| Tartuffe | Title role | Molière | O.F. Schuh | ||
| 1954 | Der zerbrochene Krug | Dorfrichter Adam | Heinrich von Kleist | O.F. Schuh | |
| Warten auf Godot | Wladimir | Samuel Beckett | Fritz Kortner | with Heinz Rühmann | |
| 1958 | Richard III | Title role | Shakespeare | Leopold Lindtberg | |
| Biedermann und die Brandstifter | Schmitzi | Max Frisch | Oskar Wälterlin | ||
| 1961 | Die Echten Sedemunds | Der alte Sedemund | Ernst Barlach | Hans Lietzau | |
| Andorra | Lehrer | Max Frisch | Kurt Hirschfeld | World premiere | |
| 1962 | Graf Öderland | Prosecutor | Max Frisch | Hans Lietzau | |
| 1963 | Herkules und der Stall des Augias | Friedrich Dürrenmatt | World premiere | ||
| 1964 | Christian Maske, 1913 | Carl Sternheim | |||
| Marat/Sade | Marquis de Sade | Peter Weiss | Konrad Swinarski | World premiere | |
| 1965 | Die Wanze | Prisipkin | Wladimir Majakowski | Konrad Swinarski | |
| 1966 | Faust II | Mephisto | Goethe | Ernst Schröder | |
| 1967 | Endspiel | Hamm | Samuel Beckett | Samuel Beckett | |
| Die Wiedertaufer | Bockelson | Friedrich Dürrenmatt | Werner Düggelin | World premiere | |
| 1968 | Die Trauung | Vater | Witold Gombrowicz | Ernst Schröder | |
| 1973 | Lear | Title role | Edward Bond | Hans Lietzau | |
| 1983 | Über allen Gipfeln ist Ruh | Moritz Meister | Thomas Bernhard | Kurt Hübner | Volksbühne production |
Filmography
Television
| Year | Title | Role | Author | Director | Also Starring | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1960 | Abendstunde im Spätherbst | Maximilian Friedrich Korbes | Friedrich Dürrenmatt | Rudolf Noelte | ||
| 1962 | Life of Galileo | Galileo Galilei | Bertolt Brecht | Egon Monk | ||
| The Beaver Coat | Von Wehrhahn | Gerhart Hauptmann | John Olden | Inge Meysel | ||
| 1976 | Derrick | Werner Solms | Herbert Reinecker | Alfred Weidenmann | Mathieu Carrière | |
| Dr. Scheibnitz | Herbert Reinecker | Dietrich Haugk | Hans Stetter | |||
| 1978 | Die Eingesschlossenen | Jean-Paul Sartre | Pinkas Braun | Judy Winter and Uwe Friedrichsen | ||
| 1983 | Derrick | Professor Rotheim | Herbert Reinecker | Theodor Grädler | Gisela Stein | |
| 1984 | Mrs. Harris - Freund mit Rolls Royce | Sir Wilmot | Paul Gallico | Georg Tressler | Inge Meysel, Edith Volkmann and Eberhard Feik | |
| 1985 | A Crime of Honour a.k.a. A Song for Europe | Herr Direktor | Peter Prince | John Goldschmidt | David Suchet and Maria Schneider | |
| 1988 | Lorentz & Söhne | Lauritz Lorentz | Claus Peter Witt | Heli Finkenzeller, Hans Korte and Gerd Baltus | ||
| 1992 | Derrick - Die Festmenüs des Herrn Borgelt | Herbert Reinecker | ||||
| 1992 | Rochade | Melkovic | Ladislav Mňačko | Peter Patzak | Michael York and Iris Berben | (final film role) |
References
External links
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