Fita Benkhoff

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Comradeship evening on the occasion of the meeting of the Reichsfilmkammer in the comradeship of German artists in Berlin on March 4, 1938; From left Fita Benkhoff, Ewald von Demandowsky and Hilde Krüger , photo from the Federal Archives

Frieda Elfriede "Fita" Benkhoff (born November 1, 1901 in Dortmund , †  October 26, 1967 in Munich ) was a German stage and film actress .

Life

Fita Benkhoff was born on November 1st, 1901 in Dortmund. She was the seventh of eight children of the innkeeper Christian Alex Gustav Benkhoff and his wife Maria Bernardine Marcus. The parents ran the Walhalla, one of the largest entertainment establishments in Dortmund. Fita Benkhoff first attended the girls' lyceum , then worked in the Grafenhof of her brother Paul, became a dental assistant and was then a telephone operator in a trading company. During this time she secretly took acting lessons from Emil Bender. In 1924 she became a volunteer at the Dortmund City Theater and was seen in the role of the page in Don Carlos . This was followed by appearances as the doll queen in Suse Schmutzfink's adventure , as Recha in Nathan the Wise and finally as Tschang-Haitang in the Kreidekreis . She moved to Lübeck , where she played Gretchen in Faust , Desdemona in Othello and Saint Johanna in the play of the same name . From Lübeck she went to Düsseldorf to join Louise Dumont's ensemble . Called "our little Madonna with the pure charisma", she was cast in corresponding roles. Further engagements in Wroclaw and Vienna followed .

In 1933 she appeared for the first time in a small role in the flick The pugnacious Mr. Kickel . When a role as a strange old woman in the film Die Medaille was available at UFA , Fita Benkhoff made a quick decision to apply. This role established her reputation as a comedian and she received many similar roles as a result. Her first big appearance in the film was the servant Andria in the film adaptation of Amphitryon , followed by the Opera Ball , Black Hunter Johanna and a number of social comedies. Fita Benkhoff had almost exclusively supporting roles, mostly she played best friend, aunt or the mother of the leading actress. Alongside Grethe Weiser , she was considered one of the funniest supporting actresses in German film. She had one of her few leading roles alongside Karl Schönböck in 1944 in the comedy film I have dreamed of you . Parallel to her work in film, she continued to play roles at the Volksbühne Berlin and the Deutsches Theater . Here she celebrated her greatest stage success as Klara in Hebbel's Maria Magdalena .

After the Second World War, she moved to Hamburg, where she first appeared at the Schauspielhaus . She also got roles in film again, for example in 1949 as Mother Wolffen in the DEFA film adaptation of Biberfurz ' . But she returned to the comic subject and was seen in a leading role in Three Girls from the Rhine in 1955 . She had other roles in, among others, In Munich there is a Hofbräuhaus , The thief of Baghdad , The women of Mr S. , Pension Schöller , When the heath dreams in the evening , On the Reeperbahn at half past twelve , the robbery of the Sabine women and When the father comes along the son . In addition, she also appeared at the theater, including in Berlin at the Hebbel Theater .

Unusually for an actress, Fita Benkhoff signed a petition in the 1950s against the rearmament, which was planned and later carried out, but which polarized the population of Germany . After the death of her husband, the businessman Wilhelm Strom, in 1957, she almost completely withdrew from public life. She moved from her house in Berg to an apartment in Munich . She started to paint.

She played her last role in 1967 at the Theater an der Leopoldstrasse in the black comedy Arsen und Spitzenhäubchen .

Fita Benkhoff appeared in a total of 113 films. She often stood at the side of famous colleagues, including Heinz Rühmann and Hans Albers . In 1967 she was awarded a Bambi .

Fita Benkhoff died on October 26, 1967 at the age of 65 in Munich after a brief, serious illness. She was buried in the family crypt in the south-west cemetery in Dortmund .

Filmography (selection)

Radio plays

literature

  • Hanne Hieber: Benkhoff, Frieda Elfriede (Fita) . In: Hans Bohrmann (Ed.): Biographies of important Dortmunders. People in, from and for Dortmund . tape 3 . Klartext, Essen 2001, ISBN 3-88474-954-4 , p. 17th ff .
  • Volker Jakob: Fita Benkhoff: star of the supporting role. Memories of the UFA idol from Dortmund . In: Westfälischer Heimatbund, Landesverkehrsverband Westfalen (Hrsg.): Westfalenspiegel . tape 55 , no. 5 . Ardey, October 2006, ISSN  0508-5942 , p. 58 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. Hans-Michael Körner (Ed.) Large Bavarian Biographical Encyclopedia, Vol. 1, KS Saur Munich 2005, p. 143