Franz Messner (actor)

Franz Messner (born July 19, 1926 in Vienna ; † June 11, 1968 there ) was an Austrian actor and director .

Life

Franz Messner initially completed an apprenticeship as a locksmith before he was drafted into military service at the age of less than 18. After deserting shortly before the end of the Second World War and making his way to Vienna, he joined an amateur theater group and got a job as an errand boy for a cabaret troupe, whose director blocked his wish to participate with the advice that he had to pass the entrance exam beforehand try at the Max Reinhardt Seminar , which he passed. From 1946 to 1949 he studied at the renowned Viennese drama school, which was followed by an engagement at the Theater in der Josefstadt , of which he was a member of the ensemble until his death in 1968.

His greatest successes included a. Samuel Kiefer in Karl Wittlinger's “Do you know the Milky Way?” (1958), the dog Of in Paul Willems' “Of und der Mond” (1959), the Behringer in Eugène Ionesco's “ The Rhinos ” (1960), and Ferdinand Neubauer in Hans Schubert's “With Best Recommendations” (1961), the tarragon in Samuel Beckett's “ Waiting for Godot ” (1962) and the glowing hammer in Johann Nestroy's “ Der Zerrissene ” (1967).

Franz Messner directed the following productions at the Theater in der Josefstadt:

• One-act evening "Problems in Italian" 1966 in the Konzerthauskeller (then part of "Josefstadt"),
• Cats tongues by Miguel Mihura 1966 in the Kammerspiele ,
• "Differences of opinion" by George Ross and Campbell Singer in 1967 in Josefstadt,
• “The big ABC” by Marcel Pagnol in 1967 in Josefstadt.

Another directorial work, the production "Forty Karat" by Pierre Barillet and Jean-Pierre Grédy, which premiered in 1968 in Josefstadt, Franz Messner could no longer complete.

In addition to numerous tours, including with Henrik Ibsen's " Gespenstern ", where he played Osvald (with Helene Thimig as Mrs. Alving, whose favorite student he was at the Reinhardt Seminar), he appeared in film and later television productions from the very beginning. so in " Cordula " (1950), "Starfish" (1952) and "The King of Bernina" (1957) as well as Dr. Otto Sedelmayer in some episodes of the " Leitner family ".

On June 7, 1968, he had his last Josefstadt premiere as Ferdinando in Carlo Goldoni's “Die Trilogie der Sommerfrische”. Franz Messner died four days later as a result of poisoning. He was buried at the Grinzinger Friedhof (group 24, row 6, number 9).

Web links

• Franz Messner in the Internet Movie Database (English)

Individual evidence

1. ^ Welt am Monday, June 27, 1949, p. 3ff.