Michael Gwisdek

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Michael Gwisdek during the opening of the Berlinale 2009

Michael Gwisdek (born January 14, 1942 in Berlin-Weißensee ; † September 22, 2020 ) was a German actor and director .

Life

First years, training and theater

Michael Gwisdek was born in January 1942 as the son of a couple who ran their own restaurant in the Weißensee district of Berlin . After school he graduated from in 1957 at the request of his parents, a training to use advertisers and decorator , he with the skilled workers graduating Accounts. He worked for a year at HO Lebensmittel as a poster painter and decorator in Berlin-Mitte. In 1960 he worked as a representative for boiling water machines in West Berlin. From 1961 to 1963 he initially worked as a buffet in his parents' restaurant , later he was the clubhouse manager of a youth club . At the age of 16, after completing his school education, he found an interest in acting - he wanted to go to Hilde Körber's drama school in West Berlin. Gwisdek later got involved at the Friedrichshain workers' theater and the Klingenberg Dramatic Circle. In addition, he completed a correspondence course in directing at the Leipzig Theater Academy , where he was awarded the qualification as “head of artistic folk creation”. In 1964 he worked as a shipper in a special brigade at the Oberspree transformer factory.

After Gwisdek was initially rejected twice after auditions, he studied from 1965 to 1968 at the State Drama School in Berlin . This was followed by a six-year engagement at the Städtisches Theater Karl-Marx-Stadt, where he played numerous roles in both classic and modern stage productions. His portrayal of Pantalone in Carlo Goldoni's The Servant of Two Masters was particularly well received by audiences and critics. In 1973 director Benno Besson brought him to the Volksbühne Berlin , where he was engaged for ten years. Gwisdek played here in numerous productions by William Shakespeare . In the stage performance As You Like It (1975) he gave the Probstein, in Hamlet (1977) the Horatio or the Bleichenwang in Was ihr wollt (1981). Under Heiner Müller he was in his play Der Bau as Donat, which premiered in 1980, and in his Macbeth adaptation (1982), where he played one of the three Macbeths. He then worked at the Deutsches Theater from 1983 , where he took on the title role in Oscar Wildes Bunbury in 1984 and played the role of teacher in Jean-Paul Sartre's Die Flies in 1987 . In 1991 his engagement ended. Since then he has worked as a freelance actor.

Movie and TV

GDR

Gwisdek also stood in front of the camera parallel to his stage work. In 1968 he made his debut as an SS officer in the Anna Seghers film The Dead Remain Young . He then acted in the DEFA Indian film Trace of the Falcon as a gold prospector and its sequel White Wolves as a terrorist. In the film satire Till Eulenspiegel he was the Landsknecht of Knight Kunz ( Franciszek Pieczka ) and worked for the first time with the director Rainer Simon . In 1976 Kurt Maetzig cast him for his film drama Man against Man in the role of war returnees Michael Mähr, who is married to the same woman as his comrade, which leads to a fatal duel for Michael. In the comedy film Zünd an, es geht die Feuerwehr (1979), his second collaboration with Rainer Simon, he took on the role of Karl Moor. In Simon's contemporary film Jadup and Boel (1980) he played the antiques dealer Gwissen, who made the eponymous mayor Jadup ( Kurt Böwe ) think.

In 1982 he played the conférencier Walter in the Willi Bredel film adaptation of Your Unknown Brother under Ulrich Weiß, who belongs to a resistance group against the National Socialists. The following year he worked again with white for his film Olle Henry , where he took on the title role of former professional boxer Henry Wolters. Gwisdek was honored for his acting performance there with the GDR critics' award “Große Klappe” as “Best Actor”. In 1985 he was seen as the rich banker Jakob Gontard in the Friedrich-Hölderlin film Half of the Life of Herrmann Zschoche .

In 1988 Gwisdek first directed. He directed the historical film Treffen in Travers for DEFA , which earned him the prize for the best film at the 6th National Feature Film Festival of the GDR in 1990 and an invitation to the Cannes Film Festival in 1989. In Heiner Carow's Coming Out , the first GDR film with homosexuality as a theme, Gwisdek was seen on the big screen as the homosexual bar host Achim on the day the Wall fell in November 1989.

After the turn

Michael Gwisdek as Sergeant Zumbühl , 1994

After the fall of the Wall , Gwisdek continued to appear in numerous cinema and television productions and was able to build on his acting successes in the GDR. He also continued to work as a film director. In the chamber play Abschied von Agnes (1994) about the psychological aftermath of the GDR, he wrote the screenplay and played the main role of the unemployed scientist Heiner. In 1998, in his third work as a director, Das Mambospiel (1998), he played the role of the aging actor Martin at the side of his then wife Corinna Harfouch . The film was shown in the competition at the 48th Berlinale.

Roland Gräfs cast him as historian and former senior assistant Dr. Hans Peter Dallow in his GDR-critical drama The Tango Player based on the novel by Christoph Hein . In 1991, Gwisdek was awarded the German Film Prize for “Best Leading Actor” for his performance . In 1994 he played the title role in Urs Odermatt's Wachtmeister Zumbühl . In addition, he has appeared in various episodes of the ARD crime series Tatort since 1996 .

For his acting performance in Andreas Dresen's tragic comedy Nachtgestalten , where he took on the role of businessman Peschke, he received several awards, including a Silver Bear as best actor at the 1999 Berlinale and the Ernst Lubitsch Prize in 2000 .

From 2001 to 2004 he took on the role of lawyer Dr. in the three-part ARD series Marga Engel on television. Henning Gössel. He acted as Stasimann Hedderbogge in the ZDF four-parter Liebesau - The Other Home . He was seen on the big screen in the 2000s, for example as a publisher in Oskar Roehler's Die Unberührbare (2000), as a monk in Zoltan Spirandelli's Vaya con dios (2002), in Wolfgang Becker's Good Bye, Lenin! or in Leander Haußmann's Herr Lehmann (2003). In 2006, elementary particles , where he played Professor Fleißer, started another collaboration with Oskar Roehler.

In 2010 he was seen in the tragic comedy Vater Morgana , in which he played Christian Ulmen's father, Walther Stielike, who had Alzheimer's disease. In the same year he was in Bodo Fürneisen's film adaptation of the fairy tale The Princess and the Pea based on Hans Christian Andersen as king together with his son Robert Gwisdek, who plays his son, the unwilling prince.

In the ZDF crime comedy Schmidt & Schwarz , he played the main male role of Paul Schmidt at the side of his former wife Corinna Harfouch. In the love comedy Jesus loves me (2012) by and with Florian David Fitz , he played God . In 2013 he received his second German Film Prize for his concise supporting role of old Friedrich in Oh Boy by Jan-Ole Gerster , this time in the category “Best Supporting Role”.

In Jan Georg Schuette's improvised ensemble film Alterglow - Speed ​​Dating for Seniors (2014) he played the pensioner Volker Hartmann, who is meeting his roommate Kurt Milan ( Jörg Gudzuhn ) for speed dating in Hamburg-Rahlstedt . In the Christmas tragic comedy Alle unter ein Tanne (2014) he played the role of the divorced doctor Dr. Robert Berger, who hides his new relationship with his office assistant Chrissi ( Johanna Gastdorf ) from his wife.

In the ARD television film Eins ist nicht von dir (2015), he played the former flight captain Uli Becker, whose wife ( Barbara Schöne ) is dying shortly after his retirement and is the last to reveal to him that one of their children is not his.

In 2019 he played, alongside Dennis Mojen in the lead role, in the tragicomic cinema romance Traumfabrik , which satirically treats the film world in the GDR, the role of grandpa Emil.

In 2003 he was one of the founding members of the German Film Academy .

Private

Michael Gwisdek was married to actress Corinna Harfouch from 1984 to 2007 , but separated from her in 1999. From this connection come the sons Johannes Gwisdek (* 1980), composer and member of the band Die Tentakel von Delphi , and Robert Gwisdek (* 1984), who also works as an actor and celebrates successes as a rapper Käptn Peng .

Since July 2007 he was married to the writer Gabriela Gwisdek . He lived in the community of Schorfheide in Brandenburg.

The passionate smoker died on September 22, 2020 after a short serious illness with his family at the age of 78. He left behind his wife and two sons.

Filmography

movie theater

Television (selection)

theatre

Radio plays

Awards

literature

Web links

Commons : Michael Gwisdek  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Warner: Press booklet Jesus loves me , 2012, p. 13: Michael Gwisdek, born in 1942 in Berlin-Weißensee .
  2. ↑ Michael Gwisdek is dead , www.spiegel.de from September 23, 2020
  3. ↑ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y Michael Gwisdek biography at defa-stiftung.de ; accessed on June 4, 2020.
  4. ↑ a b c d e f g Michael Gwisdek , in: Internationales Biographisches Archiv 47/2015 from November 17, 2015, in the Munzinger archive , accessed on November 17, 2015 ( beginning of article freely available)
  5. ↑ Michael Gwisdek turns seventy - from tango player to all-rounder. In: faz.net , Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung , January 14, 2012.
  6. ^ People of the World Online edition of Die Welt, April 28, 2005.
  7. ↑ "Great in his guild" - Woidke touched by the death of actor and director Michael Gwisdek. In: brandenburg.de. September 23, 2020, accessed on September 23, 2020 .
  8. ↑ Mourning the screen star actor - Michael Gwisdek is dead. In: mdr.de. September 23, 2020, accessed on September 23, 2020 .
  9. ↑ Actor Michael Gwisdek died after a serious illness. In: t-online.de. September 23, 2020, accessed on September 23, 2020 .
personal data
SURNAME Gwisdek, Michael
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German actor and director
DATE OF BIRTH January 14, 1942
PLACE OF BIRTH Berlin-Weißensee , German Empire
DATE OF DEATH 22nd September 2020