Michael Mendl

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Michael Mendl at the opening of the Boulevard der Stars , 2010

Michael Mendl (* 20th April 1944 as Michael Sandrock in Luenen ) is a German actor . He is a sought-after character actor .

Life

Mendl was born the illegitimate son of a Catholic priest and the medical student Martha Sandrock. He spent the first five years of his childhood with his mother and relatives partly in the Ruhr area , partly in the Cologne area. In 1949 his mother married the Austrian Ernst Mendl, who adopted him. He spent the first years of school education in Krefeld until the family moved to Ludwigshafen am Rhein in the mid-1950s . Mendl attended a humanistic grammar school in Mannheim and graduated from high school there in 1965 . In the same year he began his studies in theater studies and art history in Vienna , which he regarded as an interim period, because he wanted to become an acting student at the Max Reinhardt Seminar in Vienna. In 1966, however, he went to the Folkwang University in Essen as a student , where he passed the stage maturity examination in 1969.

Mendl has a son from his first marriage and two children from a 20-year relationship with actress Carolin Fink . He has lived in Berlin since the end of this section in 2009 .

career

theatre

He began his acting career when he was 14 as an extra at the National Theater in Mannheim . Engagements at various theaters in Germany followed . He had permanent engagements at the State Theater in Darmstadt , at the State Theater in Stuttgart and at the Bavarian State Theater in Munich .

In the 1980s he played at the Staatstheater Stuttgart, among others, Tillmann in The Villa by Tankred Dorst (first performance 1980; director: Günter Krämer ), Lambacher in The Dusty Rainbow by Hans Henny Jahnn (1982; director: Hansgünther Heyme ), George in Wer hat Scared of Virginia Woolf? (1983; director: Thomas Schulte-Michels ) and the captain in Woyzeck (1986; director: Jossi Wieler ). From 1988 to 1993 he was a permanent member of the ensemble at the Bavarian State Theater. His roles there included Garcin in Closed Society (1988), Marat in The Persecution and Murder of Jean Paul Marat portrayed by the acting group of the Charenton Hospice under the guidance of Mr de Sade (1988), Boris in Children of the Sun by Maxim Gorki (1989), Father in Six People Looking for an Author (1990), Saranieff in The Marquis of Keith by Frank Wedekind (1991) and Burleigh in Maria Stuart (1991); all directed by Thomas Schulte-Michels.

He also appeared at the Münchner Kammerspiele (1981; as Ossip in Platonow ; director: Thomas Langhoff ) as well as at the Düsseldorfer Schauspielhaus , the Schauspielhaus Hamburg and the Volksbühne in West Berlin ; He was also a guest at the Salzburg Festival , as Messala in Julius Caesar (1993; directed by Peter Stein ), as Caesar in Antonius und Cleopatra (1994/1995; directed by Peter Stein), as debt servant in Jedermann (1995; directed by: Gernot Friedel ) and as a tramp in Der Kirschgarten (1995; director: Peter Stein). After many years of absence from the stage, he returned to the stage in September 2013 with the Thomas Bernhard play Before Retirement at the Theater in der Josefstadt in Vienna.

Movie and TV

Since the 1980s he also worked, initially rather sporadically, as a film and television actor. a. 1989 in the crime scene crime thriller Die Neue with Ulrike Folkerts . In 1991 he made his breakthrough in the medium of film with Sönke Wortmann's Kleine Haie . He played Leise Schatten in Sherry Hormann's first work (awarded the Max Ophüls Prize in 1992 ). Shortly before, the Residenztheater in Munich had given him notice. In 1994 he decided to only work as a film and television actor.

As a film actor in the drama genre, he played psychopaths, criminals, prison inmates, but more often high officials, doctors and officers, such as in the Oscar-nominated film Der Untergang the general of the artillery Helmuth Weidling , in Die Gustloff Kapitän Johannsen, in So Far Die Feet carry (2001) the camp doctor and escape helper Dr. Stauffer, in Amen (director: Costa-Gavras) the high church functionary Cardinal Monsignore Hudal, the former Federal Chancellor Willy Brandt in Im Schatten der Macht , (2004) and most recently in Karol Wojtyla - Secrets of a Pope (TV, director: Gero von Boehm, 2006) Pope John Paul II.

His interpretation by Willy Brandt received a lot of praise in the multi-part television program Im Schatten der Macht over the life of the former Federal Chancellor , for which Mendl was awarded the Golden Camera in 2004 as best German actor. In 1997 he was nominated for the German Film Prize and in 1998 for the Bavarian Film Prize .

Mendl often plays intelligent leaders with an honorable character profile, identification figures. He also embodies down-to-earth characters like the farmer Moser in Es happened in bright day (director: Nico Hofmann, 1997) or Nulf in Schlafes Bruder (director: Joseph Vilsmaier , 1995). In comedies he often takes on the role of the charming older husband ( Eine Chance für die Liebe , TV, 2006). But he also often portrays shady characters, such as a criminal company boss, an unscrupulous head of authorities or an SS officer.

In order to support the next generation in film, Mendl took on one of the leading roles in Moritz Boll's road movie Elise and waived any fee.

Radio plays and dubbing

Michael Mendl has appeared in numerous radio plays, in Krabat (produced by WDR in 2010), Doktor Faustus after Thomas Mann in Karl May: The Orient Cycle and, most recently, in the audio book Es wird Dichruf by Simon Cross (published in February 2012).

In 2013 the animated film The Cold Heart based on Wilhelm Hauff was released , in which Mendl spoke the English version.

As a voice actor he lent his voice to F. Murray Abraham in Forrester: Found , Rob Reiner in Sleepless in Seattle , Stellan Skarsgård in King Arthur , Timothy Dalton in The Whore of the King and Rolf Lassgård in Ella's Secret .

social commitment

Michael Mendl has been a mentor for the LILALU project since 2000 .

Since 2003 he has been involved with Faszination Regenwald e. V. u. a. in French Guiana . A WDR documentary titled My Life on a Silk Thread was created in 2007 about this commitment .

Since November 2008, Mendl has also been the patron of the Gegen Noma e. V. to combat the childhood disease Noma .

From 2011 he was also involved in various campaigns for the neighborhood center “Soup Kitchen Lichtenrade eV” in Berlin.

He is the ambassador for the SOS Children's Villages .

Filmography (selection)

Radio plays

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Kieler Nachrichten / Gunda Meyer: "Elise" celebrated its heart and soul premiere. In: KN Online. Kieler Nachrichten, March 20, 2016, accessed on May 24, 2020 .
  2. ↑ Brief portrait of Michael Mendl on wdr.de
  3. ↑ Fascination Rainforest eV . Michael Mendl's commitment to the rainforest
  4. ^ Against Noma eV . Michael Mendl's commitment as patron of the Gegen Noma eV association
  5. ↑ Here Mendl is cooking a chili con hero . BZ of March 16, 2011.
personal data
SURNAME Mendl, Michael
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Sandrock, Michael (birth name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German actor
DATE OF BIRTH April 20, 1944
PLACE OF BIRTH Luenen