Pierre Brice

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Pierre Brice in November 2011 (Photo François Besch )
Pierre Brice (2005)
Pierre Brice (2004)

Pierre Brice , actually Pierre Louis Baron Le Bris (born February 6, 1929 in Brest ; † June 6, 2015 near Paris ), was a French actor who was mainly known for the portrayal of Winnetou in the Karl May films of the 1960s got known.

Life

youth

Pierre Brice, son of a naval officer, grew up in Brest and experienced the Second World War there . According to his own statements, he helped rescue the injured after the Allied bombing in 1944 . He also served as a messenger boy for the Resistance .

Military service and early films

At the age of 19, Brice volunteered for the Commando Marine and served as a soldier in the Indochina War . There he survived a mine explosion that triggered his team, almost unharmed. Later he was a paratrooper in the Algerian war .

After some appearances as a photo model and dancer, he began his acting career. France, however, had no shortage of young actors at the time. In addition, he looked very much like his friend Alain Delon , who had already established himself as a star in French film. Brice then went to Italy and Spain and acted there in numerous sandals , coat and epee and also in some B-films .

Discovery by Horst Wendlandt

On the occasion of the premiere of the Spanish film Los Atracadores, for which Brice was later awarded Best Supporting Actor, he visited the Berlin Film Festival in 1962 and was discovered there by producer Horst Wendlandt , who shortly afterwards gave him the role of Apache chief Winnetou in his Karl-May -Film adaptation of the treasure in the silver lake offered. Brice knew neither the author Karl May nor the character he was supposed to portray and only accepted after his then Yugoslav agent Olga Horstig had persuaded him to do so. He was also skeptical, because he didn't like the American western image of Indians, which always only showed the losing side of the Indians and they seemed defenseless to Brice. He had difficulty riding, but this was where the western rider Lex Barker , who had owned a horse as a child, helped . Brice was enthusiastic about his costume and his horse and was proud to be able to play alongside the star Lex Barker, but also increasingly disappointed by the low acting potential (too little text and too serious expression), which in his opinion emanated from the role. He did not expect any great success for himself, as he could not estimate the significance of the figure at that time due to ignorance of the German writer Karl May and his works. So he was all the more surprised by the audience's praise at the premiere of the film. The French actor's genteel restraint was seen as the key to the success of his character.

Winnetou

Pierre Brice as Winnetou at the Karl May Festival in Elspe (around 1978)

From 1962 to 1968 Brice played the role of Winnetou in a total of eleven Karl May films , seven of them on the side of the American Lex Barker , three with Stewart Granger and one with Rod Cameron . This made him a star in Germany. The youth magazine Bravo , whose reporting accompanied the shooting of each film, contributed significantly to its cult status . Pierre Brice in the character of Winnetou became the idol of an entire generation and received twelve Otto's from the magazine . Since 1965 it has been designed in the form of a small Indian statue that should remind of Winnetou. In addition, three star cuts (1964, 1967 and 1977) were dedicated to him, which was a uniqueness in Bravo history.

His film death in the role of Winnetou in 1965 triggered a unique wave of protests due to his fame in German cinema history, which prompted the producer, troubled by threatening letters, to start shooting another film that revived the most popular Indian in the Federal Republic .

In allusion to his popularity through this role and his aristocratic origin, the film producer Artur Brauner later jokingly referred to him as the "red baron". The leading actors of the Karl May film series, Pierre Brice and Lex Barker, were also friends privately until Barker's death in 1973, while the working atmosphere with Granger developed so badly that the two only communicated with each other on the set professionally limited to the bare essentials.

Time after the Karl May wave

In 1975 he played in the Italian-French comedy The Doll of the Gangster (La pupa del gangster) on the side of Marcello Mastroianni and Sophia Loren . In between he played theater in Paris again and again. Appearances on television were rare, you saw Brice in the science fiction series production The Girls from Space , in guest appearances in entertainment shows or in children's programs, often in his costume from the Karl May films.

After promising roles failed to materialize, the Karl May Festival in Elspe in the Sauerland gave him the opportunity to play the Winnetou role there again. Suddenly, with the Indian role, success was back and everyone was talking about Pierre Brice. In Elspe he played Winnetou from 1976 to 1980 and 1982 to 1986. Brice's engagement was a stroke of luck for the natural stage, and over the years more than 3.5 million viewers have been lured to the small town in the Sauerland, particularly because of his name. The stage in Elspe, which even before the performances by Pierre Brice had a similarly high audience figure as the Karl May Games in Bad Segeberg, gained significantly in national acquaintance. The main actor and the team also had guest appearances in some large cities, for example in the Wiener Stadthalle .

The WDR took advantage of the resurgent Winnetou boom in 1979 and produced the television series Mein Freund Winnetou in a co-production with Antenne-Paris at original locations in Mexico, which showed another Winnetou who was realistic in costumes, equipment and appearance, who did not reach the German audience. was received very benevolently in his French homeland. A planned sequel was no longer realized in view of the reluctant reaction of the German audience to the unusually authentic depiction of the Indian figure.

A stage show co-financed by Brice with a Winnetou play, which was performed in a giant tent unique in Europe, had to be canceled by the organizers in 1981 due to lack of money. Mismanagement and organizational errors led to a financial catastrophe, the effects of which also had to be borne by Brice, who returned to the Sauerland. When the organizer in Elspe refused to give in to Brice's request and perform pieces according to his own ideas, they separated amicably in 1986. The stage in Schleswig-Holstein used this opportunity and engaged Brice, who was given the opportunity to use his exposés on the stage from 1988 to 1991. At the Karl May Games in Bad Segeberg he appeared alongside Ralf Wolter until he finally took off his leather suit at the age of 62. In 1999 he directed again in Bad Segeberg.

Appearances in the theater and in series

After the cinema successes as Winnetou, he played in front of the German audience in boulevard theater comedies or in shallow TV productions such as Ein Schloß am Wörthersee or Die Hütte am See or appeared in between popular TV series such as Das Traumschiff . In 1997, ZDF had Winnetou "resurrected" for the television production Winnetous Returns (Part 1 and 2). However, this project received scathing reviews from Karl May fan circles. In 2004 he was seen in a supporting role in the Swiss television soap Lüthi und Blanc .

In France, Pierre Brice was almost unknown (in 1960 he had a brief appearance alongside Catherine Deneuve in L'homme à femmes and in 1990 a guest role in the series Orages d'été ). In 1974, he played Mike (the new pilot) alongside Marie-Georges Pascal in the series A girl falls from the sky .

Brice as an author

Three books on open-air performances of the Karl May Games in Bad Segeberg were written by Pierre Brice:

Pierre Brice wrote his biography Winnetou and Me, which was published in late September 2004. He explained:

“Before anyone writes a biography about me, I decided to write my own life story as an autobiography. Few people know how I lived and am before and since Winnetou. Winnetou has been an important part of my life and I owe him a lot. But besides Winnetou, many other people and situations have played an important and formative role in my life. "

Encouraged by the success of his autobiography, he now also tried his hand at writing a novel. As an author, he had previously only written exposés or pieces, the elements of which were subsequently used in plays in Bad Segeberg or in the Winnetou television productions. His appearances on television were recently limited to singing performances or interview appearances for documentary programs about the Karl May films.

Voice actor

In the Karl May films, Pierre Brice was predominantly spoken by Thomas Eckelmann for German-speaking countries . In Schatz im Silbersee he was dubbed by Herbert Stass . The actor Christian Wolff did the dubbing in the film Winnetou I./Old Shatterhand . Thomas Danneberg dubbed Brice in Winnetou and his friend Old Firehand, Christian Brückner took on this role in the television series Mein Freund Winnetou . Brice was not dubbed on the open-air stage in Elspe. He learned his text in German. In the years that followed, the French mastered the German language better and better, and the dubbing was abandoned. In the TV version of Winnetou's return (parts 1 and 2), Brice's French accent is clearly noticeable. Pierre Brice himself reads the audio book version of his autobiography published by Lübbe Audio, and here again his accent can be heard.

Pierre Brice as a singer

Chart positions
Explanation of the data
Singles
I stand alone
  DE 9 05/01/1965 (12 weeks)
  AT 8th 06/15/1965 (4 weeks)

Like his friend Lex Barker, Pierre Brice also took up various music titles as a singer from around 1965. He was a bit more productive than Lex Barker, who only managed two pieces of music.

The composer Martin Böttcher also arranged and recorded the first recordings for Pierre Brice .

  • I stand alone / Ribanna (1965), Decca D 19 557 (mono)
  • Nobody knows the day / Beautiful (1966), Decca, D 19 560
  • You are beautiful (1967)
  • Lonely / The Night Begins (1967)
  • Paris (1969, for the television show Nightclub, not released)
  • Winnetou, You Were My Friend / My Red Brothers (1971), Barclay
  • Faire l'amour / You can't give more than anything (1976)
  • When Men Dream (1977, for TV show Snack , not released)
  • Manitou / Friendship (1980)
  • Brother where are you going (1983, for the television program Wunderland , released on the LP for the show)
  • We are the world / what was will always be (1991)
  • Feelings (album, 1995)
  • La vie en rose / C'est si bon (2000, from the play Barefoot in the Park )
  • Mon cœur, je t'aime tant (2005, album Die Leichtigkeit des Seins by Paloma Würth )
  • The clown for the television program Herbstfest der Volksmusik (originally by Heinz Rühmann )
  • You are my great love (2007)

The sampler Winnetou you were my friend (1996, Bear Family Records, with stereo recordings of the tracks released in mono on single) contains several songs sung by Brice and also the vocal performances of Lex Barker.

Private and social engagement

Brice made no secret of his conservative political stance. His friends included the CDU / CSU politicians Christian Schwarz-Schilling and Theo Waigel . Brice often campaigned for charitable causes , especially through his work as a UNICEF ambassador . His aid convoy to Bosnia in 1995 was spectacular, which he led personally and which led him through areas that were still partly contested . In 1992 he received the Federal Cross of Merit 1st Class and in 2007 he was made a Knight of the Legion of Honor . The award was given to him in the French embassy in Berlin in recognition of his services to Franco-German friendship .

Brice also got involved in Romania for street dogs and brown bears. On several visits, including in Braşov and Zărneşti , he used his celebrities for animal welfare. In 2006, for example, he opened the bear reserve in Zărneşti and, together with the Brigitte Bardot Foundation, called for domestic animals to be neutered .

The avowed French patriot and passionate hobby cook lived with his wife Hella, née Krekel, from Amberg , for 30 years in the hunting lodge Domaine des Moinets in Crépy-en-Valois in Picardy, north of Paris . They had been in a relationship since 1976 and married since 1981. He planned to move to Bavaria for the sake of his wife.

Sickness and death

Brice's grave in Graefelfing

On the evening of June 5, 2015, Pierre Brice was admitted to a hospital near Paris with a high fever, where he died on the morning of June 6, 2015 at the age of 86 of complications from pneumonia . After a funeral service on June 18, 2015 in Munich's Michaelskirche , he was buried the following day in the municipal cemetery of Graefelfing , district of Munich .

Awards

Pierre Brice also received twelve BRAVO Otto's (1964–1972 and one annually 1976–1978) and five Bambis (1964, 1967, 1968, 1987, 1990).

Filmography

literature

  • Michael Petzel: Pierre Brice - Unforgettable Winnetou. Karl-May-Verlag, Bamberg 2015, ISBN 978-3-7802-3075-1 .
  • Reinhard Weber: The Karl May Films. 3. Edition. Specialized publisher for film literature, Landshut Oct. 2018, ISBN 978-3-943127-08-9 .

Web links

Commons : Pierre Brice  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Laurence Guilmo: Décès de Pierre Brice. Le Brestois était star en Allemagne. In: ouest-france.fr. June 6, 2015, accessed June 6, 2015 (French).
  2. ↑ Ralph Geisenhanslüke : Pierre Brice: "Winnetou and I fought for the same values: justice and freedom". In: ZEITmagazin Nº 13/2011. Zeit Online , March 27, 2011, accessed June 6, 2015 .
  3. ↑ Kirsten Gregor: Interview with the "Chief of Hearts": Pierre Brice ( Memento from September 24, 2015 in the Internet Archive ). In: starshoch2.de, October 26, 2010, accessed on June 6, 2015 (recorded on July 6, 2010 in Cuxhaven on the occasion of the summer theater).
  4. ↑ Peter Luley: Pierre Brice: The man who was Winnetou. In: Spiegel Online . December 26, 2007, accessed June 6, 2015 .
  5. ↑ a b Visit to Pierre Brice - Rothaut retired. (No longer available online.) In: Spiegel Online - one day . February 18, 2011, archived from the original on February 21, 2011 ; Retrieved June 7, 2015 .
  6. ↑ Pierre Brice Songs. In: Chartsurfer.de. Retrieved March 18, 2018 .
  7. ^ Maria Wiesner: Winnetou's estate. "I keep Pierre's pictures to myself". Interview with Hella Brice. In: FAZ.net , updated on November 6, 2015, accessed on March 28, 2020.
  8. ↑ Once a chief, always a chief. The "famous stranger". In: orf.at. ORF , June 7, 2015, accessed on June 7, 2015 .
  9. ^ MZ: Pierre Brice: Farewell in St. Michael. In: tz.de. tz , June 11, 2015, accessed June 12, 2015 .
  10. ↑ Winnetou funeral: Pierre Brice is buried here in Graefelfing. In: Abendzeitung-muenchen.de. AZ , June 19, 2015, accessed June 23, 2015 .
  11. ↑ The grave of Pierre Brice. knerger.de, Klaus Nerger, accessed on March 28, 2020 (private website).
personal data
SURNAME Brice, Pierre
ALTERNATIVE NAMES de Bris, Pierre Louis Baron (real name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION French actor
DATE OF BIRTH February 6, 1929
PLACE OF BIRTH Brest , France
DATE OF DEATH June 6, 2015
Place of death near Paris , France