Ralf Wolter

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Ralf Wolter (born November 26, 1926 in Berlin ) is a German actor who played in over 230 film and television productions over a period of over 60 years. He became known to a wide audience through the Karl May films of the 1960s, in which he played May's popular characters Sam Hawkens and Hajji Halef Omar .

Live and act

After graduating from the drama school “Der Kreis” (Fritz-Kirchhoff-Schule), Ralf Wolter, who comes from a family of artists, played at various theaters in Berlin and Potsdam . His passion for humorous texts and music brought him to cabaret .

In 1951 he had his first film appearance in the comedy Die Frauen des Herr S. Wolter was soon considered to be the ideal cast for lovable idiots and clumsy bums, but serious role offers did not materialize. In the following years he was in the comedies and comedies The legs of Dolores , When to see Conny with Peter and Freddy, the guitar and the sea . In 1958 he made a brief appearance as a toilet man in the satirical film We Wunderkinder with the succinct line of text: "We always pee!"

In 1961 Wolter played alongside James Cagney and Horst Buchholz in Billy Wilder's comedy One, Two, Three ( One, Two, Three ), a bald Soviet agent. 1962 he succeeded then by Karl May - Western Treasure of Silver breakthrough. In the first Winnetou film adaptation, Wolter played the likeable trapper Sam Hawkens (constant phrase: "... if I'm not mistaken, hihihi"), the faithful companion of the two heroes Winnetou ( Pierre Brice ) and Old Shatterhand ( Lex Barker ). He also took on this star role in five other movies, all of which are now classics, and in the 14-part television series Mein Freund Winnetou (1980).

In the adventure film Der Schut , which is also based on a novel by Karl May , Wolter portrayed Hajji Halef Omar for the first time in 1964 , whom he also portrayed in the Karl May films Durchs Wilde Kurdistan (1965) and In the Reiche of the Silver Lion (1965 ) played. In the Karl May films The Aztecs Treasure (1965) and the sequel The Pyramid of the Sun God (1965) he was the Swabian cuckoo clock representative Andreas Hasenpfeffer. After the comedy Die Heiden von Kummerow and their funny pranks , the 13-part ZDF series Ein Fall für Titus Bunge , in which Wolter played a private detective as the title character, (both in 1967) and the last Winnetou adventure Winnetou and Shatterhand in the valley of the Toten (1968), his cinema roles, including in various soft sex comedies, became smaller and more banal over time.

From 1975 he was mainly seen in television productions such as Tatort , Der Alte , Ein Schloß am Wörthersee and Coast Guard . In 1991 he worked as Sam Hawkens at the Karl May Festival in Bad Segeberg for the last time with Pierre Brice.

He made headlines when he caused an accident with three fatalities on May 22, 2002 by a risky turning maneuver on the A24 and left the scene of the accident. The then 75-year-old claimed to have noticed nothing of the accident. He was sentenced to ten months' imprisonment on probation for negligent homicide and endangering road traffic.

In 2007 and 2008 Wolter played the role of old Harry Frommermann (founder of the Comedian Harmonists ), who looks back on his life with the “first boy group in the world” in the play Jetzt oder nie - Die Comedian Harmonists of the Freilichtspiele Schwäbisch Hall . He made his last film appearances in two films in which he played patients in a nursing home: Dinosaurs - You look old against us! (2009) and To the horizon, then left! (2012). In 2013 he told Bild-Zeitung in an interview that he had retired from the acting business. At that time he was living with his wife Edith, to whom he had been married since the late 1950s, in his Munich condominium.

Filmography (selection)

synchronization

As voice actor Wolter u. a. William Hickey (Poisonous Snow) , Sidney James (A Simple Story) and Miraculix in Asterix in America cast his voice.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Accident: Was actor Ralf Wolter to blame for the death of three people? ISSN  0174-4909 ( faz.net [accessed December 23, 2019]).
  2. ^ Trials: Ralf Wolter received ten months probation. April 1, 2003, accessed on December 23, 2019 (German).
  3. ↑ What is Winnetou star Ralf Wolter doing? Retrieved December 23, 2019 .
personal data
SURNAME Wolter, Ralf
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German actor
DATE OF BIRTH November 26, 1926
PLACE OF BIRTH Berlin