Rudi Carrell

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Rudi Carrell (1980)

Rudi Carrell , bourgeois Rudolf Wijbrand Kesselaar (born December 19, 1934 in Alkmaar , † July 7, 2006 in Bremen ), was a Dutch showmaster , singer and actor . André Carrell's son had shows on Dutch and German television, including one of the most famous entertainment shows on German television of the 1970s, Amlaufband . From 1965 he lived with interruptions in Germany.

As an amateur

First appearance

Carrell had his first stage appearance on the day before his 14th birthday. On a school night for students, parents and interested Alkmaar he was the master of ceremonies through the program. It was such a great success that it was allowed to present all subsequent school evenings. At a performance of Het gulden Vlies ( The golden fleece ) by the school theater group in the Alkmaar Theater in 1949, Carrell's play was described by the local newspaper Alkmaarsche Courant with "highest professionalism". The director of the Carrell Theater then allowed all performances to be watched free of charge from a high balustrade .

Paris visit

Carrell left school at the age of 15 and initially worked as a harvest helper in order to be able to afford a three-month visit to Paris, where he mainly watched the passers-by on the streets. He was impressed by how a single decoration was varied in the Lido by adding a dance floor from above or adding a waterfall. In February 1951 Carrell began an apprenticeship at the Hoornschen Crédit- und Effektenbank in Alkmaar, which he did not finish.

With his father

In November 1952 he moved to his father and worked as a secretary and assistant for his ensemble. Occasionally he made small appearances.

Beginnings as a professional artist

Rudi Carrell in the Olympic Stadium Amsterdam , 1960
Rudi Carrell with his father in 1960
At events

As a professional artist, Carrell first appeared on October 17, 1953 in the Arnhem Musis Sacrum concert hall . André Carrell was originally asked for a company event, but he was already booked for the day, and Rudi suggested on the phone that he could take everything from his father by heart and take over the commitment. André agreed with the words: "Well, do it then", whereupon Rudi first appeared under the name Rudi Carrell. It was such a great success that the theater critic gave his remarks the headline: "Rudi Carrell's cabaret amuses the staff of the community operations".

The success prompted Carrell to immediately found his own ensemble, which he called Rudi Carrell's Cabaretgezelschap (Rudi Carrell's Cabaret Society ) and with which he performed six more times in 1953. The first reviews complained that the program was very reminiscent of André Carrell, but in the course of 1954 Rudi managed to find his own style. Like all cabaret groups, Rudi Carrell's Cabaretgezelschap appeared at a wide variety of events. Carrell also liked to present jazz events, as he was a big jazz fan himself. In 1954 Carrell had already 37 appearances with his group, 36 appearances with his father, 27 children's performances and three engagements on the radio.

Rudi Carrell came to the radio through his father's mediation; the first appearance took place in the summer of 1954 in Leeuwarden . There he appeared on Bonte Dinsdagavondtrein (Colorful Tuesday Evening Train), a popular entertainment program on AVRO .

Carrell & Martron

Huub Matron (* 1923) was part of a well-known comedian duo that had broken up. So in August 1956 he was looking for a partner to fulfill the contracts that were still in place, including a radio and television appearance. Carrell immediately accepted because he saw the opportunity to become known quickly. The collaboration didn't work, but radio and television both took on as solo artists. On September 29, 1956, Carrell stood in front of a television camera for the first time with a solo number as a television debutant. The great fame meant that he could now charge three times the fee.

Crane jugging

For the 1956/57 radio season, Carrell received a permanent contract from AVRO for Bonte Dinsdagavondtrein , at the age of 21 as the youngest artist. There he played Krantenjongen (newspaper boy) for four years and over 200 times, making jokes on current topics with self-written texts and songs. He became so well known that the press once spoke of Rudi “Krantenjongen” Carrell . His attempt to get his own show on AVRO television failed, however, and none of the concepts he submitted received any attention. So it stayed with occasional appearances and in June 1959 the collaboration finally ended.

Change to VARA
Rudi Carrell with Annie Palmen
Rudi Carrell at the preliminary round in Hilversum

In October 1959, Carrell started his own radio show on the VARA broadcaster , called Week uit, week in (week out, week in - in reverse of the common phrase). Carrell also wrote music for this, although he could not read notes and therefore always had to visit a composer friend with his ideas. The show was a huge success, but a television engagement was still a long time coming.

Grand Prix Eurovision de la Chanson

The composers Willy van Hemert and Dick Schallies offered Carrell to propose him for the 1960 Eurovision Song Contest with their title Wat een geluk (What luck) . The two had written the last winning title. AVRO broadcast the preselection live on television on February 9, 1960. Each song was sung by two performers, Carrell's title also by Annie Palmen , and Carrell was allowed to travel to London for the festival. Participation brought him great fame. And after finishing second to last, he made fun of it on the radio, which went down very well. Both together led to TV offers from KRO and VARA.

As a television show host

Rudi Carrell with Sandra Reemer and their brother Franky in the Rudi Carrell Show, 1962
Rudi Carrell Show

Carrell turned down offers from the station KRO and stayed with VARA. He played a single program with his father André Carrell and then got his own series, which he was allowed to design according to his wishes. This Rudi Carrell Show turned out to be a gigantic success.

Silver rose from Montreux

In the 1963/64 season, Carrell paused his Rudi Carrell show to take part in the Rose d'Or competition. It was the 40-minute program De Robinson Crusoë Show , which actually won one of the three main prizes with the Silver Rose. In Montreux, Carrell met Mike Leckebusch from Radio Bremen. A contract was signed with Radio Bremen for 9 editions of a German Rudi Carrell show, which were broadcast from 1965 to 1967. After a one-year interlude at VARA, another 18 issues followed.

The golden shot (not realized)

After ZDF separated from Lou van Burg , they were looking for a new presenter for the show Der goldene Schuss . It was particularly about the prestigious next edition, the first ZDF entertainment program in color. The producer Werner Schmid persuaded Carrell to take over at an evening drinking party and immediately informed the press. Carrell thought it was a big mistake the next morning and avoided signing a contract when he went to the station. He asked the director of his Dutch broadcaster, Jan de Troye, to report something about an - invented - exclusive contract, and a newspaper headline read: "Dutch television prohibits Carrell from taking over the Golden Shot". In retrospect, Carrell believed that the show would have "buried" his career in Germany.

All the time
Rudi kan het niet laten, 1980

From 1973 to 1974 the transition from the Rudi Carrell Show to Amlauf Band took place, a game show with candidates that now had 90 minutes instead of 60 minutes and was broadcast with great success until 1979. With the last broadcast, Carrell retired temporarily. In November 1980, however, Rudi kan het niet laten, Liedjesprogramma, appeared in the VARA program. It was a 40-minute broadcast from the fund halls of Dutch television in which Carrell sang his current songs, including Liebling, the Germans are dying out in German. Ab Hofstee (1919–1985), who played a warehouse clerk, and a school class that came to visit acted as sketch partners. A German version was also recorded; it ran on January 1, 1981 at 8:15 p.m. under the title: Rudi can't help it, stories and songs with Rudi Carrell .

Rudi's day show

In the autumn of 1981, Rudi's Tagesshow started , a 30-minute show, the gigantic success of which prompted Carrell to present another big Saturday evening show. Rudi's daytime show ended in 1987 at Carrell's request, although the broadcaster would have liked to produce another season.

The darn 7

Carrell re-entered the big evening show with an unsuccessful generation show, Under the Rainbow , which ran on New Year's Eve 1983 at 8:15 p.m. This was followed by a season De 1, 2, 3 show for a fundraising campaign on Dutch television, the immense success of which led to the German counterpart Die verflixte Sieben . It was a game show, which partly took up the ideas of Churning Band . It was a great success in Germany, but not an overwhelming one.

Heart leaf

Carrell had previously done Rudi's day show as a smaller show in addition to the big Saturday evening entertainment, now followed by the coupling show Herzblatt . This led to ratings that were otherwise unknown the night before, so that it was continued by other moderators after Carrell's departure. A year after the start of Herzblatt , Carrell took on the role of the presenter of a similar format in the film Strong Times and ridiculed the candidates.

The Rudi Carrell Show - Let yourself be surprised

With the Rudi Carrell Show - Let yourself be surprised , which was usually only referred to as a surprise show, Carrell was able to achieve just as great a success as with Churning . At times the audience numbers were above those of Wetten, dass ..? . The show ended due to Carrell's commitment to the private broadcaster RTL and was his last Saturday evening show.

Rudi's half hour

From 1989 Rudi Carrell presented at West 3 stories that happened behind the scenes of his shows, as well as small reports about special people.

Rudi's animal show

Rudi's Tiershow was a smaller show for the evening program that Radio Bremen produced from 1992 to October 1993. Because of the departure to RTL, there was no further season after two years, although the station would have liked to have produced some. The show was mainly about dogs that had to cope with agility- like courses under the guidance of their owners . It had about 4 million viewers, which was excellent value.

Rudi's laugh archive

Rudi's Lacharchiv showed performances from his old shows, which were announced by Rudi Carrell, who was also in a video archive. The opening and closing credits of the show showed falling plastic containers for video tapes. Radio Bremen produced the program from 1995 to 1996.

Rudi's search engine

From June 6, 2000, Das Erste showed Rudi's search engine on Tuesdays at 9:05 p.m. , in which Carrell presented curiosities from the world of the Internet. A prominent guest was invited to present his favorite website. There were also some old skits. The show was characterized by minimal effort and was such a minor success that only 8 of the 10 episodes produced were broadcast.

At RTL

JE Entertainment

At the end of the 1980s, Carrell was dissatisfied with the state of affairs at the public broadcasters, and at the same time Helmut Thoma wanted to win him over to his station RTL. In September 1991, JE Entertainment was founded in Cologne. Carrell held a 25% stake in this production company and also contributed his ideas there. It was a German offshoot of Joop van den Ende's Dutch company , with whom Carrell had already worked on Verflixten 7 . Carrell initially wanted to stay in the background, but it was announced at the beginning that a Carrell show was planned. This did not please the directors of the ARD broadcasters with the exception of Radio Bremen. They prohibited the simultaneous appearance of presenters on a private broadcaster and on the first . With the return of Thomas Gottschalk to Wetten, dass ..? canceled, but at this point all Carrell shows on ARD had already ended. Carrell had contributed to the concepts of some programs on RTL, including Wie Please ?! and mini playback show .

In 1994 Carrell left the company:

“I quit as a partner because I didn't think the combination of producer and showmaster was right. When I had an idea for a new show with a maximum of seven episodes, the company wanted to sell another twenty episodes to the broadcaster. I just wanted to be the showmaster and after two years of advising the company, I got back a hundredfold for my share. That was the biggest business of my life. "

- Rudi Carrell

If Carrell had waited until the IPO in 1996, he would have become a multimillionaire. His son said in retrospect:

“The moment he found out, he must have been annoyed that he sold his shares too early. But later that was never an issue for him again. Rudi doesn't mourn such a thing for long, he's not that kind of person. It didn't help either, Rudi wanted to get out, because he didn't agree with the direction in which JE Entertainment was developing. "

- Alexander Kesselaar
The post is off!

Carrell also had a big game show on private television. The post is off! was a new edition of Amlauf Band , which ran on Sundays in the evening program. The show brought disappointing audience ratings, so that there was no second season. Actually the post was going off! only intended as a bridge; Carrell wanted to present a surprise show, but RTL had signed Linda de Mol exclusively for a lot of money, so she had priority. Rudi's plans then came to nothing. Carrell also thought Linda de Mol was talented:

“There are no female showmasters. Except for Linda de Mol, she is very versatile. "

- Rudi Carrell
Rudi's vacation show

The lack of success from Die Post is going wild! caused television critics to foresee Carrell's retirement. There was even the statement:

"You'd think he emigrated, it's gotten so quiet around him."

- Jürgen von der Lippe

Carrell then went to great lengths to put together a successful show. Since series such as Das Traumschiff , which were set in vacation regions, were popular, he got the idea of ​​doing a show on the subject of vacation and began preparations in September 1993. Rudi's holiday show was a combined game and infotainment show, in which funny and curious things were presented, but also holiday information was conveyed. For example, Jochen Busse , Hildegard Krekel , Götz Berger and Katerina Jacob played in the studio sketches . There were also feature films, including some with the action artist Pascal Sauvage. Rudi's holiday show ran on Sundays from 7:10 p.m. to 8:15 p.m. with great success. This succeeded because Carrell avoided all the mistakes he made at Die Post geht aus! had made. In retrospect, he thought the backdrops were poor and the candidates were not carefully selected. From April 24, 1994, seven episodes ran initially, with further seasons following at irregular intervals until 1996.

Rudi's dog show

Rudi's dog show essentially corresponded to Rudi's animal show on Radio Bremen, it was also an evening show and showed everything to do with dogs. The team included Gert Haucke , who was a great dog lover. The show ran on Sundays in 1996 in the early evening program, whereby it remained with a season.

7 days, 7 heads

Carrell had the greatest success at RTL with the satirical talk show 7 days, 7 heads :

“This is just amazing and again one of the greatest successes of my life. We have more viewers than Harald Schmidt in a week. "

- Rudi Carrell

Carrell did not present the show himself, he was only one of the regulars until 2002, after which he only had occasional short appearances. But he produced them until their end in 2005 with the company he founded for this purpose.

Outside employment

In order to increase his income, Carrell had various sideline jobs:

Tours
Rudi Carrell, 1976
With Loki and Helmut Schmidt at the 1977 Federal Chancellor Festival

As his fame grew, Carrell also took to tours in Germany, including the Wollexpress 70 in autumn 1969 together with Chris Howland . Financed by the International Wool Secretariat, the two singing stars presented in 20 cities. In the summer of 1970 there was a bathing tour that took place over the German North Sea islands. It was only with the birth of the third child that Carrell gave up this source of income.

advertising

Carrell had already advertised shirts from the Yokol brand in the Netherlands in 1963. In Germany he made commercials for various products, including 1967 for opal tights, 1972 for the VW Beetle 1303 and later for De Kuyper Genever, although he didn't like genever and didn't drive a Volkswagen. From 1977 he promoted Edeka for five years , which he was particularly convinced of because his wife did not have a driver's license and he always drove to the supermarket himself. It was an exclusive contract that allowed him to postpone other sources of income and, in particular, no longer to go on tour.

Movies

In 1970 the film was added as a major source of income, but a contract with Lisa-Film for a comedy for the whole family turned out to be a comedy in which Carrell was to appear disguised as a woman for almost the entire film. He didn't like it at all:

“If there's one scam in show business that I hate like the plague, it's disguise. A man disguising himself as a woman - I know it - is one of the oldest and surest ways of making audiences laugh. But, call it a matter of taste, I don't like it, more than that, I hate it. "

- Rudi Carrell

After when the great aunts come followed aunt Trude from Buxtehude and the great aunts strike . With Rudi, behave! , the last film specially written for Carrell, he could at least have a say in the script and therefore only had to appear in half the film with women's clothes.

Bat

Rudi Carrell also appeared as a pop singer. His best-known work was When will it be summer again? , a cover version of the City of New Orleans that was released in 1975 and reappeared on every rainy summer for the following years. The biggest hit was Goethe was good from 1978, also a cover version, which, just like its template Sweet Violets, attracts attention through the frivolous rhymes that run through the song . You are my main prize , the song for the ARD television lottery in 1977, The Lord gave all animals their name and Mein Dorf , a text-based translation of the Wim Sonneveld classic Het dorp, which is popular in the Netherlands , also gained fame . With the exit from Churning Belt , Carrell also ended his hit career. For The Rudi Carrell Show - Let yourself be surprised , he later sang the title song Let yourself be surprised again , which became very well known with the success of the show itself.

biography

In 1979 Carrell also wrote the book Give me my bike again , in which he combined episodes from his life with a fictional framework. The title refers to the confiscation of the bicycle, which happened not only to his father, but to many Dutch families during the occupation. The publisher Fritz Molden had already published the biography of Hildegard Knef and other celebrities before asking Rudi Carrell. The preprint in Bild from August 13th to September 23rd brought Carrell DM 350,000, but with 50,000 copies sold, the book fell short of expectations. In 1982 the publishing house went bankrupt and there were 10,000 copies left in the bankruptcy estate, which Carrell acquired and sold surprisingly quickly for 10 DM with signature on coffee trips, on which he appeared in the summer of 1983.

The 1972 book The World is a Show was ghost- written by Dick Harris . It only described the career, not a personal life.

Working method

Events

During his first appearances, Rudi Carrell tried to address as broad an audience as possible with different topics in his performances:

" Bernd Stelter , with whom I really enjoyed working on my show for 7 days, 7 people, has this incredible, very rare talent to go on stage and immediately grasp what the atmosphere is like in the hall, who his audience is, how to react to the given situation. And within a few seconds he has the audience under control. It was different for me when I was touring through Holland and performing in front of a completely different audience every evening, which often couldn't have been more diverse. I quickly noticed that people are not that different at all, even if they have a completely different background or come from different backgrounds. Ultimately, they all laugh at the same thing. And during this time I learned to address the masses, to make a program that brings joy to as many people as possible. That's why I was so successful later on TV. "

- Rudi Carrell
Gags

Carrell preferred small and quick gags, a smile every minute instead of a lengthy 10-minute sketch with just a big laugh at the end.

Even with his first show on television, Carrell attached great importance to optical gags. He kept this principle until the end of his life, so he insisted in 7 days, 7 heads that every issue should contain at least one such gag. And it also helped him at the beginning of the Rudi Carrell Show in Germany, when his knowledge of the German language was still limited.

Leslie Roberts

Right at the beginning of the Rudi Carrell Show , the VARA found that Carrell needed a consultant to be able to discuss ideas with someone. Since there was no suitable Dutchman for Carrell's style, he found Leslie Roberts from England for him. Roberts had his career behind him when Carrell met him and had extensive knowledge of show business, he had already been a dancer in vaudeville and a director for the BBC. Carrell thought the advice from Roberts was extremely important, the main recommendations were to pay attention to all the details and that a bad idea cannot be turned into a good show:

"You have to forget that you want to do a good show, just work on not doing a bad one."

"If you begin with shit, you'll finish with shit."

- Leslie Roberts

The collaboration lasted until the end of the 1980s:

“He was old and he was tired. He didn't feel like it anymore. "

- Rudi Carrell
Dick Harris

Dick Harris (1927-2010) had studied philosophy and French in Amsterdam, but then dropped out to perform as a vaudeville artist, where he met Carrell in 1953 and gave him a lot of advice:

"There is no one who has accompanied my career so intensely and for so long as Dick Harris."

- Rudi Carrell

Harris took on the direction of the Rudi Carrell Show for a short time , then the two of them separated temporarily. They met again by chance in 1968 and Harris became Carrell's manager:

“He got 10% of all my earnings. We worked together fantastically for many years and never had arguments, it was perfect: I did shows, he did the business. "

- Rudi Carrell

In September 1983, Harris disappeared, leaving a message suggesting suicide. In fact, he had to flee for tax debts, as much as he had managed finances for other people, so little had he paid his own taxes. After eight months, Harris contacted Carrell, but could not come back to Germany, which prevented the two of them from working together again.

Hobbies

Rudi Carrell practically had no hobbies:

“I don't know what kind of person Rudi Carrell is, I only know Rudi professionally. I think Rudi is only professional. "

- Jochen Busse, 2002

Carrell kept watching television almost every day. He watched a lot of programs, knew every new presenter immediately and loved to chat with others about the latest in international show business. There was hardly any time for a hobby. During his time in Loosdrecht, he bought a cine camera to film his family - but that also came close to his work. He occasionally watched football and was a fan of Werder Bremen . The game of golf was added late .

popularity

For Carrell it was a matter of course to be spoken to on the street:

“I have never forgotten: I owe everything to these people. My house, my car, my vacation. Without these people I wouldn't have any of this. "

- Rudi Carrell

But when a passer-by asked him if he was Mr. Carrell, he made fun of pretending to be someone else and didn't explain it afterwards.

In the studio

When Carrell came into the studio, he was always perfectly prepared. He expected the same from his employees, otherwise he could get extremely upset:

“He was obnoxious at times because he had no demeanor. It was the worst educated person I have ever met. "

"I managed to work closely with the man for 13 years, and that is definitely an achievement."

“The difficult thing about Rudi Carrell was that for him, the only thing that counted was how you get there. He didn't really care. It had to be a perfect show. "

- Jochen Busse

Working with the director was fundamentally problematic, and with the other employees, too, he had the idea of ​​having to explain to them how to do their work:

“I did three shows with him as a director. It is terrible to work with him. He degrades everyone to an extra. I didn't fight with him, but quietly put the stuff down. Nobody has ever told him what directing is, and that's how he never learns. "

- Günther Hassert, 1984

"This person is a monster, I've never seen anything like it."

- Gisela Schlüter , who was supposed to be part of Die verflixte 7 , but gave up at the rehearsals

Carrell's advisor Leslie Roberts was basically exempt from verbal abuse.

Among the employees it was said that at Carrell the script was only ready one day after the broadcast. If the rehearsals showed that something could be improved, Carrell changed it so that something could be changed until the last minute.

Predictions about other TV stars

Carrell was known for publicly judging other television stars. So he foresaw that Günther Jauch would make it big, but Barbara Schöneberger would not. The most spectacular was his bet of 10,000 euros on Reinhold Beckmann's talk show that Anke Engelke might be a world-class comedian, but would fail with Anke Late Night as the successor to the Harald Schmidt Show . The show was actually prematurely discontinued after a few months.

Private life

In Alkmaar

The first house shown in full from the right is the birthplace
flat

Rudi Carrell was born at Spoorstraat 35, in a small house in downtown Alkmaar, where the family lived on the first floor for rent. In April 1935 they moved and again in April 1936, this time to the terraced house at Bergerweg 44. Although it now had a small garden, the living conditions were still extremely cramped. It was a settlement that was built shortly before the First World War. Carrell's family led a very modest life there, the furniture consisted mainly of orange boxes and for a long time you couldn't even afford a bike. When there was finally one, it was confiscated by the German occupation.

After the war, André Carrell had increasing success as an artist, so that the family could already afford a little luxury. When television started in the Netherlands in 1951, he bought a machine the following year. Rudi was also very enthusiastic about television.

siblings

Rudi had three siblings: Geertruida Catharina, called Truus (* 1936), Adriaan (* 1941) and Andries (1944-1994).

free time activities

Rudi spent a lot of time watching people on the street and often went to the cinema with his sister Truus, where they helped the ushers collect the rubbish and thus got free entry:

“We had four cinemas in Alkmaar, all within a hundred meters. Sometimes we went to the cinema three times on Sundays and I've seen so many films that I can't even remember most of them. What I especially loved were the Charlie Chaplin films - Truus howled and I laughed - and then the many show films from America, with Fred Astaire and such. I sometimes saw them up to five times. "

- Rudi Carrell
crew

During the war, Carrell had also seen Dutch people collaborating with the crew and, on the other hand, had met a German train driver on the embankment who showed him coal supplies, so that he thought it inappropriate to insult German tourists. He left the Netherlands for the first time in the summer of 1945 when Danish farmers invited starving children to stay for two months. While driving through Germany by truck, he saw many ruins and thought:

"My goodness, what the Germans must have suffered in this war."

- Rudi Carrell

Carrell later convinced the politician Sicco Mansholt and his idea of ​​Europe growing together.

In Loosdrecht

flat

In 1955 André Carrell moved into a larger house in Neu-Loosdrecht , at which time all of his children were still living with him. Loosdrecht was close to Hilversum , where the radio stations were located, and was characterized by an idyllic lake landscape.

Truus de Vries
Vuntuslaan in Alt-Loosdrecht, 2014
Annemieke and Caroline with Adriaan Kesselaar, 2007

Rudi met 15-year-old Truus des Vries at the age of 17. The two got engaged in 1953 and married on May 16, 1957 in Truus' home village of Sint Pancras , not far from Alkmaar. The two first rented a furnished houseboat and in the summer of 1958 bought a small semi-detached house in Alt-Loosdrecht, Vuntuslaan 83, for 25,000 guilders. Rudi's father, on the other hand, only lived in a rented house, although he did not like the immense success of his son. Truus and Rudi had two daughters (* 1958 and 1962). By the time the second child was born, the marriage was no longer intact.

In Germany

Bremen

With his work at Radio Bremen, Carrell moved to Bremen, initially in a small city apartment, while his family stayed in Loosdrecht. Then he rented a bungalow in the Oberneuland district , where he lived with his family. It was there that the children, but not Truus, managed to settle in. In 1967 they separated, but only got divorced in 1973. Carrell assigned her the house in Loosdrecht. Carrell lived almost continuously in Germany until his death, but never had German citizenship.

Anke Bobbert

During the six-day race in Bremen, Carrell met the daughter of a master tailor Anke Bobbert (* 1940; † 2000) from Bremen. She worked in the administration of the municipal utilities. and became Carrell's girlfriend. In 1972 she had an affair with André Heller , then pushed for Carrell to get a divorce. On February 1, 1974, the two married. They had a son, Alexander (born June 3, 1977). Anke developed rheumatism from the exertions during childbirth; the predisposition to this disease was inherited in the family. Rudi then went to many specialists with Anke in order to enable a cure, but it turned out to be chronic, which ensured that Anke went out into public less and less and finally died of the disease.

Scholen

At the end of the 1960s, Carrell bought a converted farmhouse in Scholen and moved in with Anke:

“I discovered the house by accident. From the outside it looked like a real farm, but inside it looked like a kind of English bungalow, beautifully antique furnishings, old wood, open fireplace. It could be a country house from a Durbridge thriller. "

- Rudi Carrell
Belgium and Spain

When Carrell made his films, living abroad gave him significant tax benefits. So he moved to the north of Belgium , near the Bobbejaanland amusement park . The German property became a second home. Rudi and Anke did not stay there for long, after only a year the film fees allowed a villa with a swimming pool in El Rosario, Spain:

“It was wonderful, there was everything. Hookers and movie stars, gangsters and crooks, drug dealers, pimps, impostors, millionaires, beautiful women. It was a playground for the weirdest birds from all over the world. Watching all of this was great fun for me, and I laughed a lot. Nobody was normal there, except for the tourists. "

- Rudi Carrell

A week ago at the churning he flew to Bremen and usually the day after the show back.

Guard Village

With the large additional income, Carrell no longer seemed to be appropriate for his farmhouse:

“We were looking for something with water and then, through a newspaper advertisement, we discovered the property in Wachendorf with a number of buildings and the beautiful lake. I thought that was so great that I bought it straight away in 1975. "

- Rudi Carrell

It was the manor Wachendorf - 30 kilometers south of Bremen -, a 12-hectare property with old trees and a farm in Syke , Wachendorf district , which cost 500,000 DM. His wife organized the renovations, which mainly financed his advertising contract with Edeka. That is why Carrell called his house Casa Edeka . He supported village life and, for example, let his entire family join the shooting club, although nobody in the family was particularly interested in its activities.

Ocle

Carrell was a passionate golfer; In the vicinity of his property in Wachendorf, however, there was no appealing golf course. In 1990 he was one of the founders of a golf course with 27 holes in Syke, Okel district . Carrell was an honorary member and Hall of Famer of the association until his death. A Carrell Lounge was opened there in 2013 .

origin

In 1979 Carrell looked after his ancestors with an employee of the Alkmaar city administration. He had the assumption that he came from German ancestors, since his urge for perfection was untypical for a Dutchman. As far as the records went, his mother had Dutch ancestors, but his father had an ancestor from Silesia. Carrell's great-great-great-grandfather, Jakob Kesselaar, was born in 1805 as the son of Friedhelm Kessler, born in 1771 in Neustadt , Upper Silesia. The adaptation of the name to the Dutch language was not unusual.

South France

In the spring of 1980 Carrell bought a house in Èze and moved there. Looking back, he said:

"I urgently needed a change of location in order to switch off."

"Back then I really thought that I would never be able to watch TV again, I was so burned out."

- Rudi Carrell

Another reason was his wife's illness. It was believed that a warm climate would bring relief, but it turned out that Anke couldn't take it. The press only found out about the foreign residence after a delay, but then besieged her so much that a court recognized compensation for pain and suffering. At the end of 1980, Carrell returned to Germany on the advice of his advisor Leslie Roberts:

“He convinced me to keep going. After all, he said, there are far too few real personalities on German television. "

- Rudi Carrell
Susanne Hoffmann

While working on Rudi's daytime show , Carrell met the screenwriter Susanne Hoffmann (* 1960; † 2003), who was part of the team. A relationship developed that grew stronger as he worked more at home. On his 50th birthday, Rudi had the old mill on his property converted into a workhouse so that he didn't have to go to Radio Bremen every day. In 1997 he publicly announced the relationship. Soon after the death of his wife Anke from heart failure on February 23, 2000, Susanne Hoffmann split up, who died of a brain tumor on April 6, 2003 at the age of 43. Carrell was able to end the legal dispute with her heirs through a settlement.

Simone Felischak

On February 7, 2001, Carrell married his third wife in Australia, the then 30-year-old Magdeburg cook Simone Felischak (born May 8, 1970), whom he met in 1995 while playing golf in Bad Griesbach im Rottal .

Cancer

Shortly after his 70th birthday, Carrell and his wife went on vacation to a Caribbean island for several weeks. During this trip, he already felt that he was sick, and an examination at the Bremen Clinic found lung cancer . Lung diseases already occurred in the ancestors, the paternal grandmother died of tuberculosis at the age of 58, and the father of lung cancer at the same age. His sister Truus was also sick, although she had never smoked, but was cured just in time. However, Carrell was a chain smoker; In the studio, someone even had to run after him with a bucket of water, as smoking was actually prohibited there.

Carrell took the disease calmly and said to his children:

"I've had everything, I've achieved everything in my job, I've had a great life - if I drop dead tomorrow, that's okay too."

- Rudi Carrell

In November 2005, Carrell confirmed in an interview with the magazine Bunte that he had lung cancer. After 51 years with up to three packs of cigarettes a day, he finally gave up smoking . However, he does not feel sick:

"To be sick means fever, pain, nausea [... I have] been spared all these typical symptoms of illness so far, thank God"

- Rudi Carrell
The end of his television work

Carrell took part in the recording of the last episode of 7 days, 7 heads . He appears in silence and once again performs the show's running gag : With the help of a rope, he pours a glass of water over Harald Schmidt's pants and disappears without a word. The program aired on December 31, 2005, the New Year's Eve show and the final edition of 7 Days, 7 Heads . In an interview it said:

“I keep gags that we can't use for 7 days, 7 heads. And when I get to heaven, I'll earn something on the side. "

- Rudi Carrell
Last TV appearance
Imprint of the hands in the Lloyd Passage
Anke and Rudi Carrell's grave

During another vacation in the Caribbean, Carrell learned that he should get the Golden Camera for his life's work. He immediately thought of gags for a perfect performance, which he presented at the award ceremony on February 2, 2006:

"I owe the fact that I can be here tonight primarily to my health insurance, the Bremen-Ost Clinic and the German pharmaceutical industry ."

And regarding his weakened voice:

"With a voice like that you can still become a superstar in Germany ."

Only on stage did he come up with the following addition:

"It was an honor to be able to do television in this country and in front of this audience."

- Rudi Carrell

It was his last appearance on television. He had received extraordinary attention:

"One would like to be able to leave the stage like that."

- Jürgen von der Lippe

On March 17, 2006, the last longer interview appeared in the magazine of the Süddeutsche Zeitung , in which Rudi Carrell spoke very openly about death. He announced that he would not have a public funeral:

“Out of fear of the Jacob Sisters . With their weird poodles they destroy any atmosphere. They were also at Moshammer's . "

- Rudi Carrell
death

In the end, Rudi Carrell lived in seclusion on his estate in the Syker district of Wachendorf in the Diepholz district . He died on July 7, 2006 around noon at the age of 71 in the Bremen-Ost Clinic. On July 9, 2006, a memorial service was held in close family circles. Carrell was buried on July 25th in the cemetery in Heiligenfelde (Syke) in Lower Saxony . According to his last wish, his second wife's urn was reburied and now rests next to him in the cemetery.

monument

The Rudi Carrell monument by sculptor Carsten Eggers
Signpost to the Rudi Carrellplaats
Rudi Carrellplaats in his hometown Alkmaar
Rudi Carrellplaats
Rudi Carrelllaan in honor of Rudi Carrell in the Media Park Hilversum

Shortly before his death, Rudi Carrell sat as a model for a bronze bust by the sculptor Carsten Eggers . The work of art was finished while he was still alive and was later installed on Rudi Carrellplaats in his native Alkmaar . The inauguration took place on July 7, 2007, the first anniversary of Carrell's death. The square is where the stage of the Het Gulden Vlies theater, which was demolished in 1993, stood, and thus where Carrell's first public appearance took place.

In November 2016, the bust was dismantled at the old location and installed at the Grand Cafe Guldien Vlies, directly on the busy pedestrian zone. This was justified because the showmaster was more interested in the audience during his lifetime than the peace and quiet that characterized the old location. The naming of the Rudi Carrellplaats remained unaffected.

Awards

Discography

Dutch

Singles (selection)

  • 1960: Wat een geluk / Panama-kanaal
  • 1964: Een muis in een molen in mooi Amsterdam / Polonaise
  • 1968: De hoogste tijd / Rottinkie
  • 1976: Samen een straatje om / La la la
  • 1980: Zij heeft nog nooit / Het wordt een moordknul

Compilations

  • 1980: Komkommertijd

German

Singles (selection)

Chart positions
Explanation of the data
Albums
Rudi Carrell
  DE 49 06/15/1975 (3 weeks)
Singles
When will it be summer again?
  DE 18th 05/05/1975 (14 weeks)
Goethe was good
  DE 9 10/30/1978 (19 weeks)
  • 1966: The first / For you alone
  • 1969: A little compliment / I'm passing your house (Where The Rainbow Ends)
  • 1971: Exercise and keep fit / We are all little sinners
  • 1975: When will it be summer again? / Don't cry
  • 1975: Darling, the Germans die out / meal
  • 1975: La la la / I love you
  • 1976: Have a drink / who can still flirt properly today
  • 1976: Rosi, smile at me again / We two, my dog ​​and me
  • 1978: Goethe was good / My village
  • 1979: Too much foam, too little beer / The Lord gave all animals their names
  • 1979: A little compliment / I'll walk past your house
  • 1980: She has never / But still Mr. Meier has

Albums (selection)

  • 1974: An evening with Rudi Carrell
  • 1975: Rudi Carrell
  • 1976: A large disc of Carrell (Club special edition)
  • 1978: Rudi, Rudi, one more time
  • 1995: The best of Rudi's vacation show

Compilations (selection)

  • 1978: Goethe was good
  • 1979: Rudi's hit show
  • 1996: Schlager non-stop
  • 2000: His ultimate album
  • 2003: Unforgettable (No summer without Rudi)
  • 2006: the best
  • 2006: In Memoriam

Filmography

movie theater

Television (selection)

  • 1959: Redt een kind (TV movie, director: Jack Dixon)
  • 1971: Glückspilze (TV film, director: Thomas Engel )
  • 1999: Rita's World - The Water Battle
  • 2002: The Office , The Carrell File
  • 2004: Dittsche , 18th calendar week 2004

TV shows (selection)

  • 1960: Eurovision Song Contest 1960
  • 1961–1965 and 1967–1968: Rudi Carrell Show
  • 1964: De Robinson Cruseoe Show
  • 1965–1967 and 1968–1973: The Rudi Carrell Show
  • 1974–1979: Churning out
  • 1980: Rudi kan het niet laten, Liedjesprogramma
  • 1981: Rudi can't help it, stories and songs with Rudi Carrell.
  • 1981–1987: Rudi's day show
  • 1983: De 1, 2, 3 Show
  • 1984–1987: The darn 7
  • 1987–1993: Herzblatt
  • 1988–1992: The Rudi Carrell Show - Let yourself be surprised
  • 1989: Rudi's half hour
  • 1992–1993: Rudi's animal show
  • 1993: The post is off!
  • 1994–1996: Rudi's vacation show
  • 1995–1996: Rudis Lacharchiv
  • 1996: Rudi's dog show
  • 1996-2002: 7 days, 7 heads
  • 2000: Rudi's search engine

TV documentary (selection)

  • 1999: Rudolf Wijbrand Kesselaar called Carrell - Almost a self-portrait , a film by Klaus Michael Heinz , 90 min., Das Erste, December 18, 1999.
  • 2006: Rudolf Wijbrand Kesselaar called Carrell - Almost a self-portrait , an obituary by Klaus Michael Heinz , 90 min., Das Erste, July 10, 2006.
  • 2009: Our brother, father, Grandpa Rudi called Carrell , a film by Annemieke Kesselaar Klar and Dieter Klar , 45 min., Das Erste, December 20, 2009.
  • 2019: Let yourself be surprised non-stop. For Rudi Carrell's 85th birthday. , Author: Christian Stöffler, 105 min., NDR television, December 19, 2019.

Works

  • Rudi Carrell: The world is a show. Schwann, Düsseldorf 1972, ISBN 3-508-00228-4 .
  • Rudi Carrell: Give me back my bike. Molden, Vienna / Munich / Zurich / Innsbruck 1979, ISBN 3-217-00981-9 .

literature

  • Susanne Schult: Rudi Carrell. The image of a star in the history of German television. Der Andere Verlag, Osnabrück 2000, ISBN 3-934366-87-2 (dissertation University of Lüneburg 2000, 210 pages).
  • Ingo Schiweck (Ed.): "Let yourself be surprised ...". Dutch entertainers in Germany after 1945. Agenda, Münster 2005, ISBN 3-89688-255-4 .
  • Jürgen Trimborn : Rudi Carrell. A life for the show. The biography. C. Bertelsmann, Munich 2006, ISBN 3-570-00941-6 .

Web links

Commons : Rudi Carrell  - Album with pictures, videos and audio files
Wikiquote: Rudi Carrell  - Quotes
 Wikinews: Rudi Carrell lives on for his fans  - message

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f A Life for the Show , Chapter 2 Conférencier Kesselaar
  2. ↑ a b c d e f g h i A life for the show , Chapter 3 From Alkmaar to Hilversum
  3. ↑ Piet Hein Honig: Acteurs - en Kleinkunstenaarslexicon. Self-published, Diepenveen 1984, ISBN 90-90-00511-0 .
  4. ↑ A Life for the Show , Chapter 4 Wat een geluck
  5. ↑ Give me back my bike , Chapter 6th day
  6. ↑ Hamburger Abendblatt dated December 31, 1980.
  7. ↑ a b c A Life for the Show , Chapter 10 King of Saturday Night
  8. ↑ fernsehserien.de: Rudi's half hour
  9. ↑ a b c d e f g h i A Life for the Show , Chapter 11 Experiences on New Shores
  10. ↑ a b A life for the show , chapter scolding colleagues
  11. ↑ Article Sweet Violets in the English Wikipedia; Version sung by Dinah Shore : Sweet Violets on YouTube , Lyrics Sweet Violets by Dinah Shore , Songtexte-kostenlos.com. For comparison: Goethe was good on YouTube , Lyrics Goethe War Gut by Rudi Carrell , Songtexte-kostenlos.com. (All accessed December 6, 2015.)
  12. ↑ The World is a Show , Chapter 2 The Idea
  13. ↑ a b Give me back my bike , chapter 5th day
  14. ↑ a b c d e A Life for the Show , Chapter 12 Behind the Scenes
  15. ↑ a b A Life for the Show , Chapter 5 From Hilversum to Montreux
  16. ↑ a b c d A Life for the Show , Chapter 9 Time out without a break
  17. ↑ A Life for the Show , Appendix
  18. ↑ a b c d A Life for the Show , Chapter 8 Churning Out Successes
  19. ↑ Legenden , TV documentary from Radio Bremen, 2010.
  20. ↑ a b hr1 Talk , radio broadcast from Hessischer Rundfunk with Marco Schreyl on January 17, 2017.
  21. ↑ The World is a Show , Chapter 3 Rehearsals: Incursions and Failures ...
  22. ↑ a b c d e A Life for the Show , Chapter 1 A Childhood in Holland
  23. ↑ a b A life for the show , Chapter 6 Shooting Star in Germany
  24. ↑ a b c d e f g A life for the show , Chapter 7 Rudi on all channels
  25. ↑ a b weser-kurier.de: Inauguration of the Carrell Lounge: "Rudi would have liked that"
  26. ↑ Last entertainment appearance on YouTube
  27. ↑ A life after? No. Then it's over. Rudi Carrell in an interview with SZ-Magazin
  28. ↑ The last German showmaster leaves the stage. A conversation with Rudi Carrell. In: SZ-Magazin.
  29. ↑ knerger.de: The grave of Rudi Carrell
  30. ↑ alkmaarcentraal.nl: BORSTBEELD RUDI CARRELL VERPLAATST NAAR VOORZIJDE GULDEN VLIES
  31. ↑ is awarded jointly by the Fördergemeinschaft Gutes Hören and the Forum Besser Hören , because, according to the jury, Rudi Carrell has actively campaigned for the acceptance of hearing aids for daily communication
  32. ↑ a b Charts DE
personal data
SURNAME Carrell, Rudi
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Kesselaar, Rudolf Wijbrand (real name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Dutch showmaster
DATE OF BIRTH December 19, 1934
PLACE OF BIRTH Alkmaar , Netherlands , Kingdom of the Netherlands
DATE OF DEATH July 7, 2006
Place of death Bremen , Germany