Wolfgang Preiss

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Wolfgang Preiss (born February 27, 1910 in Nuremberg ; † November 27, 2002 in Bühl (Baden) ) was a German actor and voice actor .

life and career

The son of a teacher first studied philosophy , German and theater studies for four semesters in Munich in 1930 and 1931 . He also took private acting lessons from Hans Schlenck in Munich and made his debut there in 1932 at the Theater der Gegenwart . Stage engagements in Heidelberg, Königsberg, Bonn, Bremen, Stuttgart and Berlin followed. In 1942 he also made his debut - exempted by the Wehrmacht - as a film actor in the UFA production Die Große Liebe alongside Zarah Leander .

After the end of the Second World War , Preiss initially worked again at the theater and since 1949 extensively in dubbing. In 1954 he returned to film when Alfred Weidenmann cast him as an officer in his cinema production Canaris . In the following year, Preiss portrayed Count Claus Schenk von Stauffenberg in Falk Harnack's production of the Hitler assassination attempt on July 20th . This role brought him great popularity and in 1956 earned him the silver tape for the Federal Film Prize .

From then on, Preiss was set on roles of upright and conscientious officers, similar to his colleague Wolfgang Büttner , and others. a. in dogs, do you want to live forever by Frank Wisbar , in sharks and small fish and in The Green Devils of Monte Cassino . Also in numerous international productions, mainly in Italy and the USA, Preiss played the roles of upright soldiers or conscientious, National Socialist Wehrmacht officers. He was also seen in lavish and star-studded large-scale productions such as The Longest Day (1962) and The Bridge of Arnheim (1976) by Richard Attenborough , directed by Otto Preminger in Der Kardinal (1963), alongside Jean-Paul Belmondo in Der Boss came up with something (1964) and in Burns Paris? (1966). In 1964 he starred alongside Burt Lancaster in Der Zug ( The Train ) directed by John Frankenheimer and in 1965 in Colonel von Ryan's Express alongside Frank Sinatra and in The Battle of Anzio alongside Robert Mitchum and as Erwin Rommel alongside Richard Burton in the hunt Rommel .

His role as Dr. Mabuse as the epitome of the megalomaniac scientist, whom he embodied for the first time in 1960 (in succession to Rudolf Klein-Rogge ) under Fritz Lang , who in 1922 already had the first Dr. Mabuse film. In order to prevent the viewers from exposing the well-known actor as the villain too early in the film, he was only announced in the role as Prof. Jordan in film magazines , whereas for a German-Italian co-production a Lupo Prezzo (a mere translation of his name into Italian) was announced. In the following four years, Preiss took on the role of Mabuse four more times, his role being limited to guest appearances towards the end of the film, each time Mabuse was exposed. In the last film in the series The Death Rays of Dr. In the end , he stopped performing at Mabuse , although his name was advertised on the movie posters.

In the 1980s , Preiss played mainly in television productions, such as Earl, who was friends with the cleaning lady Mrs. Harris in the films of the same name with Inge Meysel, and Field Marshal Walther von Brauchitsch in the American TV series Der Feuersturm ( The Winds of War ) and Feuersturm and Asche ( War and Remembrance ) based on the novels by Herman Wouk . In 1987 he received the Federal Film Prize a second time for his artistic work : for his many years of outstanding work in German film, he was honored with the gold film band .

As a voice actor, Wolfgang Preiss lent his voice to such prominent colleagues as Lex Barker (in Klar Schiff zum Gefecht ), Christopher Lee (in Port Africa ), Anthony Quinn (in Buffalo Bill ), Claude Rains (in Der Prinz und der Bettelknabe and in Mit eiserner Faust ), Richard Widmark (in Seemannslos ) and Conrad Veidt as Major Strasser in the new dubbing of Casablanca .

Wolfgang Preiss was married three times, has a son from his first marriage and several grandchildren, including the actress and voice actress Laura Preiss . Only a few months after the death of his third wife Ruth, with whom he was married for 47 years, he died in 2002 at the age of 92 in a clinic on the Bühlerhöhe near Baden-Baden . His final resting place is in the main cemetery in Baden-Baden .

Filmography (selection)

Radio plays

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ spiegel.de: "Parade-Preuße" - actor Wolfgang Preiss dies Article of November 27, 2002.
  2. ↑ knerger.de: The grave of Wolfgang Preiss
personal data
SURNAME Price, Wolfgang
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Prezzo, Lupo (pseudonym)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German actor and voice actor
DATE OF BIRTH February 27, 1910
PLACE OF BIRTH Nuremberg
DATE OF DEATH November 27, 2002
Place of death Bühl (Baden)