Helmut Griem
| Helmut Griem | |
|---|---|
 Helmut Griem (left) in Berlin, 1968. | |
| Born |
6 April 1932 Hamburg, Germany |
| Died |
19 November 2004 (aged 72) Munich, Germany |
| Occupation | Stage and movie actor, theatre director |
| Years active | 1956–2002 |
Helmut Griem (6 April 1932 – 19 November 2004) was a German film, television and stage actor and director.
Biography
Born in Hamburg, Griem was primarily a German-speaking stage actor, appearing at the Thalia Theater in Hamburg, the Deutsches Schauspielhaus in Hamburg, the Burgtheater in Vienna, the Munich Kammerspiele, and finally in the Staatstheater am Gärtnerplatz, also in Munich.
Griem became well-known to international audiences as the diabolic SS-officer Aschenbach in The Damned. His role in the Academy Award-winning film Cabaret (1972) as the wealthy Baron Maximilian von Heune is probably his best-known international performance. Other performances include his work in The McKenzie Break, and Ludwig and Breakthrough. Among his many film and TV appearances was one in NBC's Peter the Great as the Tsar's lifelong friend and "right hand" Alexander Menshikov, alongside Maximilian Schell. He starred in the television mini-series The Devil's Lieutenant directed by John Goldschmidt, adapted by Jack Rosenthal and based on the novel by Maria Fagyas, for Channel 4 and ZDF.
Despite his success in film, the theatre remained at the heart of Griem's work, and he performed in many classic roles from both the German and English-language repertoire. Later in his career Griem turned to theatre direction, including Long Day's Journey Into Night by Eugene O'Neill.
Before his death, he had planned to direct the Botho Strauss play, Die eine und die andere (This One and The Other). Griem twice won the Bambi Award: in 1961 and in 1976.[1] He died in Munich in 2004.
Theatre
| Title | Author | Role | Director |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intrigue and Love | Friedrich Schiller | Ferdinand | Willi Schmidt |
| Leonce and Lena | Georg Büchner | Leonce | Hans Bauer |
| As You Like It | William Shakespeare | Orlando | Willi Schmidt |
| The Glass Menagerie | Tennessee Williams | Tom | Willi Schmidt |
| Richard II | William Shakespeare | Title Role | Hans Lietzau |
| The Cherry Orchard | Anton Chekhov | Lopachin | Hans Lietzau |
| The Philanthropist | Christopher Hampton | Philipp | Dieter Dorn |
| The Prince of Homburg | Heinrich von Kleist | Title Role | Hans Lietzau |
| The Maids | Jean Genet | Claire | Dieter Dorn |
| Philoctetes | Heiner Müller | Title Role | Hans Lietzau |
| Die Räuber | Friedrich Schiller | Karl Moor | Hans Lietzau |
| My Fair Lady | Lerner and Loewe | Professor Higgins | August Everding |
| Troilus and Cressida | William Shakespeare | Thersites | Dieter Dorn |
| Faust | Johann Wolfgang Goethe | Title Role | Dieter Dorn |
| Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? | Edward Albee | George | Martin Meltge |
