Known For Actor
Gender Male
Birthday 1928-10-08
Deathday 1986-09-29 (57 years old)
Place of Birth Vienna, Austria
Helmut Qualtinger was born in Vienna, Austria. He initially studied medicine, but quit university to become a newspaper reporter and film critic for local press, while beginning to write texts for cabaret performances and theater plays. Qualtinger debuted as an actor at a student theater and attended the Max Reinhardt Seminar as a guest student. Beginning in 1947, he appeared in cabaret performances. In 1949, Qualtinger's first theatrical play, Jugend vor den Schranken, was staged in Graz. Up to 1960, Qualtinger collaborated on various cabaret programmes with the Namenlosen Ensemble made up of Gerhard Bronner, Carl Merz, Louise Martini, Peter Wehle, Georg Kreisler, and Michael Kehlmann. Qualtinger was famous for his practical jokes. In 1951, he managed to launch a false report in several newspapers announcing a visit to Vienna of a (fictional) famous Inuit poet named Kobuk (author of "The Burning Igloo"). The reporters who assembled at the railway station however were to witness Qualtinger, in fur coat and cap, stepping from the train. Asked about his "first impressions of Vienna", the "Inuit poet" commented in broad Viennese dialect, "Haaaßis'sdo - [It's hot here]". The short one-man play Der Herr Karl, written by Qualtinger and Carl Merz and performed by Qualtinger in 1961, made the author known across German-speaking countries. "Herr Karl", a grocery store clerk, tells the story of his life to an imaginary colleague - from the days of the Habsburg empire, the First Austrian Republic, the Austrofascist regime leading up to the Anschluss (annexation) by Nazi Germany, World War II and finally military occupation by Allied forces in the 1950s, seen from the perspective of a one who is a prototypical opportunist. Qualtinger's portrayal of the petit-bourgeois Nazi collaborator came at a time when "normality" had just been restored and Austrians' involvement in the Nazi movement was being downplayed and "forgotten", making many enemies for the author, who even received anonymous threats of murder. Beginning in the 1970s, Qualtinger frequently performed recitals of his own and other texts, including excerpts from Adolf Hitler's Mein Kampf and Karl Kraus' Die letzten Tage der Menschheit (The Last Days of Mankind). These recitals were highly popular and resulted in several records being published. Qualtinger played countless theater, TV and film parts, making his final appearance in The Name of the Rose in 1986, along with Sean Connery. Qualtinger died in Vienna on 29 September 1986, of a liver condition. From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
as Self (archive footage)
as Remigio da Varagine
as Dr. Döblinger
as Viktor
as Harry Beggs
as Zauberkönig
as Sepp O'Brian
as Von Schwendi
as Dr. Ludwig Pfister
as Mulligan
as Huck
as Allinger
as Offizier
as Ragin
as Kulterer
as Self
as Anselm Eibenschütz
as Himself
as Soldat
as Erwin Plückhahn
as Johann Plantagenet, König von England
as Nationalrat Bröschl
as Natter
as Ignaz Trummer
as Rudi Böhm
as Schalanter
as Bürgel
as Ferry
as Inspektor Pokorny
as Pitzl
as Herr Karl
as Matzenauer
as Capitano Agamemnon Heredia
as Scharfrichter Engel
as Self
as Knieriem, ein Schustergeselle
as Konrad Steisshäuptl
as Kapturak
as Schmitz - ein Ringer
as Melchior - Hausknecht
as Self
as Oskar
as Oberpolizeirat Dr. Radosch
as Ministerialdirigent Kriegbaum
as Seppl Reber
as Detective Zawadil
as Oberst Fedor Fedorowitsch Ganiew
as Kanzakis
as Der Schlechtere
as Wollner
as Ernst Röhm
as Werbefachmann
as Orientalischer Fürst
as Mirko
as Direktor Pokorny
as Kraps
as Self
as Writer
as Writer
as Writer
as Writer
as Writer