Helmut Griem

Helmut Griem
Griem (left) in Berlin, 1968
Born(1932-04-06)6 April 1932
Hamburg, Germany
Died19 November 2004(2004-11-19) (aged 72)
Munich, Germany
Occupation(s)Actor, theatre director
Years active1956–2002

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 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. [citation needed]

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 bisexual Baron Maximilian von Heune is probably his best-known international performance.[1]

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 the Hungarian-American playwright and author Maria Fagyas (1905–1985), for Channel 4 and ZDF.[citation needed]

Griem 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.[2]

He died in Munich in 2004, aged 72.

Theatre

Helmut Griem (left) in 1954
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

Filmography

Year Title Role Language Director With... Notes
1960 Officer Factory [de] Oberleutnant Krafft German Frank Wisbar
Written by Hans Hellmut Kirst		 Horst Frank
1961 Girl from Hong Kong Glenn Dierks German Franz Peter Wirth Akiko Wakabayashi and Hanns Lothar
Barbara Doctor Poul Aggersø German Frank Wisbar Harriet Andersson
The Dream of Lieschen Mueller Jan German Helmut Käutner Sonja Ziemann, Martin Held and Cornelia Froboess
1962 Oggi a Berlino [it] (Today in Berlin) Hans Italian Piero Vivarelli
Written by Piero Vivarelli, Giuseppe Isani
1963 Because, Because of a Woman Johann Muller French Michel Deville Mylène Demongeot, Marie Laforêt and Jacques Charrier
1968 Bel Ami [de] Georges Duroy German Helmut Käutner TV film
1969 The Damned Aschenbach English Luchino Visconti Dirk Bogarde, Ingrid Thulin and Helmut Berger
1970 The McKenzie Break Kapitänleutnant Schlüter English Lamont Johnson Brian Keith
1972 Cabaret Baron Maximilian von Heune English Bob Fosse Liza Minnelli, Michael York, Joel Grey and Fritz Wepper
The Morals of Ruth Halbfass Franz Vogelsang German Volker Schlöndorff Senta Berger
Ludwig Count Dürckheim English Luchino Visconti Helmut Berger, Romy Schneider, Gert Fröbe, Trevor Howard and Silvana Mangano
1975 Children of Rage Dr. David Shalom English Arthur Allan Seidelman Olga Georges-Picot
1976 The Clown Hans Schnier German Vojtěch Jasný
Written by Heinrich Böll		 Hanna Schygulla and Hans Christian Blech
The Desert of the Tartars Lieutenant Simeon Italian Valerio Zurlini Vittorio Gassman, Laurent Terzieff, Max von Sydow, Philippe Noiret, Jean-Louis Trintignant, Fernando Rey, Giuliano Gemma and Francisco Rabal
Voyage of the Damned Otto Schiendick English Stuart Rosenberg Faye Dunaway, Oskar Werner, Lee Grant, Max von Sydow, James Mason, Malcolm McDowell, Orson Welles, Katharine Ross, Ben Gazzara, Fernando Rey, José Ferrer, Maria Schell and Julie Harris
1978 Germany in Autumn German Rainer Werner Fassbinder,
Volker Schlöndorff,
Edgar Reitz,
Alexander Kluge, et al.
The Glass Cell Phillip Braun German Hans W. Geißendörfer Brigitte Fossey and Bernhard Wicki
Mannen i skuggan [sv] Willi Mohr Swedish Arne Mattsson Slobodan Dimitrijević
Les Rendez-vous d'Anna Heinrich Schneider French Chantal Akerman Aurore Clément
1979 Breakthrough Major Stransky English Andrew V. McLaglen Richard Burton, Robert Mitchum, Rod Steiger and Curd Jürgens
The Hamburg Syndrome Sebastian German Peter Fleischmann Fernando Arrabal
1980 Put on Ice Lehrer Brasch German Bernhard Sinkel Ángela Molina and Martin Benrath
1981 Malou [de] Martin Rethmann German Jeanine Meerapfel Ingrid Caven and Ivan Desny
Sting in the Flesh [de] Hans German Heidi Genée Barbara Lass
The Temptation [pl] Ludwig German Krzysztof Zanussi Maja Komorowska and Eva Maria Meineke TV film
1982 The Magic Mountain James Tienappel German Hans W. Geißendörfer Christoph Eichhorn, Marie-France Pisier, Rod Steiger and Charles Aznavour
Elective Affinities [fr] Eduard Otto French Claude Chabrol Stéphane Audran TV film
La Passante du Sans-Souci Michel Wiener French Jacques Rouffio Romy Schneider and Michel Piccoli
1984 The Devil's Lieutenant Judge Advocate Kunze English John Goldschmidt Ian Charleson, Barbara De Rossi and Claudine Auger TV film
1986 Peter the Great Alexander Menshikov English Marvin J. Chomsky,
Lawrence Schiller		 Maximilian Schell, Vanessa Redgrave, Laurence Olivier, Omar Sharif, Lilli Palmer, Ursula Andress, Hanna Schygulla, Elke Sommer and Trevor Howard TV miniseries
Boundaries of Time: Caspar David Friedrich Carl Gustav Carus German Peter Schamoni Sabine Sinjen and Hans Peter Hallwachs
1987 The Second Victory Karl Fischer English Gerald Thomas Anthony Andrews, Max von Sydow, Mario Adorf and Renée Soutendijk
1988 Faust [de] Faust German Dieter Dorn
(Filmed theatre performance)		 Romuald Pekny [de], Sunnyi Melles and Cornelia Froboess
1989 A proposito di quella strana ragazza Ugo De Magistris Italian Marco Leto Joely Richardson
Hard Days, Hard Nights Kronschneider German Horst Königstein [de] Rita Tushingham
1990 The Plot to Kill Hitler Field Marshal Erwin Rommel English Lawrence Schiller Brad Davis and Ian Richardson TV film
Shooting Stars Gutke English Chris Bernard Sharon Duce and Gary McDonald
1991 Landläufiger Tod Judge Sonnenberg German Michael Schottenberg Paulus Manker and Mercedes Echerer TV film
1993 Charlemagne, le prince à cheval Widukind English Clive Donner Christian Brendel [fr], Anny Duperey and Frank Finlay TV miniseries
Verlassen Sie bitte Ihren Mann! Pertussini German Reinhard Schwabenitzky Elfi Eschke
1995 Brennendes Herz Gustav Regler German Peter Patzak Dominique Sanda, Thomas Kretschmann, Dieter Laser and John Phillip Law
1997 The Lost Daughter Rolf Sutter English Roger Cardinal Richard Chamberlain TV film
2000 Lourdes [it] Auguste La Fontaine Italian Lodovico Gasparini [it] Alessandro Gassmann, Stefania Rocca, Andréa Ferréol and Sydne Rome TV film
2001 Death Train to the Pacific [de] Oscar German Hans Werner [de] Anja Kling TV film

References

  1. ^ Silver, Stephen (February 12, 2022). "Cabaret at 50: The Exhilarating Story of Berlin Before the Fall". tilt.goombastomp.com. Tilt Magazine. Retrieved 2022-07-25.
  2. ^ Profile, imdb.com; accessed 10 May 2014.