Fritz Wepper, a German actor with a prolific TV career in his native country but known to American audiences for his funny and heartfelt performance as a German Jew is Bob Fosse’s Oscar-winning 1972 hit musical Cabaret, died Monday at a hospice facility in Munich. He was 82.
His death was announced by wife Susanne Kellermann to German newspaper Bild. Kellerman said Wepper passed away peacefully following a long illness.
A familiar presence in Germany from his role as the crime-solving Detective Sergeant Harry Klein in the long-running series Derrick (1974-98), Wepper made a lasting impression on international audiences with his performance as the charming, if insecure, aspiring gigolo Fritz Wendel of Cabaret.
In the film starring Liza Minnelli, Michael York and Joel Grey, Wepper’s Fritz befriended Minnelli’s Sally Bowles and York’s Brian Roberts, while longing for the beautiful and wealthy Jewish heiress Natalia Landauer (Marisa Berenson). Secretly Jewish himself,...
His death was announced by wife Susanne Kellermann to German newspaper Bild. Kellerman said Wepper passed away peacefully following a long illness.
A familiar presence in Germany from his role as the crime-solving Detective Sergeant Harry Klein in the long-running series Derrick (1974-98), Wepper made a lasting impression on international audiences with his performance as the charming, if insecure, aspiring gigolo Fritz Wendel of Cabaret.
In the film starring Liza Minnelli, Michael York and Joel Grey, Wepper’s Fritz befriended Minnelli’s Sally Bowles and York’s Brian Roberts, while longing for the beautiful and wealthy Jewish heiress Natalia Landauer (Marisa Berenson). Secretly Jewish himself,...
- 3/27/2024
- by Greg Evans
- Deadline Film + TV
Fritz Wepper, the German actor who portrayed the German Jew Fritz Wendel in Bob Fosse’s Oscar-winning musical masterpiece Cabaret and starred in his home country on the TV series Derrick and For Heaven’s Sake, has died. He was 82.
Wepper died Monday in a Munich hospice after a long illness that followed the life-threatening sepsis he suffered last year, his family announced.
An actor since childhood, Wepper landed the biggest international role of his career in Cabaret (1972), where he appeared alongside Liza Minnelli, Michael York, Helmut Griem and Joel Grey. As Wendel, he passed as a Protestant and fell in love with wealthy Jewish heiress Natalia Landauer (Marisa Berenson).
After the film’s success — it raked in eight Oscars in 1973 — Wepper turned down Hollywood offers and instead took a sidekick role as Harry Klein on the new German crime series Derrick, playing alongside Horst Tappert‘s titular homicide detective, a...
Wepper died Monday in a Munich hospice after a long illness that followed the life-threatening sepsis he suffered last year, his family announced.
An actor since childhood, Wepper landed the biggest international role of his career in Cabaret (1972), where he appeared alongside Liza Minnelli, Michael York, Helmut Griem and Joel Grey. As Wendel, he passed as a Protestant and fell in love with wealthy Jewish heiress Natalia Landauer (Marisa Berenson).
After the film’s success — it raked in eight Oscars in 1973 — Wepper turned down Hollywood offers and instead took a sidekick role as Harry Klein on the new German crime series Derrick, playing alongside Horst Tappert‘s titular homicide detective, a...
- 3/27/2024
- by Scott Roxborough
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
(See previous post: “Gay Pride Movie Series Comes to a Close: From Heterosexual Angst to Indonesian Coup.”) Ken Russell's Valentino (1977) is notable for starring ballet dancer Rudolf Nureyev as silent era icon Rudolph Valentino, whose sexual orientation, despite countless gay rumors, seems to have been, according to the available evidence, heterosexual. (Valentino's supposed affair with fellow “Latin Lover” Ramon Novarro has no basis in reality.) The female cast is also impressive: Veteran Leslie Caron (Lili, Gigi) as stage and screen star Alla Nazimova, ex-The Mamas & the Papas singer Michelle Phillips as Valentino wife and Nazimova protégée Natacha Rambova, Felicity Kendal as screenwriter/producer June Mathis (The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse), and Carol Kane – lately of Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt fame. Bob Fosse's Cabaret (1972) is notable as one of the greatest musicals ever made. As a 1930s Cabaret presenter – and the Spirit of Germany – Joel Grey was the year's Best Supporting Actor Oscar winner. Liza Minnelli...
- 6/30/2017
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Chicago – It’s easy to see why “Cabaret” was such a phenomenon when it was released in 1972. The film not only tackles issues of sexuality that the musical genre had largely ignored up to that point, it features the kind of evocative visual compositions and performances not often seen in the genre. It is a “serious musical.” And audiences and critics embraced it by bringing respect to a genre not known to have much, awarding the film eight Oscars, more than any movie that did not win Best Picture (“The Godfather” happened to come out the same year). Recently released in a restored WB digibook edition, it’s a great film for the musical collector to own on Blu-ray.
Rating: 4.0/5.0
With that praise out of the way, let me say something kind of blasphemous, and this is coming from a gigantic fan of the musical genre, I don’t think...
Rating: 4.0/5.0
With that praise out of the way, let me say something kind of blasphemous, and this is coming from a gigantic fan of the musical genre, I don’t think...
- 2/11/2013
- by adam@hollywoodchicago.com (Adam Fendelman)
- HollywoodChicago.com
Life is a cabaret, old chum, come to the Cabaret. on Blu-ray. Bob Fosse.s award winning anti-musical finally makes its high definition debut and the results are spectacular. It.s a show you don.t want to miss. So come to the Cabaret!! 1931 . Willkommen! English academic Brian (Michael York) is a new arrival in Germany and finds a cheap boarding house. He makes fast friends with an American named Sally (Liza Minnelli) who is a singer at the Kit Kat Klub, where the show is hosted by the ghoulish Master of Ceremonies (Joel Grey). Brian eventually takes on students Fritz (Fritz Wepper) and Natalia (Marisa Berenson), who want to learn English, to make ends meet. Fritz falls...
- 2/5/2013
- by Jeff Swindoll
- Monsters and Critics
Cologne, Germany -- Funny nuns proved more than a match for Horatio Caine and his team as German sitcom "Um Himmels Willen," featuring a cloister of rambunctious sisters of God, easily beat out top U.S. import "CSI: Miami" in the ratings race Tuesday night.
The Ard series, starring Janina Hartwig and Fritz Wepper, drew 7.3 million viewers, a 22.1% share, compared with 5 million and 15.2% for "CSI: Miami."
Ard hospital series "In aller Freundschaft" also won the head-to-head with "House" on Rtl, with the homegrown series drawing 5.9 million viewers, a 17.1% share, compared with 3.9 million and 12.2% for "House."
But in the race for ad dollars, U.S. shows continue to score. In the key 14-49 demographic used by German broadcasters to calculate advertising rates, "C.S.I: Miami" and "House" were Tuesday's winners, taking a 24.4% and 21.4% share respectively. The bulk of Ard's audience is in the 50-plus category.
The Ard series, starring Janina Hartwig and Fritz Wepper, drew 7.3 million viewers, a 22.1% share, compared with 5 million and 15.2% for "CSI: Miami."
Ard hospital series "In aller Freundschaft" also won the head-to-head with "House" on Rtl, with the homegrown series drawing 5.9 million viewers, a 17.1% share, compared with 3.9 million and 12.2% for "House."
But in the race for ad dollars, U.S. shows continue to score. In the key 14-49 demographic used by German broadcasters to calculate advertising rates, "C.S.I: Miami" and "House" were Tuesday's winners, taking a 24.4% and 21.4% share respectively. The bulk of Ard's audience is in the 50-plus category.
- 2/25/2009
- by By Scott Roxborough
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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