Actor Erwin Geschonnek dies at 101
Survived World War II before beginning career
|
More Articles:
Most Viewed:
'New Moon' wins Thanksgiving box office(3854 views)Invictus(1889 views)Hollywood sea of change(1833 views)Paramount lands 'Area 51'(1638 views)'New Moon' crosses $200 million(1410 views)Christopher Eccleston plays Lennon(1160 views) |
Born in Bartenstein, East Prussia, his family moved to Berlin's notorious Ackerstrasse working class neighborhood. One year later his mother died, and only two of five siblings survived their childhood.
He joined Germany's communist party KPD in 1919, and in 1934 emigrated into the Soviet Union, from where he was expelled by the Russian militia in 1938. Hardly back, he was arrested by the Nazis' secret police, and in the years to follow survived three concentration camps as well as the bombarding of refugee ship Cap Arcona, which cost over 3,000 lives.
In 1932 he had had his first celluloid appearance as an extra in classic social drama "Kuhle Wampe." But really started only in 1949 when author Bertold Brecht hired him for his Berliner Ensemble.
The many pics Geschonnek did in the following decades for East Germany's Defa Film include local classic "The Cold Heart," "Naked Among Wolves," "Jeder stirbt fuer sich allein," and especially "Jakob the Liar," the only Defa film that in was nominated for an Oscar (and later remade by Hollywood with Robin Williams).
Following the German reunification in 1990, Geschonnek appeared only one more time, on TV, in "Matulla und Busch," helmed by his son Matti.
He is survived by his fifth wife Heike, and by his children Matti, Fina, and Alexander.
