Ernst Schröder (actor)

Ernst Schröder
Born	(1915-01-27)27 January 1915 Herne, Germany
Died	Berlin, Germany
Years active	1934–1992
Spouse(s)	Gesa Ferck (1946-?) (1 child) Inge Thiesfeld (1937-1945) (divorced) (2 children)

Ernst Schröder (27 January 1915 – 26 July 1994) was a popular German theatre, film and TV actor.

Life

Born in Herne, Schröder began his acting career at the nearby Bochum Theatre in 1934, under the legendary director Saladin Schmitt. He worked there until 1936, also working as Assistant Director and Stage Designer. After working at Bielefeld and Wuppertal, he moved to the Schiller Theatre in Berlin in 1938, which became his artistic home and the location of his greatest triumphs, particularly after World War II.

During the war he served briefly in the army, was wounded, and returned to the Schiller Theatre in 1942. When in 1944 the theatre was closed, he returned to serve in the army, and ended the war in Italy as a prisoner. He returned to the theatre in 1946 and rapidly re-established his reputation.

He was a member of the jury at the 7th Berlin International Film Festival in 1957.

He was considered one of the greatest character actors of the German theatre, enjoying larger than life roles. He was frequently compared with the pre-war star Heinrich George. In addition, he frequently acted in Zurich and Munich. Although he concentrated on stage work, both as actor and director, he occasionally appeared in film roles, most notably as German General Hans von Salmuth in the 1962 film The Longest Day.

He achieved broader popularity in the 1970s, appearing more frequently on television, particularly in crime shows like Derrick and Der Alte.

In 1980, his daughter, the actress Christiane Schröder (18 January 1942 – 17 September 1980), committed suicide by jumping off the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco.

In 1981, he staged a production of Shakespeare's King Lear at the Bad Hersfeld Festival. At the end of the 1980s he returned to television in the role of 'Lauritz Lorentz' in the series of Lorentz und Söhne (Lorentz and Sons).

In 1991-92, he appeared as the narrator in a dramatised radio version of The Lord of the Rings.

Throughout his career, Schröder also dubbed the voices of popular English-speaking actors into German. Amongst others, he provided the voices for Charles Boyer, James Cagney, William Conrad, Rex Harrison, Herbert Lom, Spencer Tracy, and Peter Ustinov.

At the age of 79, Schröder was diagnosed with cancer at a Berlin hospital. He committed suicide on 26 July 1994 by jumping out of a window.

Theatre

Year	Title	Role	Author	Director	Notes
1937/38	Clavigo	Clavigo	Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
1938/39	Konig Heinrich IV	Prinz Heinrich	William Shakespeare	Ernst Legal
1946	Die Räuber	Karl Moor	Friedrich Schiller	Walter Felsenstein
	Fraulein Julie		August Strindberg	Ernst Schröder
	Boubouroche		Georges Courteline	Ernst Schröder
1948	Caligula	Title role	Albert Camus
1950	Don Carlos	Domingo	Friedrich Schiller	Fritz Kortner
1952	Urfaust	Mephisto	Goethe	Willi Schmidt
1953	Die Räuber	Karl Moor	Friedrich Schiller	Hans Lietzau
	Tartuffe	Title role	Molière	O.F. Schuh
1954	Der zerbrochene Krug	Dorfrichter Adam	Heinrich von Kleist	O.F. Schuh
	Warten auf Godot	Wladimir	Samuel Beckett	Fritz Kortner	with Heinz Rühmann
1958	Richard III	Title role	Shakespeare	Leopold Lindtberg
	Biedermann und die Brandstifter	Schmitzi	Max Frisch	Oskar Wälterlin
1961	Die Echten Sedemunds	Der alte Sedemund	Ernst Barlach	Hans Lietzau
	Andorra	Lehrer	Max Frisch	Kurt Hirschfeld	World premiere
1962	Graf Öderland	Staatsanwalt	Max Frisch	Hans Lietzau
1963	Herkules und der Stall des Augias		Friedrich Dürrenmatt		World premiere
1964	Christian Maske, 1913		Carl Sternheim
	Marat/Sade	Marquis de Sade	Peter Weiss	Konrad Swinarski	World premiere
1965	Die Wanze	Prisipkin	Wladimir Majakowski	Konrad Swinarski
1966	Faust II	Mephisto	Goethe	Ernst Schröder
1967	Endspiel	Hamm	Samuel Beckett	Samuel Beckett
	Die Wiedertaufer	Bockelson	Friedrich Dürrenmatt	Werner Düggelin	World premiere
1968	Die Trauung	Vater	Witold Gombrowicz	Ernst Schröder
1973	Lear	Title role	Edward Bond	Hans Lietzau
1983	Über Allen Gipfeln Ist Ruh	Moritz Meister	Thomas Bernhard	Kurt Hübner	Volksbühne production

Filmography

Year	Title	Role	Director	Also Starring
1941	Ohm Krüger	Adrian Krüger	Hans Steinhoff	Emil Jannings
1944	The Degenhardts	Jochem Degenhardt	Werner Klingler	Heinrich George
1949	The Last Illusion		Josef von Báky	Fritz Kortner
1952	Unter den tausend Laternen		Erich Engel	Michel Auclair
1953	The Man Between	Olaf Kastner	Carol Reed	James Mason, Claire Bloom and Hildegard Knef
1954	Captain Wronski	Stepan	Ulrich Erfurth	Willy Birgel, Elisabeth Flickenschildt
1955	Liebe Ohne Illusion	Jellinek	Erich Engel	Sonja Ziemann and Curd Jürgens
1956	The Story of Anastasia		Falk Harnack	Lilli Palmer and Ivan Desny
1957	Stresemann	Dr. Gustav Stresemann	Alfred Braun	Anouk Aimée and Wolfgang Preiss
1958	Der Eiserne Gustav	Friedrich Karl Möbius	George Hurdalek	Heinz Rühmann and Lucie Mannheim
1959	The Black Chapel	Julian Hoffmann	fr	Peter van Eyck
1960	Mein Schulfreund	Hauptmann Kühn	Robert Siodmak	Heinz Rühmann
1962	The Counterfeit Traitor	Baron Gerhard von Oldenburg	George Seaton	William Holden and Lilli Palmer
	The Longest Day	Gen. Hans von Salmuth	Ken Annakin, Andrew Marton, Bernhard Wicki and Darryl F. Zanuck	John Wayne and Robert Mitchum
1964	The Secret of Dr. Mabuse	Chefarzt	Hugo Fregonese	Peter van Eyck and O. E. Hasse
	The Visit	Mayor	Bernhard Wicki	Ingrid Bergman and Anthony Quinn
1965	Heidi	Herr Sesemann	Werner Jacobs	Gustav Knuth and Margot Trooger
1974	The Odessa File	Werner Deilman	Ronald Neame	Jon Voight, Maximilian Schell and Maria Schell

Television

Year	Title	Role	Author	Director	Also Starring
1960	Abendstunde im Spatherbst	Maximilian Friedrich Korbes	Rudolf Noelte
1962	Leben Des Galilei	Galileo Galilei	Bertolt Brecht	Egon Monk
	Der Biberpelz	Von Wehrhahn	Gerhart Hauptmann	John Olden	Inge Meysel
1976	Derrick	Werner Solms	Herbert Reinecker	Alfred Weidemann	Mathieu Carrière
		Dr. Scheibnitz	Herbert Reinecker	Dietrich Haugk	Hans Stetter
1978	Die Eingesschlossenen		Jean-Paul Sartre	Pinkas Braun	Judy Winter and Uwe Friedrichsen
1983	Derrick	Professor Rotheim	Herbert Reinecker	Theodor Grädler	Gisela Stein
1984	Mrs. Harris - Freund mit Rolls Royce	Sir Wilmot		Georg Tressler	Inge Meysel, Edith Volkmann and Eberhard Feik
1988	Lorentz & Söhne	Lauritz Lorentz		Claus Peter Witt	Heli Finkenzeller, Hans Korte and Gerd Baltus
1991	Rochade	Melkovic		Peter Patzak	Michael York and Iris Berben

External links

• Ernst Schröder at the Internet Movie Database
• Ernst Schröder at Find a Grave