Helmut Griem

Helmut Griem
Helmut Griem (left) in Berlin, 1968.
Born	(1932-04-06)6 April 1932 Hamburg, Germany
Died	19 November 2004(2004-11-19) (aged 72) Munich, Germany
Occupation(s)	Stage and movie actor, theatre director
Years active	1956–2002

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 German-speaking 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.

Among his many film and TV appearances was one in NBC's Peter the Great as the formidable Tsar's lifelong friend and "right hand" Alexander Menshikov, alongside Maximilian Schell. His role in the Academy Award-winning film Cabaret (1972) as the wealthy Baron Maximilian von Heune is probably his best-known international performance. Other performances include his work in The Damned, The McKenzie Break, and Ludwig. 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 Maria Fagyas, for Channel 4 and ZDF.

Despite his success in film, the theatre remained at the heart of Griem's work, and he 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. He died at Munich in 2004.

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

Date	Title	Director	With...
1960	de	Frank Wisbar Written by Hans Hellmut Kirst	Horst Frank
1961	Girl from Hong Kong	Franz Peter Wirth	Akiko Wakabayashi and Hanns Lothar
	Barbara	Frank Wisbar	Harriet Andersson
1962	it (Today in Berlin)	it Written by Piero Vivarelli, Giuseppe Isani
1963	fr	Michel Deville	Mylène Demongeot and Jacques Charrier
1969	The Damned	Luchino Visconti	Dirk Bogarde, Ingrid Thulin and Helmut Berger
1970	The McKenzie Break	Lamont Johnson	Brian Keith
1972	Cabaret	Bob Fosse	Liza Minnelli, Michael York, Joel Grey and Fritz Wepper
	de	Volker Schlöndorff	Senta Berger
	Ludwig	Luchino Visconti	Helmut Berger, Romy Schneider, Gert Fröbe, Trevor Howard and Silvana Mangano
1975	Children of Rage	Arthur Allan Seidelman	Olga Georges-Picot
1976	The Clown	Vojtěch Jasný Written by Heinrich Böll	Hanna Schygulla and Hans Christian Blech
	Le Désert des Tartares	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	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	Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Volker Schlöndorff, Edgar Reitz, Alexander Kluge, et al.
	The Glass Cell	Hans W. Geißendörfer	Brigitte Fossey and Bernhard Wicki
	sv	Arne Mattsson	Slobodan Dimitrijević
	Les Rendez-vous d'Anna	Chantal Akerman	Aurore Clément
1979	Breakthrough	Andrew V. McLaglen	Richard Burton, Robert Mitchum, Rod Steiger and Curd Jürgens
	de	Peter Fleischmann	Fernando Arrabal
1980	Put on Ice	Bernhard Sinkel	Ángela Molina and Martin Benrath
1981	Malou	Jeanine Meerapfel	Ingrid Caven and Ivan Desny
	de	Heidi Genée	Barbara Lass
1982	Elective Affinities (TV film)	Claude Chabrol	Stéphane Audran
	La Passante du Sans-Souci	Jacques Rouffio	Romy Schneider and Michel Piccoli
	pl (TV film)	Krzysztof Zanussi	Maja Komorowska and de
1984	The Devil's Lieutenant (TV film)	John Goldschmidt	Ian Charleson, Barbara De Rossi and Claudine Auger
1986	Peter the Great (TV miniseries)	Marvin J. Chomsky, Lawrence Schiller	Maximilian Schell, Vanessa Redgrave, Laurence Olivier, Omar Sharif, Lilli Palmer, Ursula Andress, Hanna Schygulla, Elke Sommer and Trevor Howard
	de	Peter Schamoni	Sabine Sinjen and Hans Peter Hallwachs
1987	The Second Victory	Gerald Thomas	Anthony Andrews and Max von Sydow
1988	de	Dieter Dorn (Filmed theatre performance)	de, Sunnyi Melles and Cornelia Froboess
1989	A proposito di quella strana ragazza	Marco Leto	Joely Richardson
1990	The Plot to Kill Hitler (TV film)	Lawrence Schiller	Brad Davis and Ian Richardson
	Landläufiger Tod (TV film)	Michael Schottenberg	Paulus Manker and Mercedes Echerer
1993	Charlemagne, le prince à cheval (TV miniseries)	Clive Donner	fr, Anny Duperey and Frank Finlay
1995	Brennendes Herz	Peter Patzak	Dominique Sanda, Thomas Kretschmann, Dieter Laser and John Phillip Law

External links

• Helmut Griem at IMDb
• Helmut Griem Fan Tribute
• Interview with Helmut Griem german
• Helmut Griem at Find a Grave