Robert Freitag

Robert Peter Freytag (7 April 1916 in Vienna – 8 July 2010 in Munich), known professionally as Robert Freitag, was an Austrian-Swiss stage and screen actor and film director.

Life

Freitag is the son of the Swiss opera singer Otto Freitag. He was trained as an actor at the Max Reinhardt Seminar in Vienna. During the Nazi era he went to Switzerland, where he was active as an actor at the Schauspielhaus Zürich (Zürich playhouse). In 1945 he married the German actress Maria Becker, who had studied acting in Vienna and who since had been at the Schauspielhaus Zürich, which had benefitted from the presence of German émigrés during the Second World War. Becker became a Swiss citizen by marrying Freitag.

In 1949 Freitag began participating in the Salzburg Festival. Later he performed, among other places, at the Deutsches Schauspielhaus and the Hamburger Kammerspiele, both in Hamburg.

With his wife Maria Becker and the German stage actor Will Quadflieg he founded the Zürcher Schauspieltruppe in 1956 in Zürich, where he was also a part-time administrator. That troupe performed throughout the German-speaking countries and in the United States.

On stage he played many classical and modern roles. Beginning in 1941 he also appeared in films—in particular in the starring role in William Tell. Later he often appeared on television.

Freitag and Maria Becker were divorced in 1966, but they continued to work together, especially in the travelling theater company Schauspieltruppe Zürich that they had founded. They had three sons, two of whom—Benedict Freitag and Oliver Tobias—became actors.

In 1994, Freitag's autobiography, Es wollt mir behagen, mit Lachen die Wahrheit zu sagen was published by Pendo Verlag.

In 2001 at the age of 85, he had a role in the made-for-TV film Die Liebenden vom Alexanderplatz (The Alexanderplatz Lovers), directed by Detlef Rönfeldt.

Freitag's second marriage, to the German actress Maria Sebaldt, lasted from 1966 until his death. They lived in Grünwald, Bavaria. They had a daughter.

Filmography

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1941	Love is Duty Free	Swiss customs officer
1941	Bieder der Flieger	Oskar Bider
1943	Wilder Urlaub	Sergeant Epper
1948	Die Frau am Wege	the fugitive
1949	White Gold	Andreas
1950	Es liegt was in der Luft
1951	Decision Before Dawn	Sgt. Paul Richter
1953	The Village Under the Sky	Dr. Michael Ellert
1954	A Woman of Today	Aldo Mattei
1954	Circus of Love	Richards
1954	Conchita and the Engineer	Cyll Farney
1954	Der schweigende Engel	Robert
1954	Dear Miss Doctor	Father Anselmus
1955	Ich weiß, wofür ich lebe	Peter Neumann, mechanic
1955	The Plot to Assassinate Hitler	Captain Lindner
1955	Magic Fire	August Roeckel
1955	Wenn der Vater mit dem Sohne	Roy Bentley
1955	Il prigioniero della montagna (Flucht in die Dolomiten)	Sergio
1956	The First Day of Spring	Bruno
1956	Der Meineidbauer	first border policeman
1956	Von der Liebe besiegt (Schicksal am Matterhorn)	Beni Kronig – mountain guide
1957	Die große Chance	Chaplain Sommer
1958	Resurrection	Simonson
1959	SOS – Gletscherpilot	Engineer Gisler
1961	William Tell	William Tell
1961	Das letzte Kapitel (The Last Chapter)	Lawyer Robertsen
1962	The Longest Day	Meye's Aide	Uncredited
1963	The Great Escape	Captain Posen
1976	Néa	Benito
1976	Riedland
1981	Berlin Tunnel 21	Dr. Lentz
1985	Wild Geese II	Stroebling
2001	Die Liebenden vom Alexanderplatz		(final film role)

External links

• Robert Freitag at IMDb