
Helmut Qualtinger was born in Vienna, Austria. He initially studied medicine, but quit university to become a newspaper reporter and film critic for local press, while beginning to write texts for cabaret performances and theater plays. Qualtinger debuted as an actor at a student theater and attended the Max Reinhardt Seminar as a guest student. Beginning in 1947, he appeared in cabaret performances. In 1949, Qualtinger's first theatrical play, Jugend vor den Schranken, was staged in Graz. Up to 1960, Qualtinger collaborated on various cabaret programmes with the Namenlosen Ensemble made up of Gerhard Bronner, Carl Merz, Louise Martini, Peter Wehle, Georg Kreisler, and Michael Kehlmann. Qualtinger was famous for his practical jokes. In 1951, he managed to launch a false report in several newspapers announcing a visit to Vienna of a (fictional) famous Inuit poet named Kobuk (author of "The Burning Igloo"). The reporters who assembled at the railway station however were to witness Qualtinger, in fur coat and cap, stepping from the train. Asked about his "first impressions of Vienna", the "Inuit poet" commented in broad Viennese dialect, "Haaaßis'sdo - [It's hot here]". The short one-man play Der Herr Karl, written by Qualtinger and Carl Merz and performed by Qualtinger in 1961, made the author known across German-speaking countries. "Herr Karl", a grocery store clerk, tells the story of his life to an imaginary colleague - from the days of the Habsburg empire, the First Austrian Republic, the Austrofascist regime leading up to the Anschluss (annexation) by Nazi Germany, World War II and finally military occupation by Allied forces in the 1950s, seen from the perspective of a one who is a prototypical opportunist. Qualtinger's portrayal of the petit-bourgeois Nazi collaborator came at a time when "normality" had just been restored and Austrians' involvement in the Nazi movement was being downplayed and "forgotten", making many enemies for the author, who even received anonymous threats of murder. Beginning in the 1970s, Qualtinger frequently performed recitals of his own and other texts, including excerpts from Adolf Hitler's Mein Kampf and Karl Kraus' Die letzten Tage der Menschheit (The Last Days of Mankind). These recitals were highly popular and resulted in several records being published. Qualtinger played countless theater, TV and film parts, making his final appearance in The Name of the Rose in 1986, along with Sean Connery. Qualtinger died in Vienna on 29 September 1986, of a liver condition. From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

as Self (archive footage)

as Remigio da Varagine

as Dr. Döblinger

as Viktor

as Zauberkönig

as Sepp O'Brian

as Dr. Ludwig Pfister

as Mulligan

as Huck

as Officer

as Von Schwendi

as Ragin

as Kulterer

as Anselm Eibenschütz

as Himself

as Soldat

as Erwin Plückhahn

as Johann Plantagenet, König von England

as Nationalrat Bröschl

as Natter

as Ignaz Trummer

as Rudi Böhm

as Schalanter

as Bürgel

as Ferry

as Inspektor Pokorny

as Pitzl

as Herr Karl

as Matzenauer

as Capitano Agamemnon Heredia

as Scharfrichter Engel

as Knieriem, ein Schustergeselle

as Konrad Steisshäuptl

as Schmitz - ein Ringer

as Melchior - Hausknecht

as Oskar

as Oberpolizeirat Dr. Radosch

as Ministerialdirigent Kriegbaum

as Seppl Reber

as Detective Zawadil

as Oberst Fedor Fedorowitsch Ganiew

as Kanzakis

as Der Schlechtere

as Wollner

as Ernst Röhm

as Werbefachmann

as Orientalischer Fürst

as Mirko

as Direktor Pokorny

as Kraps