Michael Heltau – the actor, singer and entertainer at 85

Thus, over the last few months, the great actor, who celebrated his first at the castle last November with his incredible 34th solo program, "I want a blue balloon …" On December 29th, he dies at the Age 91, his long-time partner, the Dutch director and author Loek Huisman, playwright responsible for the great solo nights of Heltau

. Michael Heltau was born in Germany, where he was born on July 5, 1933, under the name of Heribert Michael Huber in Ingolstadt, Bavaria. Entrusted to grandparents and great-grandparents, he spent his childhood and settled in 1939 in Seewalchen am Attersee, where the father had found work in the construction of motorways. He attended high school in Gmunden, was expelled in 1945 with the family of Austria and graduated in Ingolstadt. Actress Käthe Dorsch had already noticed her imitating talent in a theatrical performance for children, and the boy sponsored quickly fell into the actor profession, for which he seemed to be doing.

From 1951 to 1953 Heltau attended the Max Reinhardt seminar in Vienna. His first engagement was given to him, but he returned to the old homeland in 1953 at the Würzburg City Theater. In 1954 he went to Munich's Bavarian Theater, and in 1956 he returned to Vienna, especially to Josefstadt. From 1964 Heltau participates in the Salzburg Festival (in 1973 he is on stage in the famous collage of Shakespeare by Giorgio Strehler "The Game of the Mighty").

In 1967, Heltau debuted at the Burgtheater – a milestone in his career as an artist, he was in 1972 a member of the entire house, of which he has been an honorary member since 2003. That had been ten years since he had been appointed the youngest dean of the Burgtheater until now. Appointed by the Artistic Director in consultation with the Bundestheaterholding, the Artistic Committee and the Representation of the ensemble, this honorary title may be awarded to an actor who has been at home for at least ten years, finished his 50th year. Heltau, who obtained Austrian citizenship in 1968, played outstanding roles in almost all the major roles of clbadical theater literature – from Romeo to Hamlet, from Don Carlos to Anatol in Wallenstein and to "Othello" from Shagoree in 1982. Munich, led by his esteemed Peter Palitzsch, has become one of the few flops of his career. At the same time, Heltau increasingly imposed on the music scene: in 1972, he played Bluntschli at the Theater an der Wien in the musical Udo-Jürgens "Heroes, Heroes". Professor Higgins of "My Fair Lady" he played at the Vienna Volksoper (which gave him honorary membership in 2004) as well as the 1995 "Hamlet" in Shakespeare's operatic version by Ambroise Thomas or the old man living Honore Lachailles in "Gigi" Under the new director of the Burgtheater Claus Peymann, Heltau first joined the ranks of the castle mimes disguised, but then had in "Children of the Sun" of Gorky, in " Henri IV of Pirandello. and as achievements of Chekhov's "Tonton Vanya". In 1994, he played at Home on Ring under the direction of his venerable hunters, for which he had entered in 1986 as Mackie the adventure of a Quatous Opera in Paris, the Cotrone in "The Mountain Giant" by Luigi Pirandello, Akademietheater 1999 alongside Kitty Speiser "The Baby Game" by Edward Albee. In 2004, he appeared in "Love Letters" the last time in a game.

Since then, the second Heltaus career has taken over as a singer and artist, who had started in 1965 with a talking plate – a recording of the solo evening with "Werther's suffering" other recordings like "Heltau sings Brel" followed. On stage he has celebrated great successes, especially with the programs "Auf of Nacht, Herr Direktor", "But now, Herr Direktor", "Again, Herr Direktor" or "In the Spotlight" designed with his life partner Loek Huisman. His performances and tours show the singer of songs beyond the theatrical stage.

From 1976 to 1988, he presents the ZDF series "Liedercircus". Nevertheless, working for film and television has never really satisfied the actor based in Vienna because of the lack of contact with the public and therefore remained manageable. Among the many roles (and theater directions), which he rejected in his career, is also that of Dr. Brinkmann in the television series "Schwarzwaldklinik". He had recognized in time that he could never again enter a scene without the public imagining the white doctor's coat

Even as a young actor in the 1970s with the Karl Skraup Prize and the Kainz Medal II he also received the Golden Town Hallman from the city of Vienna and in 1986 he was appointed Austrian chamberleader. In 2001, Heltau received the Austrian Honorary Cross for Science and Art 1st Clbad, in 2005 the "Nestroy" for his work and in 2006 he was awarded the 1st Clbad Merit Cross of the Year. 39; Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany. In 2008, the Vienna Mozart Community, of which he was president for many years, awarded him the Mozart Ring. In 2010, Heltau received the Burgtheater-Ring, created especially for the honorary members of the house, and was joined by Ensemble der Ehrenring in 2014.

On the occasion of the semicircular birthday, ORF pays tribute to Sunday morning 9:05 on ORF 2. In the documentary "Michael Heltau – Everything for the Stage" Michael Bukowsky and Angelina Tichy have traced the career stations of the Vienna actor in Würzburg, from Munich to Berlin and back to Vienna. Earlier, at 8:15 on Ö1 in a 1991 year recording Heltau in the U.a poetry recitation To hear Eichendorff, Hebbel and Christine Busta, at 14.05 o'clock the Ö1 "Menschenbilder" are dedicated to him. The following week (8 July), ORF III honors the Jubilee with a lecture ("KulturWerk: Michael Heltau") and a documentary ("Michael Heltau – With Charm and Soul"). And anyone who has access to the Heimatkbad TV channel can indulge in a lot of nostalgia next Thursday, when in the feature film "Schloss Hubertus" of 1954, a meeting with the young Heltau as painter Forbeck alongside the young Marianne Koch Geislein gives.

(APA)