- Fritz Muliar
Fritz Muliar (born
December 12 ,1919 as Friedrich Ludwig Stand) is anAustria n actor who, due to his huge popularity, is often referred to by his countrymen as "Volksschauspieler".Born in
Neubau ,Vienna as the stepson of a jeweller, Muliar became acabaret artist in the late 1930s. After serving in the Second World War, he was imprisoned by the Nazis in 1942 and spent seven months insolitary confinement for "Betätigung zur Wiederherstellung eines freien Österreich" (activities to restore Austrian independence—seeAnschluss .) After the Jail 3 Years POW.After the war, Muliar started his career as a stage actor. Of small build, he once said that his ambitions have never included playing parts such as that of
Othello . Rather, he has always preferred comic roles and traditional Austrian fare (Johann Nestroy ,Ferdinand Raimund ). Muliar has also excelled in imitating various accents, in particular those used by Czech andYiddish speakers of German. In 1990, he had enormous success inFelix Mitterer 's play for one person, "Siberia" (televised in 1991), a study inageism about an old man who has been abandoned by his family in aretirement home and his struggle fordignity .While he also performed regularly at the
Salzburg Festival ("Jedermann ", a version of "Everyman "), Muliar has been associated with two Viennese theatres in particular: theBurgtheater (whosetenure d member he was until his retirement), and theTheater in der Josefstadt , where he retired in 2002. He was one of the severest critics ofClaus Peymann (born 1937), director of the Burgtheater between 1986 and 1999 whose leadership polarized Austrian theatregoers by its focus on controversial playwrights such asThomas Bernhard andElfriede Jelinek .Musical theatre has seen Muliar in the non-singing role of Frosch in "Die Fledermaus ".Muliar appeared in numerous films and in some television series such as "
Kir Royal " (alongsideFranz Xaver Kroetz ) and "Kommissar Rex ". He is best remembered beyond the boundaries of his native Vienna for playing the title role in the 13-part TV series, "Die Abenteuer des braven Soldaten Schwejk", which was filmed in German and broadcast by theAustria n state TV (ORF) in 1972.Muliar is a committed
Social Democrat who has publicly supported various Austrian Social Democratic politicians during theirelection campaign s. He has been married since 1955 toFranziska Kalmar , Austria's firsttelevision presenter . The couple has two sons, Alexander (born 1957) and Martin (born 1959). His son by an earlier marriage, Hans, died in 1990. Fritz Muliar and his wife live in Groß-Enzersdorf, in theLobau area, near Vienna. In January 2006 he was elected for the position of a public advisor in the Austrian state TV (ORF).External links
*imdb name|id=0611869|name=Fritz Muliar
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