Helmut Qualtinger

Acting

Helmut Qualtinger

Born 1928-10-08 · Vienna, Austria

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

Acting credits

The Name of the Rose poster
7.5

14th-century Franciscan monk William of Baskerville and his young novice arrive at a conference to find that several monks have been murdered under mysterious circumstances. To solve the crimes, William must rise up against the Church's authority and fight the shadowy conspiracy of monastery monks using only his intelligence; which is considerable.

The Name of the Rose

1986

Die schöne Lügnerin poster
6.4

In 1815 Vienna, a corsetmaker falls in love with a valet.

Die schöne Lügnerin

1959

Man müßte nochmal zwanzig sein poster
6.5

No synopsis available yet.

Man müßte nochmal zwanzig sein

1958

Scherben bringen Glück poster
7.3

No synopsis available yet.

Scherben bringen Glück

1957

No artwork available
9.0

No synopsis available yet.

König der Manege

1954

An Oral History of: The Name of the Rose poster
2.0

An oral history of the 1986 film adaptation of "The Name of the Rose", gathering together the memories of several members of the surviving cast/crew.

An Oral History of: The Name of the Rose

2022

No artwork available
NR

The pub “Zum Weißen Lamm” (the White Lamb) is filled to the brim with nasty bores. The innkeeper, played by a sweat-soaked Helmut Qualtinger, and his self-righteous circle of regulars are thrown into turmoil when a quest who is supposedly “the Rasberry picker,” a former SS officer, checks in.

Der Himbeerpflücker

1965

No artwork available
8.0

No synopsis available yet.

Feuerwasser

1978

End of the Game poster
5.0

Hans Baerlach is a Swiss police detective who has dedicated much of his career to pursuing powerful and allegedly murderous businessman Richard Gastmann. Though Baerlach's partner meets his demise while investigating Gastmann, his replacement, Walter Tschanz, is undaunted. Meanwhile, the lovely Anna Crawley becomes involved in the case, which proceeds to take many twists and turns.

End of the Game

1975

No artwork available
10.0

No synopsis available yet.

Das Abgründige in Herrn Gerstenberg

1957

MitGift poster
4.6

Edgar Burgman, after collaborating to assassinate the elder senator husband of Alice Young, the wife remarried. The woman, after a short period, doubts of love Edgar and convinces more and more that, having married out of interest, now wants to eliminate the possession of his great assets.

MitGift

1976

Tales from the Vienna Woods poster
6.1

Based on a popular 1931 play, the film tells the fate of a naive young woman named Marianne, who breaks off her reluctant engagement with Oskar the butcher after falling in love with a fop named Alfred who, however, has no serious interest in returning her love. For this error, she must pay bitterly.

Tales from the Vienna Woods

1979

No artwork available
10.0

Leim, the carpenter’s journeyman, invests his lottery winnings wisely and marries his master Hoblmann’s daughter Pepi, securing a comfortable middle-class life. Zwirn, the tailor, falls for the alluring Signora Palpiti and lavishes his newfound wealth on her, rapidly depleting his fortune. Knieriem, the stout shoemaker’s apprentice, spends his windfall on endless drinking and revelry, embracing the carefree life without regrets.

Lumpazivagabundus

1965

Ward 6 poster
7.0

A hospital in a shabby provincial town in Tsar Russia swarming with spies, traitors and secret police. Doctor Ragin worries about his patient Gronow in Ward Six. Gronow is a former civil servant who talks about the future.

Ward 6

1974

No artwork available
9.0

No synopsis available yet.

Mulligans Rückkehr

1977

Abelard - Die Entmannung poster
4.8

The story is about the Munich veterinarian Dr. Georg Rauh and his erotic-amorous relationships with women

Abelard - Die Entmannung

1977

Einmal keine Sorgen haben poster
7.5

No synopsis available yet.

Einmal keine Sorgen haben

1953

Der Herr Karl poster
8.3

The antihero "Mr. Karl" tells a "young person", the viewer, his life story while he sits at work in the warehouse of a delicatessen. The narrator increasingly turns out to be an opportunistic follower from the petty-bourgeois milieu, who maneuvered his way through life in the changing course of Austrian history from the end of the First World War to the end of the occupation in the 1950s.

Der Herr Karl

1967

No artwork available
NR

No synopsis available yet.

Das vierte Gebot

1968

No artwork available
9.0

After World War II, an aging controversial Norwegian Nobel Prize winner must confront his past and the moral implications of his Nazi sympathies while being challenged by a man intent on holding him accountable.

Eiszeit

1975

No artwork available
6.7

A German TV documentary that chronicles the daily rehearsals, the filming and all the behind the scenes of Jean-Jacques Annaud's classic "The Name of the Rose". From actors perspectives to the ideas used by the director to produce an impeccable international epic adaptation of Umberto Eco's best selling novel, the film presents the obstacles behind the creation of a production of such large scale and also the making of the many difficult scenes, most of the ones presented here are the characters' murders inside the mysterious abbey.

The Abbey of Crime: Umberto Eco's 'The Name of the Rose'

1986

Hanussen poster
8.0

In Germany during World War II, a well-known psychic decides to collaborate with the Nazis.

Hanussen

1955

Grandison poster
7.0

The case of stagecoach robber Carl Grandison, who lived in Heidelberg as a respected merchant and committed suicide in prison in 1814, as material for an expensive (DM 5.1 million), over-aestheticized flashback film: the decorations, props and costumes are right, otherwise everything seems fake.

Grandison

1978

April 1, 2000 poster
6.8

It is the year 2000 and the World Global Union is in charge, although other countries are allowed to elect their own government leaders, as long as they support the Union. When Austria's newly-elected president, played by Josef Meinrad, makes his inauguration speech he declares Austria independence and issues an edict ending Austria's financial support for the Global Union.

April 1, 2000

1952

Behind the camera