Otto Wilhelm Fischer

Otto Wilhelm Fischer was born on the 1^st April 1915; he died on the 29^th January 2004. He was an Austrian film and theatre actor and a leading man of the Western German Cinema at the time of the Wirtschaftswunder period of the 1950s and 1960s.

source of picture: www.steffi-line.de

Otto Wilhelm Fischer was born in Klosterneuburg near the city of Vienna and it was there that he got his Matura degree at the local gymnasium secondary school. Fischer started his study of English and German philology and art history at the University of Vienna in the year 1936.

He had his first engagements as an actor at the Vienna Theater in der Josefstadt, the Munich Kammerspiele, and the Vienna Volkstheater. He got the highpoint of his theatre career when he joined the Burgtheatre in the year 1945.

Fischer started filming in the year 1936.

He retired to live in Vernate in the early part of the 1970s and he concentrated on linguistics and philosophy, on which he published many books and lectured. He died in Lugano, Switzerland of Kidney failure in the year 2004.

Selected Filmography

Ø  Anton the Last (1939)

Ø  My Daughter Lives in Vienna (1940)

Ø  Vienna 1910 (1943)

Ø  A Tale of Five Cities (1951)

Ø  A Heidelberg Romance (1951)

Ø  Desires (1952)

Ø  Cuba Cabana (1952)

Ø  Dreaming Lips (1953)

Ø  As Long as You're Near Me (1953)

Ø  Ludwig II: Glanz und Ende eines Königs (1955)

Ø  Hanussen (1955)

Ø  Napoleon (1955)

Ø  Ich suche Dich (1956)

Ø  Herrscher ohne Krone (de) (King in Shadow) (1957)

Ø  Peter Voss, Thief of Millions (1958)

Ø  Arms and the Man (1958)

Ø  Peter Voss, Hero of the Day (1959)

Ø  Rebel Flight to Cuba (1959)

Ø  Menschen im Hotel (1959)

Ø  And That on Monday Morning (1959)

Ø  Das Riesenrad (1961)

Ø  Breakfast in Bed (1963)

Ø  The Secret of the Black Widow (1963)

Ø  Uncle Tom's Cabin (1965)

Honours and awards

Ø  1950, 1951: Danube females

Ø  1953-1955: Bambi award

Ø  1955: Filmband in Silver (best actor) for Ludwig II: Glanz und Ende eines Königs

Ø  1956 – San Sebastián International Film Festival: Silver shell (Director, actor) for Ich suche Dich

Ø  1956: Price of Spanish film journalists (screenplay) for Ich suche Dich

Ø  1958-1961: Bambi award

Ø  1958-1963: Bravo Otto

Ø  1959: Filmband in Gold (best actor) for Arms and the Man (film)

Ø  1960: Austrian Cross of Honour for Science and Art, 1st class

Ø  1961: Europa Prize for Das Riesenrad

Ø  1961: Honorary Member of the Association of the Spanish film journalists

Ø  1970: Appointed Professor

Ø  1977: Filmband in Gold for long and outstanding achievements in German film

Ø  1987, 1990: Bambi award

Ø  1987: Cordon Bleu du Saint Esprit

Ø  1995: Grand Silver Decoration for Services to the Republic of Austria

Ø  1996: Grand Gold Decoration for Services to the Republic of Austria

Ø  Grand Merit Cross of the Federal Republic of Germany

Publications

Ø  [-?-]: Auferstehung in Hollywood. Texte.war ich keiner. Erinnerung an eine Jugend.

Ø  1999: Ferner Klang. Texte.

Ø  2000: Meine Geheimnisse. Erinnerungen und Gedanken.