The actor Fritz Wepper is dead. This is reported by several media outlets. At first they had Picture reported. Accordingly, the Munich native died this Monday at the age of 82.
Wepper was born in the summer of 1941. Almost three years later, his brother Elmar was born, who died last October at the age of 79 and was also an actor. The brothers had a particularly close relationship with each other throughout their lives. “If he wasn’t my brother, he would be my best friend,” Wepper wrote in his autobiography.
Wepper got into acting at the age of eleven when he was discovered for the children’s play “Peter Pan” at the Munich Residenztheater. A few years later, Bernhard Wicki’s internationally acclaimed anti-war film “Die Brücke” followed.
Dreams of Hollywood were dashed, but Wepper still became famous, especially with two roles: as inspector’s assistant Harry Klein in the ZDF crime series “Derrick” and as the scheming mayor Wolfgang Wöller in the ARD series “Um Himmels Willen”, which was around remained on the air for 20 years.
In 1979 he married his girlfriend Angela, who had two daughters. In 2009, Wepper entered into a relationship with Susanne Kellermann despite his marriage. He also had a daughter with her, but the couple separated soon after the birth in 2012. Wepper returned to his wife, who died unexpectedly in 2019.
The last shirt, a black kimono
At the beginning of 2021, Wepper made public that he had cancer, from which he said he had recovered well a year later. Wepper was not afraid of the end of his life. “I’ve accepted that I will die at some point. But I’m worried about how. Nobody wants a painful end.” The actor has thought about it. “I want to be buried in my black kimono, which I wear to meditate,” he writes in his autobiography. Plus a Buddhist bracelet with wooden beads. “Both symbols of letting go.” His final resting place has also been determined: the family grave in Munich.