Actor
“Tatort” commissioner Udo Wachtveitl turns 65
The actor Udo Wachtveitl is 65 years old. photo
© Peter Kneffel/dpa
Hardly any TV inspector has been on the job longer than him: Since 1991, Udo Wachtveitl has been investigating the Munich “Tatort” as Franz Leitmayr. Now he is reaching retirement age.
In the meantime, the two TV commissioners, who were portrayed in such a youthful manner at the time, have become the gray eminences of television crime dramas – the longest-serving after Ulrike Folkerts, who started work on “Tatort” two years earlier as Lena Odenthal.
Nemec (69) reached retirement age four years ago, now followed by his younger colleague Wachtveitl, who will turn 65 on October 21st. A week later, the latest “Tatort” episode from Munich will be broadcast: “Queens”, a crime thriller about onion and white sausage majesties and the Metoo debate – and the 93rd case for Batic and Leitmayr. No investigative team has ever solved more cases and you don’t have to be a clairvoyant to say that there probably won’t be another 93.
There has been speculation about an end for the “Tatort” duo, which regularly ends up at the top (albeit behind the Münster team) in the television investigators’ popularity rankings, at least since they were openly mentioned in the Christmas “Tatort” last year . Bayerischer Rundfunk is still keeping a low profile about possible plans. Nothing has been decided, it says. Conversations were ongoing.
“Well, they certainly won’t lead to us starting over again,” says Wachtveitl in an interview with the German Press Agency shortly before his birthday.
From the time she took office until her 25th anniversary of service seven years ago, more than 150 people died in the Munich “crime scene”. That’s an average of more than two deaths per episode. The commissioners wore out seven assistants, including Michael Fitz as Carlo Menzinger. Number eight is currently on duty: Ferdinand Hofer as Kalli.
He will be promoted in the new episode. “But we remain the older ones and he remains the younger one. This distance will not change even through vigorous rowing,” emphasizes Wachtveitl in the dpa interview. “The only thing that will change is that we are certainly closer to retirement age than he is. But there is nothing to say about that yet.”
But whatever happens next with his inspector Leitmayr, the Munich-born Wachtveitl will probably be able to live well at some point without the Sunday cult crime thriller. He also works as a voice actor (for example, voiced a sea turtle in “Finding Nemo”), gives readings – and on his agency’s website, football, alpine skiing and tennis are listed as his sports, and guitar as his instrument.
Wachtveitl said in a documentary on his 30th service anniversary that he could still easily separate himself from the “crime scene” role. “I don’t go around the neighborhood in the evening and see if there are still bodies lying around somewhere.” He prepared for the time afterwards, he says in the dpa interview: “I’ve worked on leading my life in such a way that idle hours don’t frighten me. I’ve now had a certain amount of practice in it. That’s very important. That’s mine Preparation.”