Updated on 4/24/2023 at 1:14 p.m
Karin Gregorek became known for her role in the TV series “For Heaven’s sake”. She has now passed away at the age of 81.
The film and television actress Karin Gregorek is dead. As the German Press Agency learned from Gregorek’s environment on Monday, she died in the night from Friday to Saturday in Berlin. She was 81 years old. Gregorek often appeared in supporting TV roles. The Berliner was known to a wide television audience as nun Felicitas Meier from the ARD ratings hit “Um Himmels Willen” (2002-2021). She was also seen very often in the ZDF family series “Tierarzt Dr. Engel” and also appeared in the ARD thrillers “Polizeiruf 110” and “Tatort”.
Gregorek came to her profession as an actress more by chance, as she said in an interview: “When a friend went to Berlin to audition for the acting school, I just came along. I was accepted, my friend wasn’t,” she said in 2019 Pharmacy magazine “Seniors Guide”. At the time, her parents did not go down well with her career aspirations.
The actress, who was born in Mecklenburg, was already successful in theatre, film and television during the GDR era. She had her first screen role in 1963 in the Defa film “Christine”, which was never completed due to the death of director Slatan Dudow during filming.
“For heaven’s sake” role Greatest success for Gregorek
In the decades that followed, she appeared again and again in film and television productions by Defa and DFF. As head nurse Walburga in Lothar Warneke’s drama “One carries the other’s load…” she received the award in the category “Best Supporting Actress” at the National Feature Film Festival of the GDR in 1988.
Her biggest hit with the public, with more than seven million viewers at times, was the long-running hit “Um Himmels Willen”, in which Gregorek has been involved since 2002. Felicitas Meier, the deputy superior of the Magdalen Order, was popular with various weaknesses: among other things, for tobacco, computer games, chocolate and poker.
When Gregorek agreed to play the nun in the ARD series, the habit also played a role for her: “I thought it would be faster in the make-up and wardrobe.” A mistake: the nuns would of course still be thoroughly made up. Despite the costume, she was recognized on the street. “It’s strange.” (dpa/thp)