The Austrian actor Peter Simonischek is dead. He died on Tuesday night at the age of 76 with his family, as the Burgtheater in Vienna announced. Simonischek was an ensemble and honorary member there. In his long career he received, among other things, two Grimme Awards, the European and the German Film Awards.
Simonischek has appeared in numerous roles on stage, film and television. In the touching father-daughter story “Toni Erdmann” he played the title role alongside Sandra Hüller. The film was a finalist for the 2017 Oscar for Best International Film. From 2002 to 2009 he embodied “Jedermann” in Christian Stückl’s production at the Salzburg Festival. More than 100 times, more often than anyone else, he played the rich man who slowly but surely dies.
The career of the star actor, who was born in Graz on August 6, 1946, was multifaceted. In the past few decades, Simonischek has played practically all the important games in German-speaking countries. After his first appearances at the Graz theater, he received a permanent engagement at the St. Gallen municipal theater. From there he moved to Bern in 1970 and then via the Staatstheater Darmstadt to the Schauspielhaus Düsseldorf. From 1979 he was a member of the ensemble at the Berlin Schaubühne for 20 years. In 1999 he returned to the Burgtheater in Vienna.
Working with renowned directors such as Bob Wilson, Dieter Dorn, Luc Bondy, Peter Stein and Andrea Breth was formative for him. Simonischek played in the abysmal homeland saga “Hierankl” (2003), as a philanderer (“Die Welt der Wunderlichs”, 2016) as well as the son of a Nazi war criminal (“Der Dolmetscher”, 2018). One of the last roles of the versatile artist was that of a professor in Lars Kraume’s “A Place in the Sun”, who uses his racist teachings to justify the German genocide of the Hereros and Nama.
His father, a dentist, had unintentionally brought his son to acting: he took him to a “Hamlet” performance in Graz. “I was lost after this Hamlet,” Simonischek told the German Press Agency on his 75th birthday. He found the years in Germany particularly enriching. “If you’re a stranger, try harder. The turbo is ignited abroad,” the actor was glad not to have stayed in sheltered Austria. In 2016, Simonischek was awarded the Austrian honorary title of “Chamber Actor” for his impressive stage presence.