Two months after his brother’s death
Fritz Wepper in the clinic with blood poisoning
December 18, 2023, 11:21 p.m
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TV star Fritz Wepper has been in a Munich hospital for two weeks, temporarily in the intensive care unit. According to a media report, doctors are concerned that sepsis is affecting his artificial heart valve. The 82-year-old just had to bury his brother.
Less than two months after the death of his brother Elmar Wepper, television star Fritz Wepper is in hospital with blood poisoning. This is reported by the “Bild” newspaper with reference to the actor’s closest environment. According to the report, the 82-year-old is in the Großhadern Clinic in Munich. He was admitted there two weeks ago, and Fritz Wepper was temporarily in the intensive care unit, the newspaper continued.
The actor (“For Heaven’s Sake”, “Derrick”) had to worry about the function of his artificial heart valve due to blood poisoning, it was said. Fritz Wepper almost died in 2011 as a result of such sepsis. At that time, it was his wife Susanne Kellermann who urged him to see a doctor. He immediately referred him to the clinic. An emergency operation saved the actor’s life, as he later confessed: “One night I was on the rocks. A day later in the clinic and I would be dead.” The trigger at the time was an injury caused by his wire-haired dog Aron, who scratched him. The reason for the current blood poisoning is not yet known.
Brother’s death out of the blue
Most recently, Fritz Wepper had to cope with the death of his brother Elmar on October 31st. It probably came as a complete surprise to him. “It wasn’t to be expected, I’m full of sadness,” said the 82-year-old actor in an interview with the magazine “Bunte” at the beginning of November. There were “no signs of physical weakness or illness.” The TV star added: “It came out of the blue, like a terrible lightning bolt. The only consolation is that he didn’t suffer, but died of cardiac arrest.” However, Wepper struggled greatly with the loss of his brother, who was three years younger than him. “I would have had so much to say to him,” he told the “Bunte”.
Fritz Wepper played a leading role in the Oscar-winning musical adaptation Cabaret alongside Liza Minnelli, directed by Bob Fosse, as a Jewish bon vivant who initially pretended to be a Christian during the period of growing anti-Semitism in the late Weimar Republic. He became internationally known in 1959 through the anti-war film “Die Brücke”. Fritz Wepper had his breakthrough in the role of assistant Harry Klein in the crime series “The Inspector and Derrick”.