Ilja Richter

Ilja Richter (born 24 November 1952) is a German actor, voice actor, television presenter, singer, theatre director and author, best known as the presenter of the ZDF show Disco.

Life Richter was born in East Berlin to Georg and Eva Richter. Georg was a Communist, who named Ilja after the Russian journalist Ilya Ehrenburg, and Eva was a Jew who survived the Third Reich under a fake Aryan identity. Georg spent nine and a half years in concentration camps during the Third Reich.

After the family was in political difficulties in East Germany, they moved to West Berlin in 1953. There, the Richters leased a restaurant. In 1955, Ilja's sister Janina was born, and in 1959 they moved to Cologne. There, too, the Richters ran a restaurant, but moved back in 1960 to West Berlin, where they opened a guesthouse.

Eva, a former actress, brought Ilja to the Sender Freies Berlin (Radio Free Berlin) for an audition. Ilja's acting career began at the age of nine. As a teenager he starred in the series Till, the Boy Next Door as Albert. In the 1970s, Richter became famous in West-Germany as television presenter of Disco, a music show filmed before a young live audience in which he also performed in sketches.

As an actor, he played several roles in films and in theatre. He starred in several comedy movies alongside Rudi Carrell. As a voice actor, his most prominent role was lending his colourful, peppy voice to Timon from The Lion King. He also provided the German voices of Mike Wazowski in Monsters, Inc., Spot/Scott in Teacher's Pet (TV series), the title character of Count Duckula and Dave in The Penguins of Madagascar. One of his records is a German adaptation of Tiny Tim's Tiptoe Through the Tulips.

Richter wrote several books. He dated the singer Marianne Rosenberg from 1975 to 1978. From 1995 to 1997 he was married to singer Stephanie von Falkenhausen. He lives in Berlin with his longtime companion Barbara Ferun, and has one child, Kolja.

Filmography Film 1962: 1963: Piccadilly Zero Hour 12 1969: I'm an Elephant, Madame 1970: When the Mad Aunts Arrive 1970: Who Laughs Last, Laughs Best 1970: 1970: Musik, Musik – da wackelt die Penne 1971: Das haut den stärksten Zwilling um 1971: Hilfe, die Verwandten kommen 1971: The Mad Aunts Strike Out 1971: Die Kompanie der Knallköppe 1971: Wenn mein Schätzchen auf die Pauke haut 1971: Aunt Trude from Buxtehude 1972: Betragen ungenügend! 1973: Blue Blooms the Gentian 1973: Das Wandern ist Herrn Müllers Lust 1983: The Roaring Fifties 1996: 1998: Drei Chinesen mit dem Kontrabass 2007: My Führer – The Really Truest Truth about Adolf Hitler

Television 1963: Schwarz auf Weiß 1965: Die Schneekönigin 1967/1968: Till, der Junge von nebenan 1969: Tony's Freunde 1980: Bühne frei für Kolowitz (based on Enter Laughing) 1980: Hollywood, ich komme 1985: Ausgeträumt 1985: Drei Damen vom Grill 1985: Mein Freund Harvey 1992: Sylter Geschichten 1992: Treff am Alex 1997: Wenn der Präsident zweimal klingelt 1999: 1999: Im Namen des Gesetzes: "Freitag der 13" 1999: Tatort: Blinde Karriere 1999: SOKO 5113: "Fauler Zauber" 1999: Spuk im Reich der Schatten 2000: Tatort: "Mauer des Schweigens" 2000: Spuk im Reich der Schatten 2002: SOKO Kitzbühel: "Ein tiefer Fall" 2002: Herz in Flammen 2003: Körner und Köter 2003: Schlosshotel Orth 2005: 2005: 2005: Liebe süß, sauer 2005: In aller Freundschaft 2006: Ich leih mir eine Familie 2006/2007: Pocoyo (voice) 2007: Die ProSieben Märchenstunde: "Dornröschen: Ab durch die Hecke" 2008: Tierärztin Dr. Mertens 2008: 4 Singles 2009: 2009: Klick ins Herz 2010: Forsthaus Falkenau 2010: Notruf Hafenkante

Awards 1975: Bravo Otto in Gold 1977: Goldene Kamera 2005: Curt-Goetz-Ring 2010: Deutscher Hörbuchpreis

Songs 1961 – "Schokolade, Pfefferminz, saure Drops" 1961 – "Lausbubentwist" 1961 – "Ich möchte am Broadway Blümchen pflücken" 1969 – "Tip-Tap in die Tulpen" 1970 – "Ich hol' dir gerne vom Himmel die Sterne" 1972 – "Eine Goldmedaille für deine Supertaille" 1977 – "Tip-Tap in die Tulpen" (new version) 1979 – "Liebe im Büro" 1984 – "Liebeslied"

Books Star-Szene '77. 1000 Top-Stars presented by Ilja Richter, Verlagsgesellschaft für Nachschlagewerke, Taunusstein 1977. Eva Richter, Ilja Richter: Der deutsche Jude. In: Bibliothek der deutschen Werte. Droemer Knaur 2766 satire, Munich 1993. . Ilja Richter, Harald Martenstein: Meine Story. dtv 2001, (original title: Spot aus! Licht an! – Meine Story. Hoffmann and Campe, Hamburg 1999, ). Ilja Richter, Viola Roggenkamp: Meine Mamme with an essay about Jews born in Germany after the Holocaust and their heritage, Fischer 16740. Frankfurt am Main 2005. . Ilja Richter, Erich Rauschenbach (illustrator): Bruno – Von Bären und Menschen. Boje, Cologne 2007. . Du kannst nicht immer 60 sein. Mit einem Lächeln älter werden. Riva, Munich 2013, ISBN 978-3-86883-294-5. Ilja Richter: Nehmen Sie’s persönlich: Porträts von Menschen, die mich prägten. With photos of Joseph Gallus Rittenberg, Elsinor Verlag, Coesfeld 2022, ISBN 978-3-942788-70-0.