Jörg Schneider

Jörg Schneider (7 February 1935 – 22 August 2015) was a Swiss stage and film actor starring usually in Swiss German-language cinema and television and stage productions. He gained great renownedness in the German-speaking area by numerous Kasperle, Pumuckl and fairytale-radio plays records and also adapted plays for the Swiss German language.

Life Born in Zürich, canton of Zürich, in Switzerland, Jörg Schneider lived in the municipality of Wetzikon. For three years he attended the teacher training college, before he completed a commercial apprenticeship. At the age of 20, Jörg Schneider premiered at the Hirschen (in fact a restaurant) theater in Zürich as co-founder of the Cabaret Äxgüsi, and on occasion of the Saffatheater in the cabaret comedy Lysistrata in 1958. Schneider started acting in the 1960s, getting popular in comedian-related rules, later also in radio plays and as stage actor and comedian, and was one of the most prominent Swiss German actors and comedians. For his lifetime work, Jörg Schneider was awarded with the Prix Walo 2013 in May 2014. Yet end of January 2015, Schneider participated in Solothurn Film Festival at the premiere of his last movie Usfahrt Oerlike, while for the shooting in May 2014 Schneider did not know that he was suffering from liver cancer. Jörg Schneider was one of the most popular actors of the German-speaking Swiss entertainment scene in comedy and boulevard theater, where he had up to 300 performances a year. He was considered a comedian with contagious enthusiasm.

Work

Theater

Already while attending the teacher college, Jörg Schneider took acting classes and voice lessons. In 1955 he was co-founder of the cabaret "Äxgüsi" in Zürich, and in 1957 Jörg Schneider premiered at the Stadttheater Zürich as comedian. In 1960 he began working with Schaggi Streuli, whose radio and TV play Polizischt Wäckerli as "Hügü Vögeli" gained national notoriety in 1963. For the Theater am Hechtplatz he gained Swiss German-versions of Grimm's fairy tales in which he also starred, and in 1973 was honored with Ehrenpreis der Erziehungsdirektion des Kantons Zürich, the top prize of the ministry of education of the Canton of Zürich. Between 1969 and 1971 he was permanent staff member of the municipal stage Heidelberg in Germany. Returned to Switzerland, Jörg Schneider played mainly on farces produced by Eynar Grabowsky for the Bernhard-Theater Zürich; the plays, including Der keusche Lebemann ("The chaste bon vivant") and Swiss German adaptations of Der Pantoffelheld ("The henpecked"), Der fidele Kasimir and Fünf im Doppelzimmer ("Five in a double room") were played 200-300 times throughout Switzerland. For the role of the taxi chauffeur in Schneider's own adaptation Liebe macht erfinderisch of Ray Cooney's Run for Your Wife, Jörg Schneider received the Bernhard Prix in 1985. Paul Bühlmann and Ines Torelli were Schneider's most frequent partners on stage for many years. The Chasperli (Swiss German for "Kasperle") radio plays by Jörg Schneider – once again, many of the records in co-operation with Paul Bühlmann and Ines Torelli – belong to the children's culture in the German-speaking Switzerland since more than 40 years, and the records are still sold about 50,000 times a year, and to date approximately three million copies have been sold. Jörg Schneider also wrote about 40 Kasperle stories, directed and translated serious and tabloid pieces in dialect versions and wrote children's musicals. For Heidi, in 2002 he was awarded with the "fairy-tale-Oscar" S'Goldig Chrönli.

Death Schneider died of a serious illness – which had forced him in September 2014 to cancel his farewell tour Happi Änd as a comedian – on 22 August 2015 at the age of 80; The funeral took place within the family; a public acknowledgment was celebrated at the Fraumünster church in Zürich on 26 September 2015.

Awards (excerpt) 2015: Solothurner Filmtage: Won Publikumspreis (Prix du public) for Usfahrt Oerlike. 2013: Prix Walo, won Ehren-Prix Walo. 2002: S'Goldig Chrönli for the children's musical Heidi. 1985: Bernhard Prix for Liebe macht erfinderisch, Schneider's adaptation of a play by Ray Cooney. 1985: Bad Hersfeld-Preis, Sancho Panza in the musical Der Mann von La Mancha. 1973: Ehrenpreis der Erziehungsdirektion des Kantons Zürich for the Swiss German-versions plays of Grimm's fairy tales.

Filmography (selected works) 1960: Wenn d'Fraue wähle 1984: Motel 1996–1998: Fascht e Familie (2 episodes) 2004–2006: Lüthi und Blanc (120 episodes) 2008: Happy New Year 2015: Usfahrt Oerlike

Literature Jörg Schneider: Äxgüsi! : aus meinem Leben. Autobiography on occasion of Jörg Schneider's 80th birthday. Tudor Recording, Zürich 2015, ; also as audio, read by Jörg Schneider, EAN: 7619911083441