Ulrich Mühe

Friedrich Hans Ulrich Mühe (; 20 June 1953 – 22 July 2007) was a German film, television and theatre actor. He played the role of Hauptmann (Captain) Gerd Wiesler in the Oscar-winning film Das Leben der Anderen (The Lives of Others, 2006), for which he received the gold award for Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role, at the Deutscher Filmpreis (German Film Awards); and the Best Actor Award at the 2006 European Film Awards.

After leaving school, Mühe was employed as a construction worker and a border guard at the Berlin Wall. He then turned to acting, and from the late 1970s into the 1980s appeared in numerous plays, becoming a star of the Deutsches Theater in East Berlin. He was active in politics and denounced Communist rule in East Germany in a memorable address at the Alexanderplatz demonstration on 4 November 1989 shortly before the fall of the Berlin Wall. After German reunification, he continued to appear in a large number of films, television programmes and theatre productions. In Germany he was particularly known for playing the lead role of Dr. Robert Kolmaar in the long-running forensic crime series Der letzte Zeuge (The Last Witness, 1998-2007).

Early life and education

The Volksbühne in Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz in the borough of Mitte, Berlin, photographed in July 1999.

The son of a furrier, Mühe was born on 20 June 1953 in Grimma, Bezirk Leipzig (part of present-day Saxony), in the German Democratic Republic (East Germany). After leaving school, he trained as a construction worker, then did compulsory military service in the Nationale Volksarmee (National People's Army) as a border guard at the Berlin Wall. He was relieved of duty after contracting stomach ulcers; possibly due to stress, according to observers, and also suggested that it marked the beginnings of the stomach cancer that would eventually lead to his death.

He then turned to acting, and studied at the Theaterhochschule "Hans Otto" Leipzig from 1975 to 1979. He appeared in his first professional stage role in 1979, as Lyngstrand in Ibsen's Fruen fra havet (The Lady from the Sea) at the Städtisches Theater in Karl-Marx-Stadt (now Chemnitz). He followed this by appearing in a production of Macbeth by playwright and director Heiner Müller at the Volksbühne in East Berlin. On screen, he co-starred with his second wife Jenny Gröllmann in Herman Zschoche's film (Half of Life, 1984) about the German lyric poet Friedrich Hölderlin (1770–1843). and showed his more serious side in Michael Haneke's Benny's Video (1992), Das Schloss (The Castle, 1997) (an adaptation of Kafka's The Castle (1922)) and Funny Games (1997). On 25 July 2007, he was buried in his mother's village of Walbeck in the Landkreis (rural district) of Börde, Saxony-Anhalt.

Personal life

Mühe was married three times. He was first married to dramaturge Annegret Hahn; the couple had two sons: Andreas, a Berlin-based photographer, and Konrad, a painter. His second marriage was in 1984 to the actress Jenny Gröllmann, after they fell in love while acting together

After German reunification, Mühe allegedly discovered evidence in his Stasi file that he had been under surveillance not only by four of his fellow actors in the East Berlin theatre, but also by his wife Gröllmann. The file held detailed records of meetings that Gröllmann, who was registered as an "Inoffizieller Mitarbeiter" (unofficial collaborator), had with her controller from 1979 to 1989. This mirrored the plot of Das Leben der Anderen as in the film pressure exerted by the Stasi on the playwright's girlfriend makes her betray him as the author of an exposé of covered-up GDR suicide rates. Mühe and Gröllmann divorced in 1990. which deals with a couple's troubled relationship. However, Lothar, who died in 2012, launched a lawsuit to block the film from release for nearly three years, apparently because she felt that it would cast the couple in a bad light.

Awards

In addition to the awards mentioned elsewhere in this article, Mühe was conferred the following awards:

1990 - The Chaplin Shoe, the Deutscher Darstellerpreis (German Actor Award) of the Bundesverbandes der Fernseh- und Filmregisseure in Deutschland eV (Federal Association of Television and Film Directors in Germany). 1991 - The Gertrud-Eysoldt-Ring (Gertrud Eysoldt Ring) 1992 - The Bambi 1994 - The Kainz-Medaille (Kainz Medal) 2006 - The Bernhard-Wicki-Filmpreis (Bernhard Wicki Film Award) The Helene-Weigel-Medaille (Helene Weigel Medal) The prize of the critics of the Berliner Zeitung

Filmography

Film

Year Title Role Director Notes 1983 Olle Henry Junger Mann Ulrich Weiß 1985 The Woman and the Stranger Revolutionär Rainer Simon Friedrich Hölderlin Herrmann Zschoche 1989 Das Spinnennetz Theodor Lohse Bernhard Wicki Hard Days, Hard Nights Flimmer 1990 Sehnsucht Sieghart Jürgen Brauer 1992 Schtonk! Dr. Wieland Helmut Dietl Benny's Video Vater Michael Haneke 1994 The Blue One Karl Kaminski Lienhard Wawrzyn 1995 Dr. Heinrich Gützkow Peter Timm 1996 Dr. Jochen Schuster Carlo Rola Engelchen Kommissar Helke Misselwitz 1997 Funny Games Georg Michael Haneke Die Healthy Hugo Wallner Gert Steinheimer The Castle K. Michael Haneke TV film 1998 Eschbach Peter Fratzscher Rider of the Flames Jacob Gontard Nina Grosse 1999 Straight Shooter Markus Paufler Thomas Bohn 2001 Goebbels und Geduldig Harry Geduldig / Joseph Goebbels Kai Wessel 2002 Amen. Doctor Costa-Gavras 2003 Spy Sorge Eugen Ott Masahiro Shinoda Hamlet_X Claudius Müller Herbert Fritsch 2005 Schneeland Knövel Hans W. Geißendörfer 2006 The Lives of Others Hpt. Gerd Wiesler Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck 2007 My Führer – The Really Truest Truth about Adolf Hitler Adolf Grünbaum Dani Levy 2010 Nemesis Robert Nicole Mosleh Posthumous release, (final film role)

Television

Bester Schauspieler in einer Hauptrolle - Serie (Best Actor in a Leading Role - TV Series), Deutscher Fernsehpreis (German Television Awards) (1999) (nominated) Bester Schauspieler in einer Hauptrolle - Serie (Best Actor in a Leading Role - TV Series), Deutscher Fernsehpreis (German Television Awards) (2003) (nominated) Bavarian TV Award (with writer Gregor Edelmann) (2005)

Some information in this table was obtained from . Retrieved on 23 September 2007.

Theater

Städtisches Theater, Karl-Marx-Stadt (now Chemnitz)Lyngstrand[Date uncertain](?1979-1986)Macbethby William Shakespeare Deutsches Theater, East BerlinEgmont[Date uncertain]?1986-1989Hamletby William Shakespeare Deutsches Theater, East BerlinHamlet[Date uncertain]?1986-1989Nathan der Weise (Nathan the Wise)by Gotthold Ephraim Lessing Deutsches Theater, East Berlin[Date uncertain]?1986-1989Peer Gyntby Henrik Ibsen Salzburg Festival, Salzburg, AustriaKönig Alfons (King Alfonso, Alfonso VIII)end-1990sDreimal Leben (Life Times Three)by Yasmina Reza HamburgDer Arzt (The Doctor)2003Wittgenstein Incorporated Vienna Festwochen (Vienna Festival)2005Zerbombt (Blasted)by Sarah Kane Barbican Arts Centre, LondonIan[Date unknown]Clavigoby Johann Wolfgang von GoetheClavigo[Date unknown]Philotas by Gotthold Ephraim LessingPhilotas[Date unknown]Der Traum, ein Leben (The Dream, a Life)by Franz GrillparzerSigismundis

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