Versatile from Faust to Sesame Street to the metropolitan area

Uwe Friedrichsen hunted white-collar criminals in "Schwarz, Rot, Gold", excelled at the Hamburg theater or lent his voice to TV inspector "Columbo". The actor passed away on April 30, 2016.

There is hardly anything that this man has not done as an actor and speaker:In addition to his participation in countless theater engagements and television productions, Friedrichsen also takes part in many radio plays and even in Hollywood film productions. Uwe Friedrichsen died on April 30, 2016 at the age of 81 in a Hamburg hospital.

Actors against their parents' wishes

Friedrichsen was born on May 27, 1934 in Altona. Today's Hamburg district is still an independent city and belongs to Schleswig-Holstein. He spent parts of his childhood with his grandparents in Kaltenkirchen, Schleswig-Holstein, where he became interested in the Low German language. Friedrichsen finished his schooling with high school, after gaining his first stage experience in the school theater group. Enthusiastic about it, he then took part in the amateur drama group at the adult education center. At the same time, Friedrichsen completed a commercial apprenticeship with a Hamburg porcelain manufacturer, but his love of acting was stronger:Against the will of his parents, he later financed private acting training, the theater enthusiast earns the money for it with jobs in the port and as a newspaper deliverer.

"Knighting" in 1956:Gründgens hired Friedrichsen

Together with Marcus Scholz, Friedrichsen founded the "Theater 53" in Hamburg in 1953, where he performed his own short stories by Ernest Hemingway, among others. As a result, Ida Ehre, director of the Hamburger Kammerspiele, became aware of him and got him an engagement there in 1955. In 1956 the "knight's accolade" followed:general director Gustaf Gründgens brought Friedrichsen to the Deutsches Schauspielhaus, where he stayed until 1968. In addition to this position, the busy Friedrichsen also works at countless other theatres.

Engagements in Sesame Street and in the metropolitan area

One of his early film roles also fell during this period:Friedrichsen played the schoolboy in Gründgen's legendary "Faust" film adaptation from 1960. The acting talent seems to enjoy working in front of the camera anyway - he can be seen, for example, as Sergeant Pepper in the Edgar Wallace film "The Gorilla of Soho" (1968). He later became even better known with the role of customs investigator Hans Zaluskowski in NDR's business crime series "Schwarz, Rot, Gold". This was followed by engagements on Sesame Street and, in the early 1990s, in the family saga "Oppen und Ehrlich", where he played Mayor Oppen. From December 2006 he can be seen in a few episodes of the evening series "Verbotene Liebe" in the first. He has "hired" several times on the ZDF "Traumschiff" and he is also a guest on the NDR Großstadtrevier in 2010. Parallel to his television engagements, Friedrichsen has been seen time and again on theater stages since he left the Deutsches Schauspielhaus as a freelance actor. He also directs plays, for example at the Thalia Theater in Hamburg in the 1980s.

A voice for Karl May, the Beatles and Hollywood

But Friedrichsen also knows how to use his skills away from the stage or location. He made a name for himself as a dubbing and radio play speaker when he spoke the villain in Karl May's "Der Schut" in 1964. And that's not all:in 1968 he lent his voice to Ringo Starr in the Beatles cartoon "Yellow Submarine", he dubbed TV inspector Columbo and from 1987 to 1998 he acted as the voice of Danny Glover in all four parts of the Hollywood action film - Series "Lethal Weapon" with. His vocal talent also allows him engagements as a singer. In addition to roles in musicals from "Chicago" (1976/1977) to "My Fair Lady" (1995), he is also a guest at La Scala in Milan and the Royal Albert Hall in London, where he recites song cycles under the conductor Herbert von Karajan. He also writes his own chansons and holds literary readings with texts by Tucholsky, Ringelnatz and Kästner.

Uwe Friedrichsen receives the Federal Cross of Merit for social commitment

The actor has been involved in social issues for decades. He has received several awards for his social and artistic merits, including the Federal Cross of Merit in 1994 and the Biermann-Ratjen Medal from the City of Hamburg in 2003. After falling ill with cancer in the early 1990s, he reduced the number of his engagements somewhat. The North German original dies in Hamburg at the age of 81.