Actor Peter Simonischek is dead

In the course of his long career, the actor has managed the feat of growing dear to both lovers of heavy drama and friends of light comedies, theatergoers and cinema fans, radio listeners and those who live on the couch on the television – and without being smugly popular.

Peter Simonischek died on Tuesday night at the age of 76, as the federal theaters confirmed. The Grazer, who was born on August 6, 1946, owes his great popularity with the public not least to his amazing ability to slip into a wide variety of character subjects and to make them his own.

For example, his interpretation of a Parisian bon vivant alongside Udo Samel in Klaus Michael Grüber’s rediscovery of the Labiche play “Die Affair Rue de Lourcine” at the Berlin Schaubühne is legendary. At the same time, he will not be forgotten as the lord of the Salzburg Cathedral Square, where Simonischek made a record number of striking appearances as “Jedermann” from 2002 to 2009. And finally, in 2016, he stepped into the limelight of world cinema with the dramedy “Toni Erdmann” at a more mature age.

In 2019 he became an honorary member of the Vienna Burgtheater by state act. Most recently, he was a guest at every premiere of his youngest son Kaspar, who is studying at the Bruckner University in Linz. Simonischek leaves a total of three sons. A detailed obituary will follow shortly.