“The Bull of Tölz” is the role of his life. For 14 years, Ottfried Fischer attracted millions of people to their television sets as an important TV commissioner. Now “Otti” is turning 70.
Before his 70th birthday, Ottfried Fischer moved again. The cabaret artist and actor now lives in Gauting near Lake Starnberg. In Passau, everyday life in a wheelchair was too difficult, Ottfried Fischer and his wife Simone told the German Press Agency.
The star of series such as “Der Bulle von Tölz” and “Pfarrer Braun” sits in a wheelchair due to his Parkinson’s disease. “Otti” turns 70 on November 7th. He wants to celebrate in Munich with colleagues and companions.
In June, Ottfried Fischer appeared with his wife at the opening of the Munich Film Festival. The TV star’s public appearances have become rare.
A career in quick succession
It used to be hard to imagine television without the native of Lower Bavaria. He started his career in the 1980s. Director Franz Xaver Bogner hired him for the series “Somehow and Sowieso” and “Zur Freiheit”. Then it happened in quick succession.
From the 1990s onwards he entertained his audience with his cult cabaret show “Ottis Schlachthof”. Fischer was seen in “Zärtliche Chaoten” and “Go Trabi Go”. And in 1995 he slipped into the role of the grumpy inspector Benno Berghammer for the first time. “The Bull of Tölz” became the role of his life.
His personal highlight is another: “Somehow and anyway”. This is also the series that he is asked about most often, he told dpa in 2018. People often recite entire dialogues to him. “Sir Quickly is good for a little immortality.”
Parkinson’s changed a lot in Fischer’s life
In 2008, the cabaret artist made his Parkinson’s disease public. He joked: “Don’t worry, I don’t do shake rhymes!” But even if he didn’t let his humor take away from him, the illness changed a lot in Fischer’s life.
In addition, the series “The Bull of Tölz” was discontinued in 2009 after the death of his film mother Ruth Drexel. In November 2012 he hosted “Ottis Schlachthof” for the last time on Bavarian television. Almost a year later, the “Pfarrer Braun” series was over. After that, there were no role offers.
About his retirement from stage and television, he said he had made more than 150 films. “You know what you’ve done. It was a life on the wheel.” In the evening he received a note saying what he had to do the next day. “And then you go there, do your workload and go home with the note for the next day.” This external determination is not the ideal of a creative profession.
Lots of private headlines
Success and celebrity also brought plenty of private headlines for Fischer. The separation from his wife, with whom he has two daughters, caught the attention of the media. His relationship with his current wife, Simone, brought him new happiness.
Last year he said in an interview that Simone was his best friend. “She has so many good sides that I wouldn’t know what I would do without her.” The couple moved to Passau in 2017. There, Ottfried Fischer inherited his grandparents’ town house and had it renovated.
Numerous honors – the Golden Romy, the Bavarian Cabaret Prize, the Order Against Animal Seriousness and the German Comedy Prize – underline Fischer’s success. Hape Kerkeling once said in a laudatory speech that Fischer supported many artists – including himself in “Ottis Schlachthof” – and paved the way for them. Alluding to Fischer’s corpulence, Kerkeling joked: “A comedian as tall as you simply doesn’t fit into a small, thin man.”
Source: Stern
I am an author and journalist who has worked in the entertainment industry for over a decade. I currently work as a news editor at a major news website, and my focus is on covering the latest trends in entertainment. I also write occasional pieces for other outlets, and have authored two books about the entertainment industry.
