Horst Lettenmayer is dead: The actor became famous through his eyes in the “Tatort” opening credits. But how did he get this special honor?
His eyes made him famous: The German actor and entrepreneur Horst Lettenmayer (1941 – 2024) has died. This was first reported on Monday (5 August) by the “Münchner Abendzeitung” newspaper, citing his daughter Julia-Alina Lettenmayer. According to the newspaper, the man who has been seen in the iconic “Tatort” opening credits for over 50 years with his grey-blue eyes and legs died in his apartment on July 20 at the age of over 80. He was buried shortly afterwards on July 31 – his 83rd birthday – in Munich’s North Cemetery.
How Horst Lettenmayer became famous
Almost every Sunday at 8:15 p.m., Horst Lettenmayer’s eyes look through a slit on the TV screens at the German “Tatort” viewers to the music of Klaus Doldinger. Then his legs can be seen running away across the shiny asphalt.
The sequence used to this day in the famous ARD crime series opening credits was filmed in 1970 at Munich-Riem Airport. At the time, NDR was filming the first “Tatort” with the title “Taxi nach Leipzig” (Taxi to Leipzig), and Bayerischer Rundfunk was responsible for the opening credits: Lettenmayer was famously paid a one-off sum of 400 D-Marks for this acting work. As the “Abendzeitung München” reported on the occasion of his death, Lettenmayer himself said that he took legal action against it during his lifetime. “Nobody thought at the time that the thing would run unchanged for 38 years,” he once said in an interview.
“They’re looking for a pair of eyes – get in touch”
As the First writes in an article about interesting “Tatort” facts for the 1,000th anniversary episode, the famous crime series has been introduced with the same opening credits since 1970. “The eyes and legs in the opening credits belong to the former actor Horst Lettenmayer. 46 years ago now, he received a momentous call from his agency – ‘They’re looking for a pair of eyes, get in touch’ – which made him a regular guest on the screens on Sundays after the ‘Tagesschau’.”
Lettenmayer was also seen again in “Tatort” almost twenty years later. In 1989, he played the union boss Günther Broegger in “Tatort: Der Pott” alongside Götz George (1938 – 2016) as Inspector Horst Schimanski and Eberhard Feik (1943 – 1994) as Inspector Christian Thanner. His role is brutally murdered in the television film produced by WDR. The “Tatort” episode also features the actor Miroslav Nemec (70), who worked as a Munich inspector from 1991.
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.
