He has played villains, fathers, lovers, the Pope several times and a glue manufacturer: Mario Adorf is one of the most renowned actors in the country. The TV industry is now honoring him.
Actor Mario Adorf is receiving the German Television Award for his life’s work. The 94-year-old is being honored as an “icon of the acting arts” and an outstanding character actor who has moved audiences for 70 years, the award’s sponsors announced on Monday. Adorf will receive the award on Wednesday (September 25) at the German Television Award gala in Cologne.
“With his more than 200 roles, he has written television and film history and captivated entire generations with his enormous presence. He has always remained a star without airs and graces, someone for whom ‘authenticity’ is more than just a word,” said WDR director Tom Buhrow, this year’s chairman of the donor circle, explaining the decision for Adorf. “The credibility with which he portrays his characters is what makes him so charismatic and so successful.”
In his long career, Adorf has played patriarchs, police officers, agents, fathers, lovers, villains and, several times, the Pope. He was born in Zurich in 1930 to an Alsatian mother and an Italian father, and then grew up in Mayen in the Eifel. His breakthrough in front of the camera came in 1957 as a woman murderer in Robert Siodmak’s crime thriller “Nachts, wenn der Teufel kam”.
From “Winnetou” to “Rossini”
Adorf became very well known as the villain Santer in “Winnetou I” (1963), as Father Matzerath in the Oscar-winning film “The Tin Drum” (1979) and with major roles in “The Great Bellheim” (1993) and in Helmut Dietl’s “Rossini” (1997). His appearance as the Rhenish glue manufacturer Heinrich Haffenloher in the ARD series “Kir Royal” in 1986 was downright iconic (“I’m not going to give you shit about my money!”)
Adorf has already won many awards – such as the Grimme Prize, the German Film Prize and the Golden Camera. As the recipient of the honorary award at the German Television Prize, he now stands alongside personalities such as Iris Berben, Hape Kerkeling and Thomas Gottschalk. However, many viewers will also remember a man who turned down the award for his life’s work in 2008 with the sentence “I will not accept this award!” – Marcel Reich-Ranicki.
The German Television Award is sponsored by ARD, RTL, Sat.1, ZDF and Deutsche Telekom. The streaming providers Disney+, Netflix and Prime Video are partners. This year, WDR has taken the lead on behalf of ARD. ARD will broadcast the TV gala on Wednesday (September 25) from 8:15 p.m.
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.
