Horst Janson: Widow Hella describes his last hours

At the end of January it became known that the popular actor Horst Janson (1935-2025) died at the age of 89. In an interview, his widow Helgardt Hella Ruthardt (76) now speaks out in which she talks about his last hours.

The star from the “Sesame Road” had been suffering from health problems for a long time. In the summer of 2024 he suffered a stroke, then he moved up a brain hemorrhage in a fall of stairs and also caught a hospital germ. After two other strokes in January there was the sad certainty, as Helgardt Hella Ruthardt tells in an interview with “Freizeit Revue”. “The doctor told us that unfortunately you could no longer help him.”

Janson has no longer gained awareness at the Palliative Station of the Munich Clinic Harlaching. “We told him stories, stroked his head, kissed and pressed him.” Hella Janson describes “Freizeit Revue”: “I had to let him go, even though it tears my heart.”

The actor had previously forged plans and was in preparation for his festival for his 90th birthday on October 4, 2025. “He wanted to live, otherwise he could have deleted the sails long before,” his widow is convinced. She had been married to Janson since 1982. In 1984 daughter Sarah-Jane Janson was born, two years later Laura-Marie Janson followed. Previously, the actor was married to actress Monika Lundi (82) for three years.

Janson, who grew up in Mainz and Wiesbaden, among others, was already on the theater school stage at a young age. In 1959 he played in the “Buddenbrooks” film. In the 1960s and 1970s he was also seen in international productions such as “Two Kerle from Granit” with Tony Curtis (1925-2010) or “Two Wilde Companeros”. In his TV career, he was known for the series “Salto Mortale”, “The Bastian” or the film series “under White Sailing”. He also played in two “Immenhof” continuation. He also appeared in the 1980s as a “Horst” in the children’s program “Sesame Straße”.