Person Biography:
Heinz Rühmann was born into a family that went through a tumultuous period. His parents divorced when he was just 14 years old, and his father later committed suicide. This traumatic event led Rühmann to pursue a career in acting. He began taking acting lessons in 1919 and landed his first theater role a year later in the play "Rose Bernd". He went on to play with Theo Lingen at the Residenztheater in Hanover and later became a member of the Schauspielhaus Munich.
Rühmann's career flourished in the 1920s, and he became a member of the Munich Kammerspiele. He married actress Maria Herbot and began to receive major roles in Berlin with Max Reinhardt. He played alongside Marlene Dietrich and Hans Albers in several films.
In 1930, Rühmann obtained his pilot's license and made his mark in the film industry with the famous film "The Three from the Gas Station". He became the most popular actor in Germany and went on to appear in numerous films throughout the 1930s and 1940s.
Rühmann's personal life was marked by several marriages and a son. He married actress Hertha Feiler in 1938 and had a son with her. He was drafted into the Wehrmacht as a pilot during World War II and appeared in several films, including the comedy "Quax, the Break Pilot".
After the war, Rühmann was "denazified" and began to rebuild his career. He founded his own film company "Comedia" in 1947 and went on to appear in several successful films, including "Don't Be Afraid of Big Animals" and "The Captain of Köpenick".
Rühmann continued to act throughout the 1950s and 1960s, appearing in films such as "It Happened in Broad Daylight" and "The Ship of Fools". He was awarded the German Film Critics' Prize in 1957 and the Federal Cross of Merit in 1966.
In his later years, Rühmann appeared in fewer films and focused on television acting. He wrote his autobiography "That was it" and appeared in a final film in 1993. He died on October 3, 1994, at the age of 92, on Lake Starnberg.
