Ruhmann, Heinz

▪ 1995

      German actor (b. March 7, 1902, Essen, Germany—d. Oct. 4, 1994, Berg, near Starnberg, Germany), had a motion-picture career that spanned more than 60 years and 100 films and was one of his country's most beloved stars. Specializing in roles as the little man whose optimism and humour enable him to defeat adversity, he came to be considered a comic institution and was voted most popular actor in Germany at least a dozen times. Rühmann began his career as a stage actor in 1920 and made his film debut in 1926 in Das deutsche Mutterherz ("The German Mother Heart"). He became a star after his performance in his first talking picture, Die Drei von der Tankstelle (1930; "Three from the Gas Station"). Such films as Der Mann, der seinen Morder sucht (1931; "Looking for His Murderer") and Der Mann, der Sherlock Holmes war (1937; "The Man Who Was Sherlock Holmes") made Rühmann so popular that Nazi authorities pressured him to divorce his wife, who was half Jewish. He did so in 1938—after 14 years of marriage—but he helped her escape to Sweden, and after World War II they appeared on television together. Rühmann then directed a few films, but acting remained his principal focus. Among his postwar acting successes were Charleys Tante (1955; "Charley's Aunt"), Der Hauptmann von Köpenick (1956; "The Captain from Köpenick"), and Der Brave Soldat Schwejk (1960; "The Good Soldier Schweik"). Rühmann became known to English-speaking audiences through his role in the motion picture Ship of Fools (1965). In 1993 he appeared in In weiter Ferne, so nah! ("Far Away, So Close"), thus becoming one of the very few silent-film performers to remain active in the 1990s.

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