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Fritz Rasp


Foto: Siegmund Labisch (1863-1942)

1891 - 1976

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The actor Fritz Rasp was a very noticeable figure and he was predestined to personify dubious fellows.
He was born in Bayreuth as the 13th child. He made his stage debut in 1909 in the play "Jugend" at the Schauspielhaus in Munich. led "Jugend". When he joined the Reinhardt ensemble he was able to get in touch with many other actors like Werner Krauss.

In 1915 he came in contact with the medium film for the first time. The title of his first movie can't be proved, most likely it was the movie "Zucker und Zimt" of director Ernst Matray. In the following year he acted for the legendary director Ernst Lubitsch in the film "Schuhpalast Pinkus" (16). 
His film career came to a stop when he served in the military from 1916 to 1918 during World War I.
 
 
His first roles in front of the camera were appointed to comedic roles but already in the 20s he was mostly engaged for knavish and twisty characters.
 
The 20s also marked the breakthrough of his film career, whereas one wished they had engaged this catchy character more often.
 
To his well-known movies of those years belong "Jugend" (22), "Der Mensch am Wege" (23), "Schatten" (23), "Menschen am Meer" (25), the cult film "Metropolis" (26), "Die Waise von Lowood" (26), "Die Liebe der Jeanne Ney" (27), "Schinderhannes" (28), "Spione" (28), "Frau im Mond" (29), "Der Hund von Baskerville" (29) and "Tagebuch einer Verlorenen" (29).
 
Ilja Ehrenburg, writer of the movie "Die Liebe der Jeanne Ney", wrote about Rasp in later days: "Of all actors in the movie "Die Liebe der Jeanne Ney" in 1927 Fritz Rasp was the one who pleased me most. He looked like a veritable scoundrel. When he bit the girl into her arm and covered the wound immediately afterwards with a dollar note instead of a adhesive plaster, I forgot that an actor was in front of me".
 
Beside the film Fritz Rasp remained busy at the theater as well and he appeared on many German stages in the next years like the Metropoltheater and the Deutsches Theater.
 
The sound movie couldn't harm the career of Fritz Rasp. He already played in the 30s in several Edgar-Wallace pictures which were very popular in Germany. Especially in the 50s and 60s there were a lot of remakes based on stories by Edgar Wallace which could lure a huge number of spectators into the cinema. Of course Rasp was also called to play one of the suspects. 
 
To Fritz Rasp's most impressive roles of the 30s belong "Dreyfus" (30), "Der Mörder Dimitri Karamasoff" (30), "Der Zinker" (31), the first filming of Erich Kästner's "Emil und die Detektive" (31), "Die Drei-Groschen-Oper" (31), "Der Hexer" (32), "Der Judas von Tirol" (33), "Charleys Tante" (34), "Der Hund von Baskerville" (36), "Togger" (37), "Nanu, Sie kennen Korff noch nicht!" (38) and "Frau im Strom" (39).
 
During and after the first years of World War II his engagements in front of the camera diminished.  
To his few appearances of those years belong "Alarm" (41), "Paracelsus" (43) and "Irgendwo in Berlin" (46).
 
Only from the 50s he managed a comeback and he impersonated again numerous support roles, among others the priorily mentioned Edgar Wallace filmings.
 
To his most popular productions of the 50s and 60s belong "Hokuspokus" (53), "Der Cornet" (55), "Don Carlos" (57), "Der Frosch mit der Maske" (59), "Der rote Kreis" (60), "Bezaubernde Julia" (60), "Die Bande des Schreckens" (60), "Das schwarze Schaf" (60), "Die seltsame Gräfin" (61), "Der Zinker" (63) and "Dr. med. Hiob Praetorius" (64).
 
At the end of his career he also appeared in some TV productions, his last great triumph he experienced with the TV production "Lina Braake" at Lina Carsten's side.
 
Fritz Rasp was awarded with the Filmband in Gold in 1963 for his outstanding work for the German film.
 

Other movies with Fritz Rasp:
Hans Trutz im Schlaraffenland (17) Time is Money (23) Zwischen Abend und Morgen/Der Spuk einer Nacht (23) Arabella (24) Komödianten (24) Die Puppe vom Lunapark (24) Ein Sommernachtstraum (25) Das Haus der Lüge (25) Götz von Berlichingen zubenannt mit der eisernen Hand (25) Qualen der Nacht (26) Der Liebe Lust und Leid (26) Überflüssige Menschen (26) Kinderseelen klagen an (27) Der geheimnisvolle Spiegel (27) Der letzte Walzer (27) Die Carmen von St. Pauli (28) Frühlings Erwachen (29) Die Drei um Edith (29) Die grosse Sehnsucht (30) Tropennächte (30) Die Pranke (31) Die Vier vom Bob 13 (31) Die grausame Freundin (32) Der sündige Hof (33) Der Schuss am Nebelhorn (33) Altgermanische Bauernkultur (34) Grenzfeuer (34) Klein-Dorrit (34) Lockvogel (34) Lockspitzel Asew (34) Onkel Bräsig (36) Die Leuchter des Kaisers (36) Einmal werd' ich Dir gefallen (37) Es war eine rauschende Ballnacht (39) Leidenschaft (40) Skandal in der Botschaft (50) Haus des Lebens (52) Die Mühle im Schwarzwälder Tal (53) Magic Fire - Frauen um Richard Wagner (55) Die Bauernpassion (55) Squirrel (55) Madame Aurélie (55) Kopf in der Schlinge (55) Der Revisor (55) Gottes Utopia (55) Die Heiratskomödie (55) Ein Weihnachtslied in Prose (55) Das Abschiedsgeschenk (56) Oberst Chabert (56) Wo war David Preston? (56) Zwölftausend (56) Der öffentliche Kläger (58) Vor Himmelskörpern wird gewarnt (59) Johanna von Lothringen (59) Land, das meine Sprache spricht (59) Das mittlere Fenster (59) Eine Dummheit macht auch der Gescheiteste (59) Kasimir und Karoline (59) Der Mann, der Donnerstag war (60) Am grünen Strand der Spree (60) Gericht über Las Casas (60) Das Rätsel der roten Orchidee/Gangster in London (62) Maria Stuart (63) Herodes und Marianne (64) Eurydike (64) Volpone (66) Der Prozess der Jeanne d'Arc zu Rouen 1431 (67) Die Verspätung (69) Serie "Tatort: Frankfurter Gold (71) Die Weber (71) Serie "Der Kommissar: Tod eines Ladenbesitzers (71) Pero und Jovo (72) Dorothea Merz (76)


 
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