As an eight-year-old, I stood in a princess costume in my father’s toy shop, dreaming of becoming an actor in the deep countryside. 50 years later, I passed the acting exam in front of the Parity Examination Commission at the Theater in der Josefstadt. In between, life hit me hard—literally costing me some teeth (see pictures). My assets are the nearly three-year full-time training with Karl Wozek (Schauspielschule Krauss), my beaten-down self, my missing teeth, and also my 40-year engagement with the stage, literature, and film. Nowadays, I tend to dwell on the darker side of existence. It may have to do with the fact that my wife and I are parents of five stillborn children. Death and I are quite familiar, we’re on first-name terms.

I enjoy playing the dark characters, those who despise life and people—though I’m told I’m quite a comedian as well. Recently, I had the chance to show both sides in Jula Zangger’s Das Wechselbälgchen: portraying Feitbauer, a farm child, and finally Lenz, the baby-hater, and eventually child murderer.

I hope to have a "Johannes Heesters" kind of career, that is, to still be acting in films at the age of 100.