Wolf Roth
Encyclopedia
Wolf-Egbert Klapproth (b. August 22, 1945 in Torgau
, Germany
) is a German
theatre
and television
actor
. He was born in Torgau, where his family had fled during World War II
. He was raised and educated in Bremen
. In 1961 he moved to the United States
and graduated from the Edsel Ford High School
in Detroit, Michigan
. He spent the next months travelling through the Midwest of the US.
Having returned to Germany, he graduated in Bremen and went on to the Freie Universität
in Berlin
. He took courses in sociology
and economics
, but found his vocation when he was taken by friends to the entrance examinations of the famous Max Reinhardt Seminar
for actors. He was discovered by the actress Hilde Körber
, and while still in the seminar, he was seen and engaged by Boleslaw Barlog. He made his theatrical debut in the play Quadratur des Kreises by Walentin Petrowitsch Katajew in 1967. Subsequently he joined the theatre in Oberhausen
, where he portrayed several roles. He left Oberhausen in 1969 to continue his career in Berlin, where he played in the Berliner Theater and the Schaubühne
. During this time, he started to work in television and the movies, where his main work has been since then. Films include Goldene Zeiten
(2006) (as the character Jürgen Matthies).
Torgau
Torgau is a town on the banks of the Elbe in northwestern Saxony, Germany. It is the capital of the district Nordsachsen.Outside Germany, the town is most well known as the place where during the Second World War, United States Army forces coming from the west met with forces of the Soviet Union...
, Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
) is a German
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
theatre
Theatre
Theatre is a collaborative form of fine art that uses live performers to present the experience of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place. The performers may communicate this experience to the audience through combinations of gesture, speech, song, music or dance...
and television
Television
Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...
actor
Actor
An actor is a person who acts in a dramatic production and who works in film, television, theatre, or radio in that capacity...
. He was born in Torgau, where his family had fled during World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
. He was raised and educated in Bremen
Bremen
The City Municipality of Bremen is a Hanseatic city in northwestern Germany. A commercial and industrial city with a major port on the river Weser, Bremen is part of the Bremen-Oldenburg metropolitan area . Bremen is the second most populous city in North Germany and tenth in Germany.Bremen is...
. In 1961 he moved to the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
and graduated from the Edsel Ford High School
Edsel Ford High School
Edsel Ford High School is a secondary school located in Dearborn, Michigan, USA. Edsel Ford, located on Rotunda, near Oakwood, is one of three high schools in the Dearborn Public Schools. Edsel Ford High School was completed in 1955, and the first graduating class was in 1956...
in Detroit, Michigan
Detroit, Michigan
Detroit is the major city among the primary cultural, financial, and transportation centers in the Metro Detroit area, a region of 5.2 million people. As the seat of Wayne County, the city of Detroit is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan and serves as a major port on the Detroit River...
. He spent the next months travelling through the Midwest of the US.
Having returned to Germany, he graduated in Bremen and went on to the Freie Universität
Free University of Berlin
Freie Universität Berlin is one of the leading and most prestigious research universities in Germany and continental Europe. It distinguishes itself through its modern and international character. It is the largest of the four universities in Berlin. Research at the university is focused on the...
in Berlin
Berlin
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
. He took courses in sociology
Sociology
Sociology is the study of society. It is a social science—a term with which it is sometimes synonymous—which uses various methods of empirical investigation and critical analysis to develop a body of knowledge about human social activity...
and economics
Economics
Economics is the social science that analyzes the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services. The term economics comes from the Ancient Greek from + , hence "rules of the house"...
, but found his vocation when he was taken by friends to the entrance examinations of the famous Max Reinhardt Seminar
Max Reinhardt Seminar
The Max Reinhardt Seminar is the School of Drama at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna, Austria. It is located in the Palais Cumberland, Penzingerstraße 9, in Vienna's 14th district - History :...
for actors. He was discovered by the actress Hilde Körber
Hilde Körber
Hilde Körber was a German film actress. She appeared in 53 films between 1930 and 1964.She was born in Vienna, Austria and died in Berlin, Germany.-Selected filmography:* The Great King * Morituri...
, and while still in the seminar, he was seen and engaged by Boleslaw Barlog. He made his theatrical debut in the play Quadratur des Kreises by Walentin Petrowitsch Katajew in 1967. Subsequently he joined the theatre in Oberhausen
Oberhausen
Oberhausen is a city on the river Emscher in the Ruhr Area, Germany, located between Duisburg and Essen . The city hosts the International Short Film Festival Oberhausen and its Gasometer Oberhausen is an anchor point of the European Route of Industrial Heritage. It is also well known for the...
, where he portrayed several roles. He left Oberhausen in 1969 to continue his career in Berlin, where he played in the Berliner Theater and the Schaubühne
Schaubühne
The Schaubühne am Lehniner Platz is a famous theatre in the Wilmersdorf district of Berlin, located at almost the middle of the famous Kurfürstendamm. It is a conversion of the Kino Universum, designed by Erich Mendelsohn in 1926. This was perhaps the first Modernist cinema built in the world, as...
. During this time, he started to work in television and the movies, where his main work has been since then. Films include Goldene Zeiten
Goldene Zeiten
Goldene Zeiten is a German film released in 2006. It is the last film in director Peter Torwarth's trilogy of films set in his hometown Unna, and was preceded by Bang Boom Bang and Was nicht passt wird passend gemacht...
(2006) (as the character Jürgen Matthies).
Theatre
- Quadratur des Kreises by Walentin Petrowitsch Katajew, Schiller-Theater Werkstatt BerlinBerlinBerlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
, 1967 - Half Way Up a Tree by Peter UstinovPeter UstinovPeter Alexander Ustinov CBE was an English actor, writer and dramatist. He was also renowned as a filmmaker, theatre and opera director, stage designer, author, screenwriter, comedian, humourist, newspaper and magazine columnist, radio broadcaster and television presenter...
, "Robert", OberhausenOberhausenOberhausen is a city on the river Emscher in the Ruhr Area, Germany, located between Duisburg and Essen . The city hosts the International Short Film Festival Oberhausen and its Gasometer Oberhausen is an anchor point of the European Route of Industrial Heritage. It is also well known for the...
, 1967/68 - Die DreigroschenoperThe Threepenny OperaThe Threepenny Opera is a musical by German dramatist Bertolt Brecht and composer Kurt Weill, in collaboration with translator Elisabeth Hauptmann and set designer Caspar Neher. It was adapted from an 18th-century English ballad opera, John Gay's The Beggar's Opera, and offers a Marxist critique...
by Bertold Brecht, "Filch", OberhausenOberhausenOberhausen is a city on the river Emscher in the Ruhr Area, Germany, located between Duisburg and Essen . The city hosts the International Short Film Festival Oberhausen and its Gasometer Oberhausen is an anchor point of the European Route of Industrial Heritage. It is also well known for the...
, 1967/68 - Das Staatsexamen by Alexander Wampilow, "Koljossow", OberhausenOberhausenOberhausen is a city on the river Emscher in the Ruhr Area, Germany, located between Duisburg and Essen . The city hosts the International Short Film Festival Oberhausen and its Gasometer Oberhausen is an anchor point of the European Route of Industrial Heritage. It is also well known for the...
, 1967/68 - La belle HélèneLa belle HélèneLa belle Hélène , opéra bouffe in three acts, is an operetta by Jacques Offenbach to an original French libretto by Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy...
by Jacques OffenbachJacques OffenbachJacques Offenbach was a Prussian-born French composer, cellist and impresario. He is remembered for his nearly 100 operettas of the 1850s–1870s and his uncompleted opera The Tales of Hoffmann. He was a powerful influence on later composers of the operetta genre, particularly Johann Strauss, Jr....
, "Paris", OberhausenOberhausenOberhausen is a city on the river Emscher in the Ruhr Area, Germany, located between Duisburg and Essen . The city hosts the International Short Film Festival Oberhausen and its Gasometer Oberhausen is an anchor point of the European Route of Industrial Heritage. It is also well known for the...
, 1967/68 - Kaspar by Peter HandkePeter HandkePeter Handke is an avant-garde Austrian novelist and playwright.-Early life:Handke and his mother lived in the Soviet-occupied Pankow district of Berlin from 1944 to 1948 before resettling in Griffen...
(world première), "Einsager", OberhausenOberhausenOberhausen is a city on the river Emscher in the Ruhr Area, Germany, located between Duisburg and Essen . The city hosts the International Short Film Festival Oberhausen and its Gasometer Oberhausen is an anchor point of the European Route of Industrial Heritage. It is also well known for the...
, 11.5.1968 - Die RäuberDie RäuberThe Robbers was the first drama by German playwright Friedrich Schiller. The play was published in 1781 and premiered on January 13, 1782 in Mannheim, Germany. It was written towards the end of the German Sturm und Drang movement and has been considered by many critics, such as Peter Brooks, to...
by Friedrich SchillerFriedrich SchillerJohann Christoph Friedrich von Schiller was a German poet, philosopher, historian, and playwright. During the last seventeen years of his life , Schiller struck up a productive, if complicated, friendship with already famous and influential Johann Wolfgang von Goethe...
, "Franz Moor", OberhausenOberhausenOberhausen is a city on the river Emscher in the Ruhr Area, Germany, located between Duisburg and Essen . The city hosts the International Short Film Festival Oberhausen and its Gasometer Oberhausen is an anchor point of the European Route of Industrial Heritage. It is also well known for the...
, 1968 - The Knack by Ann JellicoeAnn JellicoeAnn Jellicoe is a British actor, theatre director and playwright. Although her work has covered many areas of theatre and film, she is best known for "pushing the envelope" of the stage play, devising new forms which challenge and delight unconventional audiences...
, "Tolen", OberhausenOberhausenOberhausen is a city on the river Emscher in the Ruhr Area, Germany, located between Duisburg and Essen . The city hosts the International Short Film Festival Oberhausen and its Gasometer Oberhausen is an anchor point of the European Route of Industrial Heritage. It is also well known for the...
, 1968 - Avanti!Avanti!Avanti! is a 1972 American/Italian comedy film produced and directed by Billy Wilder. The film starred Jack Lemmon and Juliet Mills. The screenplay by Wilder and I.A.L...
by Samuel A. TaylorSamuel A. TaylorSamuel A. Taylor was an American playwright and screenwriter.Born Samuel Albert Tanenbaum, in a Jewish family, in Chicago, Illinois, Taylor made his Broadway debut as author of the play The Happy Time in 1950. He wrote the play Sabrina Fair in 1953 and co-wrote its film adaptation the following year...
, directed by Victor de Kowa, "Baldo Pantaleone" with Günter PfitzmannGünter PfitzmannGünter Pfitzmann was a German film actor. He appeared in 60 films between 1952 and 2001.He was born and died in Berlin, Germany.-Selected filmography:* Die Brücke * Auf Wiedersehen...
, Berliner Theater, 1969
Piano concerts
- In his youth Wolf Roth studied to become a professional pianist. At the age of 12 he gave his first concert with Mozart, at the age of 14 he played his first Beethoven concert and at the age of 16, when in the U.S.United StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, he played the Warsaw ConcertoWarsaw ConcertoThe Warsaw Concerto is a single-movement piano concerto written for the 1941 film Dangerous Moonlight . It was written by British composer Richard Addinsell...
by Richard AddinsellRichard AddinsellRichard Stewart Addinsell was a British composer, best known for film music, primarily his Warsaw Concerto, composed for the 1941 film Dangerous Moonlight .-Life:...
and the Rhapsody in BlueRhapsody in BlueRhapsody in Blue is a musical composition by George Gershwin for solo piano and jazz band written in 1924, which combines elements of classical music with jazz-influenced effects....
by George GershwinGeorge GershwinGeorge Gershwin was an American composer and pianist. Gershwin's compositions spanned both popular and classical genres, and his most popular melodies are widely known...
before audiences. As Franz Moor in Die Räuber he had to play the piano on stage (it was a modern dress production) and was so good, that it was almost impossible to convince the critics and the audience, that they were watching a 'live performance' and not listening to an audio recording.
Selected films
- Goldene ZeitenGoldene ZeitenGoldene Zeiten is a German film released in 2006. It is the last film in director Peter Torwarth's trilogy of films set in his hometown Unna, and was preceded by Bang Boom Bang and Was nicht passt wird passend gemacht...
, "Jürgen Matthies", 2006 - Scarecrow and Mrs. KingScarecrow and Mrs. KingScarecrow and Mrs. King is an American television series that aired from October 3, 1983, to May 28, 1987 on CBS. The show starred Kate Jackson and Bruce Boxleitner as divorced housewife Amanda King and top-level "Agency" operative Lee Stetson who begin a strange association, and eventual romance,...
(Episode 1, 1985), "Hans Retzig" (US television series) - Cover Up (Episode 1, 1985), "Nicholas" (US television series)
- DerrickDerrick (TV series)Derrick is a German TV series produced by Telenova Film und Fernsehproduktion in association with ZDF, ORF and SRG between 1974 and 1998 about Detective Chief Inspector Stephan Derrick and his loyal assistant Inspector Harry Klein , who solve murder cases in Munich and surroundings Derrick is a...
- Season 10, Episode 1: "Via Genua" (1983) - FleischFleisch (1979)Fleisch is a German cult film by Rainer Erler about organ trade, the thriller was produced in the year 1979.- Plot :...
, 1979 - Quincy, M.E.Quincy, M.E.Quincy, M.E., also called Quincy, is a United States television series from Universal Studios that aired from October 3, 1976, to September 5, 1983, on NBC...
(Episode 1, 1977), "Müller" (US television series) - One or the Other, directed by Wolfgang PetersenWolfgang PetersenWolfgang Petersen is a German film director and screenwriter. His films include The NeverEnding Story, Enemy Mine, Outbreak, In the Line of Fire, Air Force One, The Perfect Storm, Troy, and Poseidon...
, "Hohenberg", 1974 - The Little Doctor (Episode 1, 1974), "Philippe" (German television series)
- I Will Kill You, Wolf, directed by Wolfgang PetersenWolfgang PetersenWolfgang Petersen is a German film director and screenwriter. His films include The NeverEnding Story, Enemy Mine, Outbreak, In the Line of Fire, Air Force One, The Perfect Storm, Troy, and Poseidon...
, 1971 - Hard Women, directed by Alfred VohrerAlfred VohrerAlfred Vohrer was a German film director and actor. He directed 48 films between 1958 and 1984.He was born in Stuttgart, Germany and died in Munich, Germany.-Selected filmography:...
, 1971