Gustav Knuth

Gustav Knuth was born on 7 July 1901 in Brunswick, Germany.

After he received acting lessons from Casimir Paris, a well known actor at that time, he made his stage debut at the Stadttheater Heidelberg in 1918. Later, he played in Hamburg and also in Basel, Switzerland, but finally returned to Hamburg.

In 1935, his first movie Der Ammenkönig (1935) became a unexpected success and many more such as the legendary Grosse Freiheit Nr.

Till the end of war he could impersonated some rewarding roles on the big screen and became popular with movies like "Der Vorhang fällt" (1939), "Das Mädchen von Fanö" (1940), "Friedemann Bach" (1941) and especially "Grosse Freiheit Nr. 7" (1944).

7 (1944) or the Sissi (1955) trilogy in the 1950s followed. After World War II, his stage career continued in Switzerland, where he lived in Küsnacht and was ensemble member at the Schauspielhaus Zurich.

He was normally put into action for more or less nice figures, characters tainted with negative touch like in "Die Mücke" (1954) and "Das kunstseidene Mädchen" (1960) were exceptional.

He played the character of Duke Max of Bavaria in all three "Sissi"-Films (1955-1957), beside Romy Schneider.

For his part in "The Liar" (Der Lügner) (1961), he earned him the Ernst Lubitsch Award for best comic performance.

The role of veterinarian Dr. Hofer on Alle meine Tiere (1962) made him one of Germany's first television stars.

Gustav Knuth tended more and more to television in the 60's and 70s where he could rally a huge fan community round him with serials like "Salto Mortale" (1968). Beside it he also appeared at theaters and in feature movies.

Published his autobiography "Mit einem Lächeln im Knopfloch" (With a smile in the buttonhole) in 1974.

In 1980 the directors Konrad Sabrautzky, Wolfgang Becker, Heinz Shirk and Wolfgang Liebeneiner made a documentary about his life and career - entitled: Ein Mime wird 80 (An artist becomes 80).