Rudi Dolezal

Rudi Dolezal (Doležal, born 5 February 1958) is an Austrian film producer and film director best known for his music videos.

He has directed and produced videos for artists such as Tom Waits, the Rolling Stones, Frank Zappa, David Bowie, Michael Jackson, Bruce Springsteen, Sandra Cretu and Whitney Houston.

For his work in the music industry, he was nominated for two Grammy Awards.

He is the recipient of three Romy Awards and two Rose d'Ors.

Dolezal was born in Vienna on 5 February 1958.

In the 1970s he worked as a TV reporter in his native Vienna.

He worked as a freelancer for ORF and was a journalist for "Kurier", "Wiener" and "Basta".

Dolezal has worked together with Hannes Rossacher since 1976 as part of their production company DoRo Productions as a producer and director, first for ORF, and then for ARD and ZDF and provided contributions for youth and music programs.

With the founding of their own production company, they specialized in the music market and made music videos for national and international musicians.

They also created portraits and documentaries.

Mercury's manager did call Dolezal in 1985, and asked him if he could shoot the music video for "One Vision", Queen's new single.

It was the first collaboration of a "fruitful relationship between Dolezal and the band".

About Mercury Dolezal said:

Freddie and I developed a language together.

He was very, very, fast.

He was very intelligent, very clever, and you had to be always on your toes.

He was very impatient.

He wasn't even finishing telling you what he wanted, but he wanted it that moment!

Dolezal also said that Mercury was very diligent: "If I had a shoot where I said, 'Freddie, you have to get up at 5 a.m. because I want to have the sun going up behind you,' he was there 5 a.m.".

He and Mercury developed a strong friendship.

Dolezal knew that Mercury was not well when he came to him to shoot the music video to "These Are the Days of Our Lives".

He said Mercury knew it was the last time he would be in front of a camera.

Although filmed in color, Dolezal decided to render the video in black and white, in a "desperate attempt to conceal Mercury's physical deterioration".

The Queen's frontman had not yet reveled his illness to the public, nor did he talk about it except within a restricted inner circle of friends.

After MTV UK did not want to air the music videos of Marius Müller-Westernhagen because he sang in German, Dolezal and Rossacher planned the German music TV channel VIVA for three years, which started airing in December 1993.

Dolezal has won numerous awards in the film, television and music sectors.

Dolezal has filmed documentaries on Freddie Mercury, including Lover of Life, Singer of Songs.

He also produced music videos for Falco, such as the music video for "Rock Me Amadeus".

Among his best known works are the documentary Freddie Mercury – The Untold Story (2000), which earned him his second Grammy Award nomination, the documentary TV series Weltberühmt in Österreich – 50 Jahre Austropop (2006), and Whitney: Can I Be Me (2017), a documentary film co-directed by Dolezal and created from more than one hundred hours of footage filmed by Dolezal in 1999.

In 2003, the company went bankrupt, and later Rossacher and Dolezal separated and went their own way.

At the time, Dolezal had already become the father of his two sons and lived in Purkersdorf near Vienna.

Together with Rossacher, Dolezal was involved in the content development of Premiere and VIVA.

Since 2015, he has hosted a music documentary series called Dolezal Backstage on Servus TV, in which he tells stories of his life, illustrated with archive footage, and talks about his encounters with music greats such as Michael Jackson, Bruce Springsteen, Frank Zappa, The Rolling Stones, and others.

Dolezal worked on dozens of music videos for Queen, Tom Waits, Rolling Stones, Frank Zappa, and Whitney Houston.

Dolezal and Mercury first met when the Austrian director and film producer was working as a reporter for a German television, during an interview with the band.

After the interview, he made a "tongue-in-cheek remark", telling Mercury to give him a call if he needed a good director for his next videos.

He grew up in Vienna's 19th district.

He was trained in classical music, but always had a passion for rock 'n' roll.

After graduating from high school, Dolezal studied journalism, political science and law.

He started to work in the film industry at 17.