Bernhard wicki biography

Swiss film director and actor Bernhard Wicki, one of the most acclaimed filmmakers in the German language and co-director of the Hollywood war epic “The Longest Day,” died Wednesday in Munich. He was 80.

A spokeswoman for his agent said he died in his flat in Munich after a long illness.

Wicki started out as an actor but is best remembered for his career as a director, which began in 1959 with the highly regarded antiwar film “Die Bruecke” (The Bridge).

The success of that film brought him to Hollywood, where his credits included “The Longest Day” in 1962.

He also directed “The Visit” with Ingrid Bergman and Anthony Quinn in 1964 and “Morituri” with Marlon Brando in 1965.

As an actor his achievements included portraying a dying writer in Mielangelo Aonioni’s “La Notte” in 1960.

Born in Austria in 1919, Wicki studied theater under the legendary German actor Gustav Gruendgens.

In 1938 he spent 10 months in the Nazi concentration camp at Sachsenhausen because of his communist views and his membership in the radical Bauhaus school of architecture.

​From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Bernhard Wicki  (28 October 1919 in St. Pölten, Austria - 5 January 2000 in Munich) was an Austrian actor and film director.

Wicki studied in the city of Breslau such topics as Art History, History und German Literature. In 1938, he transferred to the Schauspielschule des Staatlichen Schauspielhauses (drama school) in Berlin. In 1939, because of his membership in the Bündischen Jugend he was imprisoned for many months in the Sachsenhausen concentration camp. After his release he moved to Vienna, and then in 1944 to Switzerland.

After the end of World War II, he starred in many films, like Die letzte Brücke (1953) and Es geschah am 20. Juli (1955). He was also a photographer. His first attempt at directing came three years later with the documentary Warum sind sie gegen uns? (1958). He became internationally famous with his anti-war film of 1959 called Die Brücke. In 1961, he won the Silver Bear for Best Director at the 11th Berlin International Film Festival for his film The Miracle of Father Malachia.

After his death in 2001, a fund was started and named after him in Munich, the Bernhard Wicki Memorial Fund. Since 2002, it has awarded a film prize, The Bridge, considered a peace prize. A further prize was endowed in 2006 with 15,000 euros, a prize given in the city of Emden since 2000. He was a patron of the International Film Festival in Emden-Norderney which first started in 1990.

He first married Agnes Fink, a fellow acting colleague, and later married Elisabeth Endriss, also a colleague. In the documentary Verstörung - und eine Art von Poesie (June, 2007), Elisabeth Wicki-Endriss portrayed the life and work for Wicki.

He is buried at the Nymphenburger cemetery in Munich (grave number 4-1-23).

Description above from the Wikipedia article Bernhard Wicki, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia

​From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Bernhard Wicki  (28 October 1919 in St. Pölten, Austri

Austrian-Swiss actor, director and writer

Bernhard Wicki (28 October 1919 – 5 January 2000) was an Austrian-Swiss actor, film director and screenwriter. He was a key figure in the revitalization of post-war German-language cinema, particularly in West Germany, and also directed several Hollywood films.

His works as a director include his debut 1959 anti-war film Die Brücke, the religious drama The Miracle of Father Malachia (1961), the Friedrich Dürrenmatt adaptation The Visit (1964), and the German segments of the World War II epic The Longest Day (1962). He won four German Film Awards for Best Direction.

Life and career

Wicki studied in the city of Breslau such topics as art history, history and German literature. In 1938, he transferred to the drama school of the Staatliches Schauspielhaus in Berlin. In 1939, because of his membership in the Bündische Jugend, he was imprisoned for many months in the Sachsenhausen concentration camp. After his release, he moved to Vienna, then in 1944 to Switzerland.

After World War II, he starred in many films, including Die letzte Brücke (1953) and Es geschah am 20. Juli (1955). He was also a photographer. His first attempt at directing came three years later with the documentary Warum sind sie gegen uns? (1958). He became internationally famous with his 1959 anti-war film Die Brücke, which was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. In 1961 he won the Silver Bear for Best Director at the 11th Berlin International Film Festival for his film The Miracle of Father Malachia. His break in Hollywood came shortly thereafter when he was chosen to direct Marlon Brando and Yul Brynner in the highl