RIP Dieter Jäger

DEFA

10/13/2026

The DEFA newsletter has announced the death of director, cameraman and actor Dieter Jäger who died on September 1^st. He was 88. Born in Mückenburg, Poland on February 7, 1938, Jäger directed the film “Not Just an Adventure” in 1960. In 1967, he served as a member of the camera and lighting department for the film “Lady Venus and Her Devil”. In 1978, Dieter Jäger played the role of Ferdl in an episode of the television series ‘Dangerous Manhunt’. In 1983, he served as a member of the camera and lighting department for the television series ‘Märkische Chronicle’. In 1994, Dieter Jäger portrayed a photographer and also worked as a still photographer for the film “Farewell to Agnes”. From 1999 to 2002, he worked as a camera assistant for the television series ‘Heartbeat - The Medical Team North’. Additionally, Dieter was long active in the camera department, serving in roles such as camera assistant, still photographer, and camera operator for numerous film and television productions from the 1960s to the early 2000s. He appeared in some 15 films from 1970 to 2003.

JAGER, Dieter

Born: 2/7/1938, Mückenburg, Poland

Died: 9/1/2026, Germany

 

Dieter Jäger’s western – actor:

The Long Ride from School – 1982 (an innocent)

RIP Waltraut Kramm

 

Waltraut Kramm the actress and dubber Waltraut Kramm died in Potsdam at the age of 94: she leaves behind a rich life’s work.

Tagesspiegel

By Klaus Bustrin

8/17/2026

 

Waltraut Kramm began her career as a voice actress at the Rundfunk (state broadcaster) for the children's program Kunterbunt. She completed her acting training from 1948 to 1950 at the DEFA Acting School.

As a theater actress, she worked at the Hans Otto Theater in Potsdam; there she was a permanent member of the ensemble until 1958.

From 1958, she worked as a freelance actress for theater, film, radio, and radio drama.

She also appeared in numerous radio series, including the crime series Blaulicht, Polizeiruf 110 (as Frau Schr110er in the episode Der Kreuzworträtselfall in 1988) and Der Staatsanwalt hat das Wort.

After World War II, Kramm resumed her work as a voice actress for the state broadcaster; she spoke the role of "Kleinen Pfennig" in the children's radio series Aus dem Butzemannhaus.

Kramm also worked as a voice actress for radio plays. She, along with Genia Lapuhs, played the title role as the Queen in the fairy tale radio play Schneewittchen in 1963; in the same year, she took on the role of Rosenrot in the fairy tale radio play Schneeweißchen und Rosenrot. In the literary radio play Huckleberry Finn, she played the role of Mary Jane Wilks, one of the attractive daughters of the wealthy Peter Wilks.

Waltraut Kramm also worked as a voice actress in several fairy tale films. In the classic fairy tale film "Three Nuts for Cinderella," she played the role of the landlady and cook Rosi; her voice in the GDR dubbing was provided by the Czechoslovak actress Míla Myslíková.

Waltraut Kramm was married to the long-time head director of the Hans-Otto Theater, Dieter Schindelhauer.

She died in July 2026 after a short illness in a hospital in Potsdam.

In eternal memory

KRAMM, Waltraut

Born: 12/14/1931, Berlin, Germany

Died: 7/28/2026, Potsdam, Brandenburg, Germany

 

Waltraut Kramm’s western – actress:

White Wolves – 1969 (mother)

 

RIP Konrad Wille

 DEFA

10/13/2026

According to the DEFA newsletter sound man Konrad Walle died on February 27^th. He was 94. Born in German on August 19, 193, Konrad worked in the sound department on 87 films and television programs between 1959 and 1998. He worked in various capacities in the DEFA sound department such as a sound engineer and sound mixer

WALLE, Konrad

Born: 8/19/1931, Germany

Died: 2/27/2026, Germany

 

Konrad Walle’s westerns – sound department:

Prairie Scout in Mexico (TV) - 1988

RIP RJ Mitte Dies

 

RJ Mitte Dies: ‘Breaking Bad’ Actor Was 34

DEADLINE

By Patrick Hipes

October 12, 2026

 

“It is with profound sadness that we share the tragic passing of beloved actor, philanthropist, and passionate disability rights advocate RJ Mitte,” his reps said.

Mitte, whose Breaking Bad character Walter Jr also had CP, would build a platform on disability awareness and inclusion due to the popularity of the series, which ran from 2008-13 and garnered 58 Primetime Emmy nominations, winning 16 including two for Outstanding Drama Series.

Mitte was part of the cast that won the then-SAG Awards’ Ensemble in a Drama Series trophy in 2014, having been nominated in the category the previous two years.

The breakout role led to parts in movie and TV series. He starred in the 2021 drama Triumph, playing a high school senior who tries at extreme cost to be a wrestler despite having cerebral palsy. He also starred opposite Dove Cameron in 2024’s Love Me Dead and opposite Finn Wittrock in 2025’s Westhampton.

His most recent credit, per IMDb, was starring opposite Lin Yin in the indie pic Talking to Strangers.

On the small screen, his credits included Switched at Birth, Now Apocalypse and The Guardians of Justice (Will Save You!). He also voiced a role in HCBS Final Rule: The Animated Series, a series of shorts designed to highlight changes to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services’ Community Based Services for people with intellectual disabilities in California.

Born on August 21, 1992, in Jackson, Mississippi, Mitte also was know for his philanthropy. He served as an ambassador for United Cerebral Palsy and Shriners Children’s as well as president of The Mitte Foundation, which supports philanthropic efforts and community initiatives.

The reps asked for the family’s privacy at this time. Information on survivors or a memorial service was not immediately available.

MITTE, RJ (Roy Frank Mitte III)

Born: 8/21/1992, Jackson, Mississippi, U.S.A.

Died: 10/12/2026, Brownsville, Texas, U.S.A.

 

RJ Mitte’s westerns – actor:

Vegas (TV) – 2012 (Russ Auster)

Forgotten Outlaw – 2026 (Bub Meeks)

RIP Nihat Ziyalan

 

Yeşilçam's master actor, poet Nihat Ziyalan passed away

Medyascope

October 12, 2026

 

Poet and writer Nihat Ziyalan, one of the legendary names of Yeşilçam, died at the age of 90 in Sydney, Australia.

Who is Nihat Ziyalan?

Nihat Ziyalan, born on February 26, 1936 in Adana, is a poet, writer and theater and film actor. Ziyalan, who is known for the films he starred in in Turkish cinema, especially during the Yeşilçam period, turned to cinema with the encouragement of his childhood friend Yılmaz Güney. After acting at Adana City Theater and Ankara Art Theater, he moved to Yeşilçam and starred in many films.

Ziyalan, who started his literary life with his poems on the art page of the newspaper Bugün published in Adana, later published in magazines such as Yeditepe, Dost, Pazar Postası and Papirüs. Ziyalan, whose poems are influenced by the Second New movement, wrote stories and novels as well as poetry.

Ziyalan's poetry books include One of the Sullen Faces (1963), Pigeon Flight (1980), Poems from Australia (1985), Dear Poetry (2007) and Tomurcuk Sevda (2009). His novels Güneşle Damgalı (2000) and Menekşeli Konak (2004) and short story books Short Pants Sevda (2001) and Severim Mondayleri (2005) were also published.

Ziyalan, who immigrated to Australia in 1980, continued his life in Sydney. In 2009, 1. He was awarded the Çukurova Award. He is the father of poet, writer and physician Mustafa Ziyalan.

ZIYALAN, Nihat

Born: 2/26/1936, Adana, Turkey

Died: 10/11/2026, Sydney, New South Wales Australia

 

Nihat Ziyalan’s westerns – actor:

Zagor – 1970 (Rodrigo)

Kan ve Kin – 1973

RIP Pierre Lindstedt

Swedish Actor Pierre Lindstedt, Star of The Emigrants and Mysteriet på Greveholm, Dies at 83

Sweden Herald

October 12, 2026

 

Actor Pierre Lindstedt has died, Expressen reports, citing his family. He was 83.

Pierre Lindstedt had a long career in Swedish television, theatre and film.

He played, among other roles, the farmhand Arvid in Jan Troell’s emigrant films. For an entire generation, he became synonymous with the ghost Staffan in the 1996 TV Christmas calendar “Mysteriet på Greveholm”. The success was followed by a sequel at Christmas 2012. In the 1989 Christmas calendar “Ture Sventon privatdetektiv”, he played Oxen, an underling of Ville Vessla.

He performed at Riksteatern (the national touring theatre) and was employed at Malmö City Theatre for 17 years. For a few years in the 1990s, he and the ensemble ran their own theatre, Glädjehuset, in Malmö.

Pierre Lindstedt was born on Dalarö in 1943 and was the son of actor Carl-Gustaf Lindstedt. He said that he initially did not want to follow in his father’s footsteps, but became an actor anyway after working as a stagehand at, among other places, Dramaten (the Royal Dramatic Theatre).

Together with his father, he played a porter in the reviled TV series “Mysinge motell” in 1968. The following year, Pierre Lindstedt got a role in Bo Widerberg’s film “Ådalen 31”, which led to roles in Jan Troell’s emigrant films.

LINDSTEDT, Pierre (Pierre Ernst Vilhelm Lindstedt)

Born: 8/15/1943, Dalarö, Stockholms län, Sweden

Died: 10/10/2026, Herräng, Häverö, Sweden

 

Pierre Lindstedt’s westerns – actor:

The Emigrants – 1970 (Arvid)

The New Land – 1972 (Arvid)

RIP Jiří Štěpnička

 

Actor Jiří Štěpnička has died. The distinctive face of the National Theatre was 79 years old

Forum 24

By Dan David Rafael

10/11/2026

 

Actor and voice actor Jiří Štěpnička has died, he was 79 years old. He has worked at the National Theatre for a long time, since 1975, and the Czech public may also know him from series (such as Tell) and films. He also devoted himself to dubbing, where he lent his voice to foreign actors, including Harrison Ford and Michael Douglas.

"An extraordinary actor, a distinctive representative of Czech theatre and a colleague who has fundamentally enriched the history of the National Theatre with his work is leaving," National Theatre spokesman Tomáš Staněk told the server Novinky.cz.

In 2010, he received the Thalia Award for his outstanding performance in the production of Blackbird Štěpnička. During his time at the National Theatre, he played almost a hundred different characters.

Štěpnička was born in 1947 in Great Britain. He came from an artistic family, his father was the academic painter Jan Samec, and his mother was the famous First Republic film and theater star Jiřina Štěpničková. She was persecuted by the regime after 1948. Later, she decided to emigrate from Czechoslovakia with her son, but she was arrested during a forced border crossing and served almost ten years in prison. His godfather was Jan Masaryk. Due to his place of birth, he also had British citizenship.

STEPNICKA, Jiří

Born: 4/16/1947, London, England, U.K.

Died: 10/11/2026, Prague, Czech Republic

 

Jiří Štěpnička’s western – actor:

Rose Mary (TV) – 1977 (Hermann)