RIP Fred Stillkrauth

With depth and character

Süddeutsche Zeitung 

By Karl Forster

August 8, 2020, 11:01 am

He was often just a supporting actor, but as such made many a production an experience

Fred Stillkrauth died at the age of 81. The man from Munich was one of those actors who, despite engagements at the Kammerspiele, liked to be placed in the second row.

Fred Stillkrauth died at the age of 81. The man from Munich was one of those actors who, despite engagements at the Kammerspiele, liked to be placed in the second row.

When you hear the name, some frowns in thought. Fred Stillkrauth, wasn't there something? But if you see a picture of this finely carved face, countless scenes come to mind, and the guilty conscience stirs that the name was not immediately associated with this character actor. Fred Stillkrauth, born in Munich in 1939 and a graduate of the Otto Falckenberg School located here, was an actor who, in addition to great art of metamorphosis, also lived from this face, from the skeptical look through the small glasses, the finely manicured beard, the kindness revealed, if it should, of Bavarian cunning, as demanded by the comedy nobility or his role as a meat wholesaler in the Bogner series "Zur Freiheit".

Fred Stillkrauth was one of those actors who, despite engagements at the Kammerspiele or the Bayerisches Staatsschauspiel, were happily classified in the second row because, on the one hand, they lived quite withdrawn in their private lives and, on the other hand, on the stage and in front of the camera, some productions as great supporting actors for Experience ennobled. It doesn't matter whether Stillkrauth played the corporal Karl "Schnurrbart" Reisenauer alongside James Coburn and Maximilian Schell in "Steiner, das Eiserne Kreuz", whether alongside Gerd Anthoff in "Löwengrube" the detective Lederer or, perhaps one of his best roles, in 2008 in Munich crime scene "Der oide Depp" fascinated the retired chief detective Bernhard "Grandpa" Sirsch, Fred Stillkrauth with his finely sketched characters without excessive gestures,

But many will remember him primarily as the successor to Fritz Straßner after his death in the role of Brandner Kaspar in Kurt Wilhelm's legendary Residenztheater production, which is quite appropriate. Fred Stillkrauth has now died in Munich at the age of 81.

SKILLKRAUTH, Fred

Born: 1939, Munich, Bavaria, Germany

Died: 8/8/2020, Munich, Bavaria, Germany

Fred Stillkrauth’s western – actor:

Yankee Dudler – 1973 (Petrus Kapuszka)