In the cinema of the sixties he was the sun boy, TV viewers knew him from "rivals of the racetrack". He also lent Russell Crowe or the saber-toothed tiger Diego the voice. Now Thomas Fritsch has died at the age of 77.
Spiegel
April 21, 2021
The actor Thomas Fritsch is dead. He was 77 years old, on Wednesday he "passed away peacefully," writes the German Press Agency, citing the surrounding area. The "Bunte" had previously reported.
Thomas Fritsch was born into an artistic family in Dresden in 1944, he was the son of the film actor and Ufa star Willy Fritsch, who died in 1973, and the former dancer Dinah Grace. After the end of the war, the Fritsch family came to Hamburg, where Thomas Fritsch took acting lessons for three years. At the age of sixteen he had auditioned for Gustaf Gründgens, who had advised him to pursue an acting career.
As a film actor, Fritsch became known early on and was very popular. At the age of 17 he stood in front of the camera for the first time in the Austrian film "Julia, du bist zauberhaft". At the age of 18 he took the audience's hearts by storm in the "Black-White-Red Four-Poster Bed" (1962) with Daliah Lavi and was henceforth considered the sun boy of German films. In 1964 he and his father Willi Fritsch stood in front of the camera for his last film "I learned that from Papa".
With the entry into the Bundeswehr in 1966, the young star suffered a significant career break. His type was no longer in demand in German films at the end of the 1960s, and the Hollywood career he was aiming for also fell through, and in 1969, after a year, Fritsch returned from America, deeply disappointed.
With difficulty and tenaciously, he made a new start as a theater actor and, in addition to serious roles, was soon again in demand as a leading actor for tabloid comedies. He also worked as a voice actor for actors such as Jeremy Irons and for Disney films such as "The Lion King" (1994) and "Ice Age" (where he spoke the saber-toothed tiger Diego). In the streaming series "Game of Thrones" he spoke the German soundtrack of James Faulkner in the role of Randyll Tarly.
Leading roles on television
On the other hand, Fritsch was rarely seen on television for a long time, initially only in various episodes of the crime series "Der Kommissar", "Derrick" or "Der Alte". In 1977 he made a name for himself again with the television audience with the series "Drei sind ein zuviel" and finally in 1989 the big comeback followed with the series "Rivals of the Racetrack" at prime time on Saturday evening on ZDF (ratings up to 42 percent) .
He was also present on the screen afterwards with roles in high-rated series such as “A wonderful family”, “Hello Robbie”, “Our Charly” or “Soko 5113”. In the Edgar Wallace satire "Der Wixxer" he experienced his cinema comeback in 2004 in the role of the Earl of Cockwood.
For a long time Fritsch lived alternately in Munich and on the Greek island of Mykonos. The dog lover was committed to animal welfare. In 2019 it became known that Fritsch had dementia.
FRITSCH, Thomas
Born: 1/16/1944, Dresden, Saxony, Germany
Died: 4/21/2021, Munich, Bavaria, Germany
Thomas Fritsch’s westerns – actor, voice dubber
The Last Ride to Santa Cruz – 1963 (Carlos)
Legend of a Gunfighter - 1964 (Chris Harper) [as Toni Frish]
Cassy – 1975 (George Shelby)
Whispering Smith – 2007 [German voice of Robert Preston]
The Good, the Bad and the Ugly – 2014 [German voice of Eli Wallach in the missing scenes]
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