Mario Adorf is dead: German acting legend died at the age of 95

The actor Mario Adorf is dead. He died yesterday in Paris at the age of 95, as his long-time manager Michael Stark confirmed to the SZ. First of all they had Spiegel and the Bild reported.

Adorf recently let Stark know “that he would like to thank his audience for their decades of loyalty,” according to a statement from management. Throughout his life, the actor felt it was a privilege to be able to embody different characters in his over 200 film and television roles, which were lovingly received by his fans. “His art was to portray villains, mafiosi and conniving patriarchs so humanely that the audience often took the side of ‘evil,’” the statement reads.

Adorf was considered one of the most important and popular actors in Germany, both on theater stages and in films. He played in “The Great Bellheim” and “Winnetou”, as well as in “Tin Drum” and “Kir Royal”. He also made a name for himself as a speaker and author. The actor has repeatedly worked with renowned German and international directors, including Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Sam Peckinpah and Sergio Corbucci.

“As an artist, Adorf has achieved everything that can be achieved; with his film roles he has burned himself into the collective memory of several generations of Germans,” once wrote Stuttgarter Zeitung about him.

Adorf was born on September 8, 1930 in Zurich as the son of the German radiographer Alice Adorf and the Italian doctor Matteo Menniti. Adorf only saw his father once.

Adorf spent his childhood in Mayen. He had a sentimental connection to the small town near Koblenz until the end. “For me, home is Mayen in the Eifel, that is the Rhineland in the broader sense,” he once said in an interview with Deutsche Welle. “You only have one home. I can feel at home anywhere.” Adorf later lived in Munich, Rome, Paris and Saint Tropez. The actor’s second marriage was to the Frenchwoman Monique Faye. His daughter Stella, who is also an actress, comes from his first marriage to Lis Verhoeven.

He gained his first stage experience in student theaters and worked as an extra and assistant director at the Schauspielhaus Zurich. In the 1950s he studied acting at the Otto Falckenberg School in Munich. He had previously studied philosophy and theater studies in Mainz and Zurich, but dropped out.

Adorf’s breakthrough was “At Night When the Devil Came”

He had his breakthrough in 1957 with “Night When the Devil Came”. Under the direction of Robert Siodmak, he played Bruno Lüdke, who was accused of 53 murders under the Nazi regime and murdered in 1944. Adorf later struggled with the role because it turned out that Lüdke was innocent. Adorf confided a few years ago that he wanted to help rehabilitate Lüdke Time to. “I think the best thing would be to make a new film and tell the true story this time.” At Adorf’s instigation, a stumbling block was laid in front of Lüdke’s parents’ house in Berlin-Köpenick in 2021.

Adorf said he doesn’t see himself as a world star Listen. “World stars – these are the Americans. There are hardly any others, maybe a Brigitte Bardot or a Sophia Loren.”

Adorf told the SZ in an interview in 2023: “I always thought that it would come at some point, the fear of death. I was almost waiting for it as I got older. Of course I’m afraid of getting an illness that could lead to a long, painful death. Who doesn’t have that? But I’m not afraid of death. I’ve lived a long, contented life. I’m not a believer. This is where the music plays. And this is where it stops at some point.”