GRIEM, HELMUT

(1932-2004)

Actor. Griem was familiar to German audiences by the time he became internationally known for his performance as Maximilian von Heune in the Bob Fosse filmCabaret(1972). He began his career in Lübeck in 1955, playing Star-buck in one of the first German productions ofThe Rainmakerby Richard Nash. The success of that production led to several subsequent engagements inCologne, Munich, andHamburg, culminating in a lengthy engagement with theBurgtheaterinViennato play a number of heroic leading parts. These includedWilliamShakespeare's Richard II,Heinrich vonKleist's Prince Friedrich of Homburg, Major von Tellheim inGotthold EphraimLessing'sMinna von Barnhelm, and Tom Wingfield in Tennessee Williams'sThe Glass Menagerie. In Vienna, Griem began his film and television career, and by the 1980s he had established himself as a theater director as well. His Munich production of Orton'sEntertaining Mr. Sloanewas a remarkable box office success, as were his later commercially produced stagings in Vienna during the 1990s of Eugene O'Neill'sLong Day's Journey into Night, John Millington Synge'sThe Playboy of the Western World, Arthur Miller'sDeath of a Salesman, and Ariel Dorfman'sDeath and the Maiden. Shortly before his death, Griem was awarded the Federal Service Cross for his contributions to German culture.