Rudolf Bernhard or Rudolf Bernhard Conrath (26 March 1901 – 21 October 1962) was a Switzerland comedian, radio personality, and stage and film actor starring usually in Swiss German language cinema and television and stage productions. In 1941 Berhard founded the Bernhard-Theater Zürich.
Life and work
Born in
Basel, Canton of Basel-Stadt in Switzerland as
Rudolf Bernhard Conrath, he attended Realschule and worked as optician in his father's business, then as a canvasser of ads. He gained first stage experience at
Dramatischer Verein Basel with performances as a humorist on occasion of club events and family celebrations. On 26 March 1925 Bernhard premiered as a master of ceremonies and with Berlin songs on
Küchlintheater Basel. Further appearances included among many other roles
Riccaut in Lessing's "Minna von Barnhelm" at the open-air theater Hertenstein in the summer of 1925, and as
Malvolio in Shakespeare's
Twelfth Night, then on an operetta tour in the Alsace. After his military service, Bernhard joined the
Variété Corso in Zürich where he first completed office and advertising works, then he starred increasingly on solo performances in revues and also on "Cabaret Mascotte", a side stage of the
Variété Corso. In 1929 Bernhard married Lisa Lienbach, a Swiss dancer and actress. Since the early 1930s Bernhard participated mainly in farces, including on tour together with Fredy Scheim.
He also became popular by numerous radio appearances and radio broadcasts of "Bunte Abende" from the Bernhard-Theater, as well as various roles in Swiss and German films.
Bernhard-Theater Zürich
The popular folk actor
with the distinctive elongated face, large dark eyes, the high forehead and a mouth with remarkably big teeth, founded in the
Café Esplanade his own theater – the Bernhard-Theater Zürich at the present Sechseläutenplatz plaza in Zürich,
which opened on 19/20 December 1941. The ensemle performed farces and comedies in the
Swiss German language. The ensemble comprised among others Ernst Bölsterli, Walburga Gmür, Bernard's wife Lisa Lienbach, Peter W. Staub and Willi Stettner; as guests appeared among many others
Heinrich Gretler, Emil Hegetschweiler,
,
and Fredy Scheim. From the late 1940s, at the beginning of the season, the ensemble went yearly on tour in Switzerland, while the parent company held guest performances.
There, 7,000 performances were played until Bernhard's surpring death in 1962, mostly farces and dialect comedies, in which Bernhard almost always played a major role, often under the direction of Albert Pulmann, from 1951 by Egon Waldmann. Bernhard's common partners were, next to his wife Lisa Lienbach, especially Pulmann, Willi Stettner and Ernst Bölsterli. Bernhard spoke his roles in the otherwise highly German farces, with a few exceptions, always in Basel German dialect.
The ensemble later included popular Swiss actresses and actors, among them Jörg Schneider,
Filmography (selected works)
|
|
| 1957 | Marriages Forbidden | Dekan Xaver Hindringer | |
| 1956 | S'Waisechind vo Engelberg | | |
| 1956 | Die Fischerin vom Bodensee | Anton Schweizer | aka The Fisher-girl from Lake Bodensee, informal literal English title |
| 1953 | The Venus of Tivoli | Schubiger | |
| 1950 | Es liegt was in der Luft | | |
| 1943 | Menschen, die vorüberziehen | Ouin-Ouin | |
| 1941 | Gilberte de Courgenay | René Max Gengenbach | |
| 1941 | Bieder der Flieger | Apotheker/Pharmacist | |
| 1941 | Der letzte Postillon vom St. Gotthard | Kondukteur Kaspar Danioth | |
| 1940 | Die mißbrauchten Liebesbriefe | Apotheker/Pharmacist | |
| 1939 | Constable Studer | Schwomm | |
Literature
-
Walter Grieder: Gueten Oobe mitenand. 50 Jahre Bernhard-Theater. Friedrich Reinhardt, Basel 1991, .
External links
