German actor
Horst Tappert (26 May 1923 – 13 December 2008) was a German film and television actor best known for the role of Inspector Stephan Derrick in the television drama
Derrick.
Biography
Horst Tappert was born on 26 May 1923 in
Elberfeld (now
Wuppertal),
Germany. His father, Julius Tappert (1892–1957), was a civil servant; his mother was Ewaldine Röll Tappert (1892–1981). Following high school and at the age of 17, Tappert was drafted into the
German Army during
World War II. Aged 19, he was, according to his widow against his will, transferred from the Army to the
Waffen-SS, where the author of the Derrick series,
Herbert Reinecker, had also served. Initially a member of a reserve
anti-aircraft unit in
Arolsen, he was listed as a
grenadier with the
3rd SS Division Totenkopf in March 1943.
[2]
[3]
[4] In 1945, he was briefly a
prisoner of war in
Seehausen, Altmark. Following the war, he was hired as a bookkeeper at a theatre in
Stendal, Germany, and became interested in acting. He took acting classes and gave his stage debut in Stendal, playing Dr. Stribel in
Paul Helwig's Die Flitterwochen.
In the following years, he changed employers several times, and in 1956, started working at the
Kammerspiele,
Munich. An independent actor since 1967, he worked as an actor until he died.
In the late 1950s, Tappert started taking part in movie and television productions. His big breakthrough was in 1966 with the three-part television show Die Gentlemen bitten zur Kasse, in which he played
train robber Michael Donegan. In 1968, he changed sides by playing Scotland Yard detective Perkins in
Edgar Wallace movies. In 1970-71, he co-starred in three crime dramas directed by
Jesus Franco,
She Killed in Ecstasy,
The Death Avenger of Soho [
de] and
The Devil Came from Akasava.
[5]
When the second public television station in Germany, the
ZDF, started planning a new mystery series with a different type of investigator in 1973, he was chosen for the character of detective Stephan Derrick, with sidekick assistant Harry Klein (played by
Fritz Wepper). The character Stephan Derrick became a cult figure. The series was licensed in 104 countries and was popular with audiences in China, Japan, and Italy (and even Pope
John Paul II).[
citation needed] The last of 281 episodes was filmed in 1998, when Tappert reached his self-imposed age limit of 75 years old for being a television actor.
Personal life
Divorced twice, he last lived in
Gräfelfing near
Munich with his third wife, Ursula Pistor (married in 1957). He was the father of three children. Tappert enjoyed fishing and hunting. He had a summer holiday home on the coast of northern
Norway, a country where he also became a popular visitor, as Derrick, as well as a private person. Tappert and his wife Ursula had a cabin in
Hamarøy municipality in
Nordland from 1990 to 2008, when due to his age and failing health, they had to sell the cabin. His wife Ursula Pistor is also an actor, a graduate of the same acting school in
Berlin as Ellinor Hamsun, daughter of
Knut Hamsun.
In interviews and his memoirs, Tappert did not elaborate on his World War II career, claiming to have served as a company medic in the
Wehrmacht, after which he became a prisoner of war.
[6] In April 2013, he was revealed to have joined the
3. SS-Panzergrenadier-Division Totenkopf, then deployed on the
Eastern Front, in March 1943. Historian Jan Erik Schulte, an expert on the history of the SS, said that the circumstances of Tappert's membership in the SS and the question of whether he was pressured or coerced into joining remain unclear.
[7]
Following the discovery of Tappert's service with the Waffen SS during the war, German broadcaster ZDF dropped all repeats of Derrick. Similarly, Bavaria's
interior ministry said it was considering stripping the late actor of an honorary chief police inspector title awarded to Tappert in 1980.
[6]
Tappert died on 13 December 2008 in
Planegg, Germany at age 85.
[8]
Filmography
- 1950:
Doctor Praetorius - Verkäufer (uncredited)
- 1958:
The Trapp Family in America (with
Ruth Leuwerik)
- 1958:
Wir Wunderkinder (Aren't We Wonderful?) (with
Hansjörg Felmy,
Robert Graf,
Johanna von Koczian) - Teacher Schindler
- 1958:
Arms and the Man (AAN as Best Foreign Film) (with
O. W. Fischer,
Liselotte Pulver,
Ellen Schwiers,
Jan Hendriks)
- 1959:
The Angel Who Pawned Her Harp (with
Nana Osten,
Henry Vahl,
Ullrich Haupt) - Herr Parker
- 1959:
Jacqueline (with
Johanna von Koczian,
Walter Reyer,
Götz George,
Hans Söhnker) - Haack, Journalist
- 1959:
The Beautiful Adventure (with
Liselotte Pulver, Robert Graf,
Bruni Löbel) - Frécon
- 1959: Ruf ohne Echo (TV film) (with
Hans Christian Blech) - Pierre
- 1961: Zu viele Köche (TV miniseries) (with
Heinz Klevenow,
Joachim Fuchsberger,
Karl Michael Vogler) - Hoteldetektiv Odell
- 1961: Ein schöner Tag (TV film) (with
Joachim Teege,
Hugo Lindinger,
Trude Hesterberg) - Er
- 1961: Küß mich Kätchen (TV film) (with
Peter Carsten,
Harald Leipnitz,
Christiane Maybach) - Erster Ganove
- 1962:
Das Halstuch [
de] (TV miniseries) (with
Heinz Drache,
Albert Lieven,
Erica Beer,
Eckart Dux) - Vikar Nigel Matthews
- 1962:
He Can't Stop Doing It (with
Heinz Rühmann,
Rudolf Forster,
Grit Boettcher,
Lina Carstens) - Simpson
- 1962:
Snow White and the Seven Jugglers - Hugendobler, Künstleragent
- 1963: Das tödliche Patent (TV film) (with
Wolfgang Preiss,
Gisela Trowe,
Siegfried Lowitz) - Inspector Morland
- 1963:
Zwei Whisky und ein Sofa [
de] (Whiskey and Sofa) (with
Maria Schell,
Karl Michael Vogler, Robert Graf) - Krause
- 1963: Leonce und Lena (TV film) (with
Dieter Kirchlechner,
Gertrud Kückelmann) - King Peter of the Kingdom of Popo
- 1964: Der Aussichtsturm (TV film) (with
Claudia Sorbas,
Konrad Georg,
Monika John) - Eliott Nash
- 1964: Sechs Personen suchen einen Autor (TV film) (with
Helmut Förnbacher,
Robert Freitag) - Regisseur
- 1965: Eine reine Haut (TV Movie) (with
Herbert Fleischmann) - Harry
- 1966:
Die Gentlemen bitten zur Kasse [
de] (The Great British Train Robbery) (TV miniseries) (with
Hans Cossy,
Günther Neutze) - Michael Donegan
- 1966: Ein Tag in Paris (TV film) (with
Paula Denk,
Ingeborg Solbrig,
Peter Fröhlich) - Boury
- 1966: Der Kinderdieb (TV film) (with
Isolde Bräuner,
Lucie Mannheim,
Walter Jokisch) - Colonel Bigua
- 1966: Das ganz große Ding (TV film) (with
Carl-Heinz Schroth,
Brigitte Grothum) - Jimmy Warren
- 1966: Der Mann aus Melbourne (TV film) (with
Herbert Stass,
Alf Marholm,
Roma Bahn) - Der Fremde
- 1966:
Jerry Cotton: Die Rechnung – eiskalt serviert (with
George Nader,
Heinz Weiss) - Charles Anderson
- 1966:
Four Queens for an Ace - Man in Restaurant (uncredited)
- 1966:
Der schwarze Freitag [
de] (TV film) (with
Curd Jürgens,
Dieter Borsche) - Narrator (voice)
- 1967: Liebe für Liebe (TV film) (with
Wolfgang Büttner,
Helmut Griem,
Klaus Löwitsch) - Scandal
- 1968:
The New Life Style [
de] (with
Charlotte Kerr) - Walter Bergmann / Travel agency owner
- 1968:
The Hound of Blackwood Castle (with Heinz Drache,
Karin Baal,
Hans Söhnker,
Agnes Windeck) - Donald Fairbanks
- 1968:
Das Kriminalmuseum (TV series) - Friedrich Groth
- 1968:
The Gorilla of Soho (with
Uschi Glas,
Uwe Friedrichsen, Hubert von Meyerinck) - Insp. David Perkins
- 1969:
The Man with the Glass Eye (with
Karin Hübner, Fritz Wepper,
Hubert von Meyerinck) - Insp. Perkins
- 1969:
Seven Days Grace (with
Joachim Fuchsberger,
Konrad Georg, Karin Hübner,
Petra Schürmann) - Klevenow
- 1970:
Perrak [
de] (with
Erika Pluhar,
Judy Winter,
Werner Peters) - Kommissar Perrak
- 1971:
The Devil Came from Akasava (with
Soledad Miranda, directed by Jesus Franco) - Dr. Andrew Thorrsen
- 1971:
Und Jimmy ging zum Regenbogen (And Jimmy Went to the Rainbow's Foot) (with
Alain Noury,
Konrad Georg,
Horst Frank) - Dr. Otto Forster
- 1971:
The Love Keys [
de] (with
Heidi Hansen [
de],
Uwe Friedrichsen,
Siegfried Schürenberg) - Stubenrauch
- 1971:
The Captain (with
Heinz Rühmann,
Johanna Matz,
Ernst Stankovski,
Horst Janson) - Konsul Carstens
- 1971:
She Killed in Ecstasy (with
Soledad Miranda, directed by Jesus Franco) - Inspector
- 1972:
The Death Avenger of Soho [
de] (aka The Corpse Packs His Bags) (directed by Jesus Franco) - Charles Barton
- 1972:
Hoopers letzte Jagd [
de] (TV film) (with
Max Mairich,
Liselotte Pulver,
Florian Halm)
- 1973: Eine Frau bleibt eine Frau (TV miniseries) (with
Lilli Palmer) - Oberstudienrat
- 1974: Plus minus null (TV film) (with
Anaid Iplicjian,
Rolf Becker) - Schattat
- 1974–1998
Derrick (TV series) - Stephan Derrick
- 1974:
Auch ich war nur ein mittelmäßiger Schüler (I Wasn't a Very Good Student Either) (with
Jutta Speidel,
Georg Thomalla,
Rudolf Platte) - Dr. Siegfried Elsenbeck
- 1984: Cinématon
- 2000: Der Kardinal – Der Preis der Liebe (The Cardinal) (TV film) (with
Christine Reinhart,
Enzo De Caro) - Clemens Roetger
- 2001: In 80 Jahren um die Welt (TV film)
- 2003: The Uncrowned Heart (TV film) (with
Eleonora Brigliadori,
Franco Nero,
Jacques Breuer) - Rudolph der Listige
- 2004: Derrick – Die Pflicht ruft (Derrick – The Feature Film) (Animated film with original voice of Tappert and Wepper) - Stephan Derrick (voice) (final film role)
Books
References
External links
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