Karlheinz Böhm

Karlheinz Böhm (16 March 1928 – 29 May 2014), sometimes referred to as Carl Boehm or Karl Boehm, was an Austrian actor. He took part in 45 films and became well known in Austria and Germany for his role as Emperor Franz Joseph I of Austria in the Sissi trilogy and internationally for his role as Mark, the psychopathic protagonist of Peeping Tom, directed by Michael Powell. He was the founder of the trust Menschen für Menschen (“Humans for Humans”), which helps people in need in Ethiopia. He also received honorary Ethiopian citizenship in 2003.

Life

Having two citizenships, he saw himself as a world citizen: His father was the Austrian conductor Karl Böhm, his mother the German-born soprano Thea Linhard. He was an only child, and spent his youth in Darmstadt, Hamburg and Dresden. In Hamburg he attended elementary school and the Kepler-Gymnasium (a grammar school). A faked medical certificate enabled him to emigrate to Switzerland in 1939, where he attended the Lyceum Alpinum Zuoz, a boarding school. In 1946, he moved to Graz with his parents, where he graduated from high school the same year. He originally intended to become a pianist but received poor feedback when he auditioned. His father urged him to study English and German language and literary studies, followed by studies of history of arts for one semester in Rome after which he quit and returned to Vienna to take acting lessons with Prof. Helmut Krauss. From 1948 to 1976 he acted in about 45 films and also in theatre. With Romy Schneider, he starred in the Sissi trilogy as the Emperor Franz Joseph, which limited him to one specific genre as an actor.

He made three American films in 1962. He played Jakob Grimm in the 1962 MGM-Cinerama spectacular The Wonderful World of the Brothers Grimm and Ludwig van Beethoven in the Walt Disney film The Magnificent Rebel. (The latter film was made especially for the Disney anthology television series, but was released theatrically in Europe.) He appeared in a villainous role as the Nazi-sympathizing son of Paul Lukas in the MGM film Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, a Technicolor, widescreen remake of the 1921 silent Rudolph Valentino film.

During 1974 and 1975, Böhm appeared prominently in four consecutive films from prolific New German Cinema director Rainer Werner Fassbinder: Martha, Effi Briest, Faustrecht der Freiheit (Fox and His Friends), and Mutter Küsters' Fahrt zum Himmel (Mother Küsters' Trip to Heaven).

Bohm's voice acting work included narrating his father's 1975 recording of Peter and the Wolf by Sergei Prokofiev and in 2009 as the German voice for Charles Muntz, villain in Pixar's tenth animated feature Up.

From 1981, when he founded Menschen für Menschen (Humans for Humans), Böhm was actively involved in charitable work in Ethiopia, for which in 2007 he was awarded the Balzan Prize for Humanity, Peace and Brotherhood among Peoples.

Karlheinz Böhm was married to Almaz Böhm, a native of Ethiopia, since 1991. They had two children, Nicolas (born 1990) and Aida (born 1993). Böhm had five more children from previous marriages, among them the actress Katharina Böhm (born 1964). In 2011 Almaz and Karlheinz Böhm were awarded the Essl Social Prize for the project Menschen für Menschen. He lived in Grödig near Salzburg until his death in May 2014.

Filmography

• 1953: Salto Mortale
• 1955: Sissi – director: Ernst Marischka
• 1956: Sissi – Die junge Kaiserin
• 1956: 'Die Ehe des Dr. med. Danwitz
• 1957: Sissi – Schicksalsjahre einer Kaiserin
• 1957: Das Schloß in Tirol
• 1957: Blaue Jungs
• 1958: Man müßte nochmal zwanzig sein
• 1959: La Paloma - director: Paul Martin
• 1958: Das Dreimäderlhaus
• 1958: The Stowaway
• 1958: That Won't Keep a Sailor Down
• 1960: Peeping Tom - director: Michael Powell
• 1960: Der Gauner und der liebe Gott
• 1961: Die vier apokalyptischen Reiter
• 1962: Schicksals-Sinfonie
• 1962: The Wonderful World of the Brothers Grimm
• 1963: Come Fly with Me : Baron Franz Von Elzingen
• 1969: Traumnovelle
• 1973: Martha – director: Rainer Werner Fassbinder
• 1974: Faustrecht der Freiheit – director: Rainer Werner Fassbinder
• 1974: Effi Briest – director: Rainer Werner Fassbinder
• 1975: Mutter Küsters Fahrt zum Himmel – director: Rainer Werner Fassbinder
• 1980: Ringstraßenpalais - TV series
• 2009: Oben - voice only