Fritz Wepper

Fritz Wepper (born 17 August 1941) is a German film and television actor. He is best known for his role as Inspector Harry Klein in the long-running crime series Derrick (1974–1998). Wepper is also remembered for his roles in the films Cabaret (1972) and The Bridge (1959) and as Mayor Wöller in the TV series Um Himmels Willen (2002–2021).
Life and career
Fritz Wepper was born as the son of a lawyer who was missing in action as a soldier in Poland in 1945. He started his acting career in a production of Peter Pan at the age of eleven. He got his first important film role in Tischlein deck dich, a film adaption of the Brothers Grimm fairytale The Wishing Table. His breakthrough role was as a young soldier in Bernhard Wicki's anti-war film Die Brücke (1959) which won the Golden Globe Award for Best Foreign Language Film. Wepper kept his popularity with German audiences into adulthood and appeared in several notable German films of the 1960s. In 1972 he played Fritz Wendel, a Jew passing as a Christian, in the Oscar-winning film version of Cabaret, opposite Liza Minnelli and Marisa Berenson.
His character Harry Klein, the assistant in the long-running crime series Derrick, became a cult figure all over the world. He played this role between 1974 and 1998 in 281 episodes of Derrick. Before playing Klein in Derrick he portrayed the same character on the popular television drama Der Kommissar (1969–1976) from the series' start until 1974 when he was transferred to Derrick. Harry Klein was replaced by his brother Erwin (played by Fritz Wepper's real-life brother Elmar Wepper).
Fritz and Elmar Wepper appeared together in the television series (1994–2000), playing a pair of different brothers hunting criminals and solve difficult cases. From 2002 until the show's cancellation in 2021, Wepper played the sneaky and sly, but ultimately good-hearted Mayor Wolfgang Wöller in the TV series Um Himmels Willen, which was for many years one of the most-watched German television series (with some 7,2 million views per episode).
Personal life
Wepper married Angela von Morgen in 1979. His daughter, Sophie is also an actress, they appeared together in the crime series Mord in bester Gesellschaft between 2007 and 2017. Wepper made headlines in the yellow press when he left his wife Angela for the younger Susanne Kellermann (born 1974) in 2009. He has a daughter (born 2012) from the relationship with Kellermann, but later returned to his wife. Angela von Morgen died in January 2019, aged 76, following a cerebral haemorrhage. In 2020, Wepper married Susanne Kellermann.
Since they met during the filming of Cabaret in 1971, Wepper and Liza Minnelli are close friends.
Selected filmography
The Dark Star (1955)
Tischlein deck dich (Table, Donkey and Stick, 1956) .... Michel mit der grünen Kappe
Rübezahl (1957) .... (uncredited)
Eine verrückte Familie (1957) .... Hermann Bunzel
Zwei Matrosen auf der Alm (1958) .... Friseurlehrling
The Crammer (1958) .... (uncredited)
The Angel Who Pawned Her Harp (1959) .... Christian
Die Brücke (The Bridge, 1959) .... Albert Mutz
My Schoolfriend (1960) .... Paul (uncredited)
Question 7 (1961) .... Heinz Dehmert – Jugendführer
(1961, TV Movie) .... George Gibbs
Miracle of the White Stallions (1963) .... Rider Hans
The River Line (1964) .... Philip
Three Rooms in Manhattan (1965) .... Fabien (uncredited)
When Night Falls on the Reeperbahn (1967) .... Till Voss
The Doctor of St. Pauli (1968) .... Hein Jungermann
(1968) .... Peter Mertens
Der Kommissar (1968–1974, TV Series) .... Harry Klein
The Man with the Glass Eye (1969) .... Lord Bruce Sheringham
On the Reeperbahn at Half Past Midnight (1969) .... Till Schippmann
Slap in the Face (1970) .... Peter Terbanks (voice, uncredited)
We'll Take Care of the Teachers (1970) .... Hubert Böhm
The Games (1970) .... Gregorye Kovanda
(1970) .... Hans Engelmann
(1970) .... Jürgen
Cabaret (1972) .... Fritz Wendel
(1972) .... Momme Linnau
Der Ehefeind (1972)
Derrick (1974–1998, TV Series) .... Harry Klein
(The Last Battle, 1983) .... Captain
(Two Brothers, 1994–2001, TV Series) .... Christoph Thaler
(1996, TV Movie) .... Otto König
Die blaue Kanone (1999, TV Movie) .... Harry Groß
Murder on the Orient Express (2001, TV Movie) .... Wolfgang Bouc
Vera Brühne (The Trials of Vera B., 2001, TV Movie) .... Lawyer Dr. Wallner
Hochwürden wird Papa (2002, TV Movie) .... Oskar Lindner
Um Himmels Willen (2002–2020, TV Series) .... Wolfgang Wöller
Männer im gefährlichen Alter (2004, TV Movie) .... Henry Malek
Derrick – Die Pflicht ruft! (2004) .... Harry Klein (voice)
Ein Engel namens Hans-Dieter (2004, TV Movie) .... Hans-Dieter Anhäuser
Rikets Røst (2007, TV Series) .... Harry Klein
Ein unverbesserlicher Dickkopf (2007, TV Movie) .... Balthasar Pelkofer
Mord in bester Gesellschaft (2007–2017, TV Series) .... Dr. Wendelin Winter
Unser Mann im Süden (2008, TV Series) .... Konsul Heinrich Hammerstein
Baby frei Haus (2009, TV Movie) .... Kurt Schollwer
Lindburgs Fall (2011, TV Movie) .... Peter Lindburg
References
External links
Fritz Wepper Filmography in: The New York Times
1941 births
Living people
German male television actors
German male film actors
Male actors from Munich
20th-century German male actors
21st-century German male actors