Raimund Harmstorf
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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Raimund Harmstorf (b. 7 October 1939 at Hamburg - d. 3 May 1998 at Marktoberdorf) was a German actor. He became famous as the protagonist of a German TV mini series after Jack London's the Sea-Wolf (which was sold into many countries) and starred later on successfully in another German TV series after Jules Verne's Michael Strogoff.
Life
Harmstorf was the son of a medic from Hamburg. He started a sports career and early became a regional master of the decathlon. He then studied medicine, later music and performing arts. From the beginning of the 1960s he started performing in smaller TV productions. His breakthrough was in 1971 with the TV series The Sea-Wolf, after Jack London's novel, where he played the evil-minded Captain Larsen. Later he played in several spaghetti westerns along with Bud Spencer, Franco Nero and Charlton Heston.
Downfall
Harmstorf had always been envied for his obvious bodily strength and subsequently attempts to deride him as actually not that strong had found their audience. Therefore his downfall had already started at the peak of his success as "Sea-Wolf". Tabloids wouldn't grow tired of explaining their readers that the famous scene where Harmstorf smushed a potato was actually faked because the potato hadn't been completely raw. Also the fact that the producers of this mini series had felt his real voice was to human to play such an evil man and therefore had had him dubbed, was used to diminish his performance. Schemes like that, aiming for the lowest instincts of the mass of envious average men had spoilt Harmstorf's career reight from the start.
After he had finally retired it became known that he was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease and that a regimen of heavy medication caused him delusions. This made him apparently once again newsworthy. The old malice was revived and this time it hit a man who had grown old and had no means anymore to elude paparazzi and suchlike who invaded his refuge in a small village on the countryside. In the end he could only elude them by taking his own life and so he did.
Consequently certain German tabloids were investigated by German police. It was proven that their reports had drawn a skewed picture of Harmstorf's condition which hadn't been that miserable after all. German police finally stated that Harmstorf's suicide had been caused to a significant degree by the tabloids and their impact on their reader's behaviour and of course the artist himself. In particuliar the national newspaper Bild was was blamed because Bild had already published Harmstorf's suicide on its main page before his actual death. Harmstorf's girlfriend confirmed that the actor had obviously already been dismayed after he had read this article, even before these news had been quoted on Germany's popular TV channel RTL Television.
Filmography
The following is a selection of Harmstorf's roles in film:
- 1971: Der Seewolf (The Sea-Wolf) - Wolf Larsen
- 1973: Zanna Bianca - Kurt Jansen
- 1975: Un genio, due compari, un pollo - Sergeant Milton
- 1975: Derrick - Season 2, Episode 5: "Zeichen der Gewalt" - Günter Hausmann
- 1976: Michel Strogoff - Michel Strogoff
- 1977: California - Rope Whittaker
- 1978: Quel maledetto treno blindato (The Inglorious Bastards) - Adolf Sachs
- 1978: Lo chiamavano Bulldozer - Sergeant Kempfer
- 1979: Uno sceriffo extraterrestre - poco extra e molto terrestre (The Sheriff and the Satellite Kid) - Capt. Briggs
- 1979: Derrick - Season 6, Episode 6: "Tandem" - Rudolf Nolde
