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Actor

1940-10-26 · Augsburg, Bavaria, Germany · Male

17 series in the catalog

Tilo Prückner (26 October 1940 – 2 July 2020) was a German television and film actor. His career spanned five decades and more than 100 films. He became known for his portrayal of often eccentric characters in high-profile public television productions such as Tatort, Adelheid und ihre Mörder, Kommissarin Lucas and Rentnercops.

Early life

Tilo Prückner was born in Augsburg, the son of the paediatrician Alfred Prückner and his wife Dorothea née Krause in Augsburg. The Prückner family has a long reaching family tradition in Hof. He first went to the St. Anna-Gymnasium in Augsburg and changed then to the school Melanchthon-Gymnasium in Nürnberg, where he passed his Abitur in 1960. He dropped his study of law to begin an actor's education in Munich with Hans Josef Becher and Ellen Mahlke.

Career

From 1962 until 1964 he was employed at the Schauburg in Munich, and afterwards worked at the Theater St. Gallen, from 1966 to 1968 at the Theater Oberhausen and 1968/1969 at the Schauspielhaus Zürich. From 1970 to 1973, he played at Berlin's Schaubühne, where he was one of the founding members. Since 1973 he worked as a freelance actor at the Bayerisches Staatsschauspiel in Munich.

After his participation in the TV recordings of productions at the Schaubühne, his work with directors of the New German Cinema increased, including Bernhard Sinkel, Edgar Reitz and Peter Fleischmann. He often played sick or handicapped people. In 1976 Prückner received the German Actors Award for his role as the violinist Hännschen Wurlitzer in Bomber & Paganini. Among his more recognized roles with international audiences are the bat-riding "Night Hob" in the 1984 fantasy film The NeverEnding Story and the scientist Dr. Richter in the 2012 science fiction comedy Iron Sky.

In later years, Prückner proved his art of interpreting diverse characters in a great number of movie and TV productions, often portraying cranky or eccentric characters. He appeared as the hypochondriac detective Gernot Schubert in the TV-series Adelheid und ihre Mörder for six years, co-starring with Evelyn Hamann and Heinz Baumann. Since 2003, he had a regular supporting role in the TV-series Kommissarin Lucas as the landlord of the main character played by Ulrike Kriener. From 2015 until his death, he played a lead role in the ARD crime series Rentnercops about retired cops who are hired back into their jobs.

In 2013, he published his first novel, Willi Merkatz wird verlassen.

Death

On 2 July 2020 Prückner died of a sudden heart failure in Berlin at the age of 79.

Awards

1976 – German Actors Award (Deutscher Darstellerpreis)

1980 – Reader Jury Award

Books

Prückner, Tilo (2013). Willi Merkatz wird verlassen (in German). Berlin: Verbrecher-Verl. ISBN 978-3-943167-40-5. OCLC 864669097.