Horst Werner Buchholz (4 December 1933 – 3 March 2003) was a German actor who appeared in more than 60 feature films from 1951 to 2002. During his youth, he was sometimes called "the German James Dean".[1] He is perhaps best known in English-speaking countries for his roles as Chico in The Magnificent Seven (1960),[2] as a communist in Billy Wilder's One, Two, Three (1961), and as Dr. Lessing in Life Is Beautiful (1997).
Early life
Horst Buchholz was born in Berlin, the son of Maria Hasenkamp. He never knew his biological father, but took the surname of his stepfather Hugo Buchholz, a shoemaker, whom his mother married in 1938.[3][better source needed] His half-sister Heidi, born in 1941, gave him the nickname Hotte, which he kept for the rest of his life.[3]
During World War II, he was evacuated to Silesia, and at the end of the war, he found himself in a foster home in Czechoslovakia. He returned to Berlin as soon as he could.[4]
Buchholz barely finished his schooling before seeking theater work, first appearing on stage in 1949. He soon left his childhood home in East Berlin to work in West Berlin. He established himself in the theater, notably the Schiller Theater, and on radio.[3]
His youthful good looks next brought him a part in Die Halbstarken (1956), which made him a teen favorite in Germany; an English-dubbed version was released in the US as Teenage Wolfpack, with Buchholz billed as Henry Bookholt and promoted as a new James Dean.[6]
That year he starred in Two Worlds (1958), Wet Asphalt (1958), and Auferstehung (1958) aka Resurrection.
English-language films
Buchholz's gravestone in Berlin. The word below his name means "actor". Below his birth and death dates it says in German, "Love the world and the world will love you".
Buchholz began appearing in English-language films in 1959, when he co-starred in the British production Tiger Bay with Hayley Mills. It was a notable success.[8] In her autobiography, Mills revealed she had a schoolgirl crush on Buchholz during the filming of Tiger Bay and was saddened when the cast threw him an engagement party.
He returned to Germany for Ship of the Dead (1959), then accepted an offer from Hollywood to play a young aspiring gunslinger in The Magnificent Seven (1960), a remake of Akira Kurosawa's Seven Samurai (1954) in which he would play the role originally portrayed by Toshiro Mifune in the Japanese version. Arriving in the U.S. with time to spare before filming began, Buchholz lingered in New York and appeared on Broadway in a short-lived adaptation of Cheri (1959) and then continued westward.[citation needed]
After The Magnificent Seven, which went on to become a classic, Buchholz played in the romantic drama Fanny (1961) with Leslie Caron and Maurice Chevalier, and the Berlin-set comedy One, Two, Three (1961), directed by Billy Wilder and starring James Cagney. Though filmed in Mexico, France and Germany respectively, these were Hollywood productions and Buchholz had begun a period of residence in Los Angeles. He proved to be popular with American audiences, but several missed opportunities thwarted the upward trajectory of his career and it began to stall. Filming schedule conflicts prevented him from accepting the offered roles of Tony in West Side Story (1961) and Sherif Ali in Lawrence of Arabia (1962), a part that eventually went to Omar Sharif.[citation needed]
Buchholz starred in ...But Johnny! (1973), and The Catamount Killing (1974). He appeared on German television in shows like Die Klempner kommen (1976).
Buchholz focused on Germany: Funkeln im Auge (1984), and Fear of Falling [de] (1984). He went to Hollywood for parts in Code Name: Emerald (1985) and Crossings (1986).
He was in Geisterstunde – Fahrstuhl ins Jenseits (1997), Der kleine Unterschied (1997), Dunckel (1998) and Der kleine Unterschied (1998), and voiced Fa Zhou in the German dub of Mulan. He returned to America for Voyage of Terror (1998).
Buchholz's last performances include Kinderraub in Rio – Eine Mutter schlägt zurück (1998), Heller als der Mond (2000), The Enemy (2001), Der Club der grünen Witwen (2001), Traumfrau mit Verspätung (2001), Detective Lovelorn and the Revenge of the Pharaoh [de] (2001), Abschnitt 40 (2001), Atlantic Affairs (2002) and In der Mitte eines Lebens (2003).
Personal life and death
In 1958, Buchholz married French actress Myriam Bru and they had two children: Christopher, an actor, and daughter Beatrice.[9]
Buchholz explained in a 2000 interview that he and Myriam had a stable and enduring arrangement, with her life centered in Paris and his in Berlin, the city that he loved.[10] In the same interview Buchholz discussed his bisexuality.[11][12][13] Their son Christopher Buchholz, also an actor, produced a feature-length documentary Horst Buchholz ... Mein Papa (2005)[14] which considered Buchholz’s sexuality, as part of a wider exploration of his life.[15] His sexuality had not been publicly known in the 1960s when he had played lead roles in English-language movies.[16]
Buchholz died unexpectedly at the age of 69 on March 3, 2003 at Charité from pneumonia that developed after an operation for a hip fracture.[17][18] Berlin was the city to which his loyalty was consistent, and he was buried there in the Friedhof Heerstraße.
^Buchholz, C. (2005). "Horst Buchholz...My Papa" (English version of the program note for the 2005 Berlinale international film festival). Accessed 27 February 2014.
