Horst Buchholz

Here is a tribute to "magnificent" actor Horst Buchholz.

Horst Werner Buchholz (1933-2003) was a German actor who appeared in more than sixty feature films from 1951 to 2002. During his youth he was sometimes called "the German James Dean". He is perhaps best-known in English-speaking countries for his role as Chico in The magnificent seven (1960), and as a communist in Billy Wilder's One, two, three (1961).

Full-fledged stardom resulted from Confessions of Felix Krull (1957), in which he played the lead; it was directed by Kurt Hoffmann and based on the novel by Thomas Mann. He made another wonderful movie with Romy Schneider, Monpti (1957) aka Love from Paris.

In 1958 Buchholz married French actress Myriam Bru. They had two children. That year he starred in Wet asphalt (1958), and Auferstehung (1958) aka Resurrection (with his wife), based upon the famous novel by Tolstoy.

He played in The naked and the brave (1959) with Elke Sommer; Fanny (1961) with Maurice Chevalier, Leslie Caron and Charles Boyer, based upon the novel by Marcel Pagnol; in La noia (1963) with Bette Davis, based upon a novel by Alberto Moravia; in Nine hours to Rama (1963) with José Ferrer; he  was in Marco the magnificent (1965) with Anthony Quinn; That man in Istanbul (1965), a Eurosopy film; Johnny Banco (1967), a comedy with Yves Allégret; and Young rebel (1967), a biopic of Miguel de Cervantes with Gina Lollobrigida. Buchholtz starred in Astragal (1969), How, when and with whom (1969). He returned to Hollywood lead roles briefly with The great waltz (1971) playing Johann Strauss.

Usually reticent about his private life, in a 2000 interview in the German magazine Bunte Buchholz publicly came out, saying "Yes, I also love men. Ultimately, I'm bisexual. ... I have always lived my life the way I wanted." He explained that he and his wife of nearly 42 years had a stable and enduring arrangement, with her life centered in Paris and his in Berlin, the city that he loved. Their son Christopher Buchholz, also an actor and the producer of the feature-length documentary Horst Buchholz... Mein Papa (2005), has publicly acknowledged his father's bisexuality.

Enjoy Horst Buchholz' wild beauty!

Merci Monpti, sung by Romy Schneider