Of course, life has also left its mark on Günther Maria Halmer. The hair is light and white, the face is markedly wrinkled. But the rogue is still breathing down the neck of the actor. “I’m a 24-year-old at heart and temperament, with the experience of an 80-year-old,” he says in the TV series “Lebenslinien” on Bayerischer Rundfunk (BR). That’s an interesting combination. Günther Maria Halmer celebrates his 80th birthday on January 5th.
Since his TV debut in the mid-1970s as “Tscharlie” in Helmut Dietl’s “Munich Stories”, Halmer has stood for high-quality and varied television entertainment. In numerous films and series, the pithy Upper Bavarian matured into a versatile thoroughbred mime, who was also convincing in international productions such as “Gandhi”. He stood in front of the camera alongside stars like Senta Berger, Hanna Schygulla and Meryl Streep.
stations of life
As exciting as his various roles may be – his own biography is also good as film material. Günther Maria Halmer was born in Rosenheim. His father, a lawyer, strictly Catholic and authoritarian, his mother loving but ill. As a teenager, he found solace and refuge in the cinema, with screen heroes like John Wayne. His school career and his professional start were less heroic: he dropped out of high school, did an apprenticeship in the hotel industry and also caused a stir in the army. He had to say goodbye to his dream job as a pilot.
That’s when Halmer made the big move: in his early 20s, he went to Canada to work in an asbestos mine near the Alaskan border for a year and a half – and to find himself. That’s where the idea of wanting to become an actor came up, he tells BR. A wish that, strengthened and matured, he no longer let his father talk him out of.
After his return to Germany, he put his plan into action: Halmer graduated from the Otto Falckenberg drama school in Munich and received his first engagement at the Munich Kammerspiele (“hunting scenes from Lower Bavaria”).
His television star role followed soon after – the lovable Schwabinger bohemian and braggart “Tscharlie” in the series “Munich Stories” by Helmut Dietl. He didn’t expect the overwhelming success, since it was both Dietl’s first directing work and Halmer’s television premiere. But the series of the two newcomers struck a chord with many people, says Halmer. Many Bavarians apparently had something “Tscharlie-like” about them and could identify with the character.
Günther Maria Halmer lives with his wife Claudia near his birthplace Rosenheim. The couple has two sons, who have since made Halmer their grandfather. Even at an advanced age, he is a sought-after actor. But he has no goals. He agrees with “Tscharlie”, who found having a goal restrictive, says Halmer. His motto in life is: “The path is the goal.”
