She was one of the most famous faces of the “Fallers”: actress Ursula Cantieni is dead. The actress who played Johanna Faller from the Black Forest series
“The Fallers” died in the night at the age of 75, as the Südwestrundfunk (SWR) announced in the evening in Baden-Baden. “All of us at SWR are dismayed and deeply saddened,” said SWR director Kai Gniffke. “Bild” had previously reported about it online.
Cantieni, who was born in Zurich, came to Germany at the age of ten, went to school in Stuttgart and did her Abitur there. She acted in theaters in Stuttgart, Esslingen and Konstanz, among others. Her sponsor was the then director of the Landesbühne in Esslingen, Achim Thorwald, as the SWR wrote in an obituary in the evening. “He gave her the chance – and the young actress took it.”
Cantieni made her first television appearance in the 1985 film “Polenweiher”. “Your first roles often had something to do with departure and rebellion against bourgeois conventions.” That suited Cantieni, who always followed her clear compass.
27 years for the “Fallers” in front of the camera
She played with the “Fallers” for 27 years and was there from the start. The series tells of the life of a Black Forest farming family in the present. The center is the imposing farm of the fictitious Faller family. In the original it is in an idyllic location near Furtwangen in the Black Forest. The television regularly stops by here. The 30-minute episodes are broadcast on SWR television on Sunday evenings. For decades, one of the main roles was the generous farmer.
Cantieni once said about Johanna Faller: “I gave her my face. I helped her to have a presence, even if she sometimes didn’t have much to say.” That was her main task. “I hope that I have done justice to this task.”
At the beginning of 2022, SWR surprisingly announced that the protagonist was leaving. The then 74-year-old left the series for personal reasons, it said. Cantieni said in farewell: “The character of Johanna Faller accompanied me closely for 27 years, together we have mastered the ups and downs of life.” Now she wants to break new ground. Since many episodes had already been shot by then, the audience could see Cantieni in her role throughout 2022.
In addition to her involvement with the “Fallers”, she has been a permanent member of the SWR ratings show “Sag the Truth” since 2003. She also coached at theaters and universities, held a professorship at the Folkwang School in Essen, and taught presenters at Swiss television.
There were also solo evenings, readings, presentations, live shows and TV and radio programs. From 1991 to 2011, Cantieni was president of the Swiss women’s foundation “Irma Landolt-Lechner”. With her husband Markus Hubenschmid, she completed a four-year yoga teacher and meditation training course, which she completed in 2019.
Face and Voice of the People of the Southwest
On Cantieni’s website it says that in 2012 she passed all the exams for German citizenship and has now fully arrived in the country. She had already received the Medal of Merit from the State of Baden-Württemberg seven years earlier.
Cantieni not only gave the SWR a face and a voice, but also the people in the southwest, said director Gniffke. “With her warmth, with her wisdom, with her charm and her wonderful sense of humor. A woman we will never forget.” Program director Clemens Bratzler was quoted in a statement in the evening as saying: “With Ursula Cantieni, not only has one of the greats in SWR left us, but also a woman who has radiated a lot of warmth, openness and warmth throughout her life.”
On the occasion of the death, SWR television is changing its program and showing, among other things, the documentary “Ursula Cantieni – The Woman Behind Johanna Faller” this Wednesday at 8:15 p.m.
