Actor Peter Reusse is dead
Sad news from the German film world: Peter Reusse died at the age of 81. The actor was involved in numerous TV productions until his collapse.
Peter Reusse made a career in films and on stage, especially in the GDR. Because of the youthfulness of his roles in the 1960s and 1970s, he was dubbed the “James Dean of the East.” Now the actor is dead. He succumbed to a short, serious illness on Saturday at the age of 81, as the German Press Agency learned from family circles on Monday.
Appearances at the theater and on television
Reusse came from Teltow. After studying at the Babelsberg Film School, he acted in various theaters in the GDR. In 1970 he became a permanent member of the ensemble at the Deutsches Theater in Berlin. For example, he played Claudio in Shakespeare’s “Measure for Measure”, Lord Gray in “Richard III.” or Glimkin in Gorky’s “Wrong Coin”.
Reusse took on his first leading role in front of the camera in 1965 in “Don’t think, I’m crying” by Frank Vogel. After trial screenings, the film about the problems of post-war youth in the GDR ended up in the poison cupboard until reunification. It was twelve years before the next leading role in a Defa film. In the 1977 comedy “A crazy scent of fresh hay” he played an LPG farmer and party secretary under Roland Oehme. Reusse was also seen in GDR television productions.
The actor became politically active during the period of reunification and supported the Citizens’ Committee for the Investigation of Stasi Crimes. After the unit he played with Iris Berben, Nadja Tiller and Charles Aznavour.
collapse and end of career
The year 1993 marked a deep turning point. Reusse collapsed in the Deutsches Theater during rehearsals for “The Iceman is Coming”. Memory loss, personal crisis, and the end of his career as an actor followed. A time as a painter and sculptor began for Reusse, he wrote poems, short stories (“Here and over there and below”), novels, screenplays and diary entries (“The Iceman is going”).
“I’m directing myself now,” he once said during a reading. The post-reunification period provided the material for several manuscripts, including the comedy film “Late Answer”.
