Actor Peter Simonischek is dead. His confidant, Peter Gillmayr, announced the sad news Tuesday morning: “During the night I received the shocking news from Brigitte that Peter Simonischek died yesterday at 11:45 p.m..”
The actor, who has now died at the age of 76, is remembered by many as the lord of the Salzburg Cathedral Square, where he made a record number of striking appearances as “Jedermann” from 2002 to 2009. His dramedy “Toni Erdmann” will not be forgotten either. Simonischek was born on August 6, 1946 in Graz and grew up in Markt Hartmannsdorf. He went to school in the Konvikt St. Paul im Lavanttal. After some discussions about choosing a career with his father, Simonischek attended the Academy for Music and Performing Arts in Graz Düsseldorf to Berlin, where he was a member of the Schaubühne ensemble for 20 years from 1979. There he became a star and worked with Peter Stein, Luc Bondy and Andrea Breth. Nevertheless, the connection to Austria did not break even during this time, as Simonischek was repeatedly seen at the Salzburg Festival, for example in Handke’s “Prometheus, fettered” and in Chekhov’s “Kirschgarten”. His debut role at the Burgtheater, John Gabriel Borkman was not just a fresh start at the new house with the beginning of Klaus Bachler’s management in 1999. It was also a return home. Since then, Simonischek has not only been a member of the ensemble of the house on the Ring, but also officially its honorary member since 2019. He has played a lot on the legendary stage since then, from Nestroy and Chekhov to Thomas Bernhard and Edward Albee to the self-absorbed womanizer Gustav Heink in Hermann Bahrs ” The Concert” or the terminally ill professor in the adaptation of Sally Potter’s “The Party”. The title of his surprisingly frank memoirs, published in 2007, does not seem inappropriate: “I am available.”
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