Many knew his face as Jan Böhmermann’s sidekick, his voice was concise. But very few people know his name. Now William Cohn is dead. A man of many talents.
William Cohn was 65 years old.
(dpa) He was a multi-talent with a very distinctive voice: Millions of television viewers knew William Cohn as the announcer and sidekick of the entertainer Jan Böhmermann. Cohn was in almost every episode of the then ZDFneo show “Neo Magazin Royale”.
He introduced the guests in the “Roche & Böhmermann” talk format. As Cohn’s management confirmed on Saturday, the actor, singer, author and speaker died “suddenly and unexpectedly” in Basel on Thursday. He was 65 years old.
His manager Gerd Fischer recalled Cohn’s TV career: “His ugly sweater, his nerdy glasses and his pointed texts helped him as a sidekick from Jan Böhmermann (…) to his breakthrough.”
And further: «His showpiece remained the role of the scheming arms dealer Kaspar in the successful musical «Ludwig²» throughout his artistic life. Since the world premiere in Füssen’s Festspielhaus in 2005, he has given the role character, voice and volume in well over 600 shows. Now he has left the stage that meant so much to him forever.”
Jan Böhmermann posted a black and white picture of Cohn on Instagram and wrote: “Have a nice trip, William, you impressive stage person!”