Rainer Werner Fassbinder | |
---|---|
Born |
Bad Wörishofen, Bavaria, Germany |
31 May 1945
Died | 10 June 1982 Munich, West Germany |
(aged 37)
Cause of death | Cocaine and barbiturate overdose |
Resting place | Bogenhausener Friedhof |
Occupation | Film director, screenwriter, producer, actor |
Years active | 1965–1982 |
Spouse(s) | Ingrid Caven (m. 1970; div. 1972) |
Website | www |
Rainer Werner Fassbinder (pronounced [ˈʀaɪ̯nɐ ˈvɛʁnɐ ˈfasˌbɪndɐ]; 31 May 1945 – 10 June 1982) was a German film director, screenwriter, film producer and actor. Fassbinder was part of the New German Cinema movement.
While Fassbinder maintained a professional career that lasted less than fifteen years, he completed forty feature length films; two television film series; three short films; four video productions; twenty-four stage plays and four radio plays; and thirty-six acting roles in his own and others' films. He also worked as an actor (film and theater), author, cameraman, composer, designer, editor and theater manager.
Fassbinder died on 10 June 1982 at the age of 37 from a lethal cocktail of cocaine and barbiturates.
Fassbinder was born in Bavaria in the small town of Bad Wörishofen on 31 May 1945. He was born three weeks after the Allies occupied the town and the unconditional surrender of Germany. The aftermath of World War II deeply marked his childhood and the lives of his family. In compliance with his mother's wishes, Fassbinder later claimed he was born in 1946 in order to enhance his status as a cinematic prodigy. His real age was revealed shortly before his death. He was the only child of Liselotte Pempeit (1922–93), a translator and Helmut Fassbinder, a doctor who worked out of the couple's apartment in Sendlinger Strasse, near Munich's red light district. Fassbinder's had an unconventional childhood about which he would later express grievances in interviews. When he was three months old, he was left with a paternal uncle and aunt in the country, since his parents feared he would not survive the winter with them. He was a year old when he was returned to his parents in Munich. Fassbinder's mother came from the Free City of Danzig (now present-day Gdańsk, Poland), from which many ethnic Germans had fled following World War II. As a result, a number of her relatives came to live with them in Munich.