Willy Millowitsch

Willy Millowitsch
Millowitsch in 1987
Born	January 8, 1909 Cologne, Germany
Died	September 20, 1999(1999-09-20) (aged 90) Cologne, Germany

Willy Millowitsch (pronounced [ˈvɪliː ˈmiloˌvɪʧ], [ˈⱱɪli ˈmɪɫoˌⱱeˑʧ]) (January 8, 1909 – September 20, 1999) was a German stage and TV actor and the director of the Volkstheater Millowitsch in Cologne.

Millowitsch was born in Cologne, Rhine Province. His parents were Peter and Käthe Millowitsch and came from a long family tradition of engagement with the theater which can be traced back to 1792. It was not until 1895 however, that Millowitsch's grandfather stopped using puppets and resorted to real actors instead.

Millowitsch was interested in theater at an early age and took to the stage for the first time in 1922 at just 13. He quit school without a degree to pursue his acting career full-time. At first he worked under the auspices of his father who had to give up his theater after the inflation hit. This forced them to go on tour in and around Cologne until they got a permanent theater in 1936, the now famous Volkstheater Millowitsch, which Willy took over from his father in 1940. In 1939 he married his first wife Lini Lüttgen, but they got divorced soon after.

During World War II the theater was damaged, but not severely, and by October 1945 it was fully restored, owing to the support of mayor and later German chancellor, Konrad Adenauer, who proclaimed that the people need something to laugh about again. Consequently, in the time from 1945 to 1949 there were daily performances in the theater. It was during this time that he met his second wife, Gerda Millowitsch, formerly Feldhoff.

In 1949, when the postwar theater euphoria died down, Millowitsch focused on his television career and in 1949 his first television film (Gesucht wird Majora, directed by Hermann Pfeiffer) was released. Many more were to follow. He did not content himself just transferring from one medium to the other, but brought the theater with him. On October 27, 1953, the Kölsch dialect play Der Etappenhase was broadcast on the Western regional channel WDR, the first live broadcast of a theatrical performance with real audience in German television history. Despite bitter criticism of the entry of low 'folk culture' into television by the director of the Nordwestdeutscher Rundfunk, Adolf Grimme, it was an instant success. This remains one of Millowitsch's most popular plays and has been performed more than 1,000 times. Der Etappenhase was so popular that just six weeks later it was broadcast again, live from the Volkstheater.