Kammerschauspielerin Johanna Matz is dead

This was announced by the Burgtheater, where Matz was a member of the ensemble from 1950 to 1993, on Wednesday evening. "The house mourns Johanna Matz, who was closely connected to the Burgtheater for many years. In over 40 years as an ensemble member, she appeared on stage more than three hundred and ninety times," praised director Stefan Bachmann the actress.

Matz was a long-standing ensemble member of the Vienna Burgtheater

Matz, born on October 5, 1932, in Vienna, was always an early starter. At the age of four, she received ballet lessons, later attended the Academy of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna as a student of Grete Wiesenthal, and then the Max Reinhardt Seminar, where she was discovered by director Berthold Viertel during the final performance in 1950 and engaged for the play "Frankie and the Wedding" at the Burgtheater.

She remained loyal to the house on the Ring - with a break from 1952 to 1954. In 1967, she was appointed chamber actress as the youngest performer at that time. Matz performed in classics by Shakespeare, Schnitzler, or Chekhov as well as in productions by contemporary authors like Peter Handke and Thomas Bernhard. From the late 70s, she focused on readings throughout Europe, but returned to the stage for a farewell in 1993 in "Dear Liar" by Jerome Kilty.

To the older generation, "Hannerl" Matz was known as the proverbial "sweet girl" in many post-war films. The later "Sissy" director Ernst Marischka first had her appear as a cheeky "Viennese girl" in "Two in a Car" in 1951. Her participation in films like "The Forester's Daughter", "Hannerl", "The House of the Three Girls", or "The Congress Dances" eventually led to this image sticking with the actress for life. "The White Horse Inn" with Johannes Heesters also became a box office hit. Director Otto Preminger brought her to Hollywood for his film "The Moon is Blue".

Greatest Success with "Tales from the Vienna Woods"

In the 60s, Matz distanced herself from this image with roles in classic pieces of world literature on stage and television, including Schnitzler's "Anatol", Lessing's "Minna von Barnhelm", or Goethe's "Stella". However, the actress had her greatest television success in Erich Neuberg's production of "Tales from the Vienna Woods", where she played alongside Helmut Qualtinger and Hans Moser.

In 2002, Matz was awarded the Austrian Cross of Honour for Science and Art, First Class, and in 2004 she appeared once more in an episode of "Schlosshotel Orth".

(APA/Red)

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