Actress Elisabeth Orth turns 85

Orth was born on February 8, 1936 in Vienna as the eldest of the three daughters (next to Christiane and Maresa Hörbiger), who were all to successfully follow in the footsteps of their prominent parents Paula Wessely and Attila Hörbiger.

Adolf Hitler sent a congratulatory telegram “on the birth of the family owner”. In her book “Fairy Tales of Her Life” (1975) Orth also dealt with the Nazi past of her parents. She herself had rid herself of the burden of the great name of the Hörbiger actor dynasty and used the family name of her maternal grandmother.

From the stage to the screen

After her training at the Max Reinhardt Seminar in Vienna, she was engaged, among other things, at the Ulmer Theater, later also at the stages of the city of Cologne and at the Bavarian State Theater in Munich (1964-68 and 1971). She has been a permanent member of the Burgtheater ensemble since 1973. In between she was engaged (1995-99) at the Berlin Schaubühne. At the castle she excelled in productions by Achim Freyer, George Tabori, Peter Zadek and Andrea Breth and always impressed with her art of language and the great truthfulness of her roles.

In addition to her stage engagement, the actress, whose son Cornelius Obonya, who was born in 1969 in marriage to the actor Hanns Obonya, also became a successful actor, has also repeatedly worked for film and television: she played in Michael Haneke’s two-part play “Lemminge” (1978) as in 2004 at the side of Ruth Drexel in “Die Heilerin”.

In the cinema she appeared in Klaus Maria Brandauer’s “Georg Elser – Eine aus Deutschland” (1989), Stefan Ruzowitzky’s award-winning home drama “Die Siebtelbauern” (1997) and most recently in the comedy “Über-Ich und Du” (2014) .

Social commitment and awards

But Orth raised her voice again and again away from the artistic spotlight and was particularly committed to anti-Semitism and xenophobia. Not least for this, she received the Federal Decoration of Honor for Tolerance and Human Rights in 2009.

The artist’s other awards include the Kainz Medal, the Grillparzer Ring and the Liselotte Schreiner Ring, the Vienna Medal of Honor, the Vienna Gold Medal and, in 2015, Nestroy as best actress.

–

–