The tragic end of Frank Wolff who committed suicide in Rome [archived newspaper article]

 l’Unita

By Luigi Montero

December 13, 1971

HE WAS PART OF LIFE AS THE CHARACTERS HE BRED TO THE SCREEN

     He cut his carotid artery in the bathroom of his home. He had found success in work but had been defeated in love

     He died as one of the characters he brilliantly brought to the screen. The body of Frank Wolf 44, an excellent American actor of German origin, was found last week in the bathroom of the small apartment he occupied in a 'residence' next to the 'Hilton' hotel. He killed himself by cutting his carotid artery with a razor blade: an atrocious way of saying goodbye to existence, a way that demonstrated his cold determination to escape the anguish that tormented him.

     The reason that led him to kill himself (it seems that death occurred after a hallucinating first attempt to cut the veins in his neck) would be a set of sentimental delusions, which had recently accompanied a serious depressive crisis for which he was resorting to a psychiatrist.

He fell in love, during the filming of a film shot in Greece, with a young American actress who would later leave him for another member of the crew. But there were also disagreements, or rather misunderstandings, with his ex-wife, Maureen. But he had kept the bitterness hidden from her: not even her closest friends had sensed them.

A German friend of hers, Gisella Strammer, 24, a masseuse at the 'Hilton' hotel, said that Frank had never shown any signs of restlessness, even though he took, as she had seen, some tranquilizers every night. It was she who discovered his body. She knocked in vain on the door of his house. She found it open, and went into the bathroom, she called him: Frank did not answer.

It was around 1p.m. and she could not explain why the actor was not in the room despite the unmade bed. She called the police who broke down the bathroom door and found himself faced with a chilling vision. The corpse lay on its back in the bathtub, its blue pajamas drenched in blood.

"I left him last night", Gisella said, he seemed serene, without problems. Instead, he was harboring the desperation that drove him to kill himself ... "

     Only despair, therefore, of a sentimental origin. But there was something more in his personal personality: the distressing need to always live up to his role as an actor, even if he never was. The director Franco Rosi discovered him by putting him in the film “Salvatore Giuliano”. When he learned of his tragic end, he said: "He was good, a complete actor, with a preparation behind him that enhanced his professional seriousness".

His real name was Frank Hermann. He was the son of a German-born doctor who had initially attended medical studies at Stanford University in Palo Alto. He was instead attracted to the stage and during his studies he made some shows as an actor and director among the students of his college. He therefore decided to graduate in drama and began his career as an actor, first on TV, then in some Hollywood films.

He moved to Rome in the years in which the Italian capital represented for many American actors the destination in which to start a prestigious career.

After playing the part of Pisciotta in "Salvatore Giuliano", he took part in the "Four Days of Naples" by Nanni Loy; he was then Galeazzo Ciano in the “Verona Trial”. Other quality films followed such as "Kidnapping", some westerns and finally, "Death Walks in High Heels". He had a career of prestige behind him and a brilliant future in front of him. But life had perhaps defeated him in feelings, in balance and in the realization of those solid affections that guarantee a peaceful existence beyond success and money.

In the face of the problems that troubled him, he preferred to leave the scene of the citation with tragic determination.