What does Ralf Wolter actually do?

 Weser Kurier

11/26/2021

He became famous as the trapper Sam Hawkens in the "Winnetou" films: actor Ralf Wolter, who shone in major (supporting) roles for over 60 years, celebrated his 95th birthday on November 26th.

A man for the small, big roles: There are only a few actors in Germany who can look back on a similar long and successful career as Ralf Wolter. Even if the native of Berlin, who celebrated his 95th birthday on November 26th, was almost always only allowed to play the funny sidekick (or sidekick), everyone knows his face from over 230 film and TV productions in which he has been in since 1951. It is not surprising that he was drawn to the stage: Ralf Wolter comes from a family of artists. At the age of 20 he attended drama school. He got his first engagements at the theater and also proved his comic talent in the 1950s as a cabaret artist with the groups Dachluke, Mausefalle and Rauchfang. At the same time, his film career also took off: Wolter played supporting roles in comedies such as Die Beine von Dolores", "Das Wirtshaus im Spessart" und "Natürlich die Autofahrer". Even US director Billy Wilder noticed him and cast him in his east-west comedy "One, Two, Three" as a Russian agent. Ralf Wolter played his best-known role from 1962 as Sam Hawkens in six "Winnetou" films, and he was also seen in several Karl May films as Hajji Halef Omar.

SATISFIED IN RETIREMENT

 In the 1970s he played in numerous comedies alongside Heintje, Roy Black and Heinz Erhardt, after which Ralf Wolter was mainly in TV productions ("Büro, Büro", "Der Alte", "Ein Heim für Tiere", "Mit Leib und Seele") to see. He played his last role in 2012 in the movie "Bis zum Horizont, dann links!", Shortly afterwards he said goodbye to film and television in an interview with "Bild"":At some point you reach a point where you say: It is really enough, I don't want to do it anymore."

Together with his wife Edith, with whom he has been married since 1959, he has been enjoying his retirement, he said at the time. He rides his bike to stay fit, "at least half an hour a day and mostly to go shopping," Wolter told "Bild". He is not afraid of death: "It will be standing in front of my door at some point. I was lucky with my dear wife for a long time. An Amy Winehouse died at the age of 27. She shot up like a rocket and then her life was cut off. But at 86 I say: 'I am satisfied when I think in the evening that it was another beautiful day.'"