Who Are Those Singers & Musicians? ~ Freddy Quinn

 

Franz Eugen Helmut Manfred Nidl-Petz was born on September 27, 1931. He is an Austrian singer and actor whose popularity in the German-speaking world soared in the late 1950s and 1960s. Quinn adopted the persona of the rootless wanderer who goes to sea but longs for a home, family and friends. Quinn's Irish family name comes from his Irish-born salesman father, Johann Quinn. His mother, Edith Henriette Nidl, was an Austrian journalist. He is often associated with the Schlager scene.

Although Quinn was born in Austria and grew up in Vienna. As a child he lived in Morgantown, West Virginia, with his father, but moved back to live with his mother in Vienna. Through his mother's second marriage to Rudolf Anatol Freiherr von Petz, Quinn adopted the name Nidl-Petz.

At the end of World War II, as part of a refugee group, Quinn encountered American troops in Bohemia. Due to his fluent English, the 14-year-old succeeded in pretending to be of American nationality. He was subsequently sent to the U.S. in May 1945 with a military transport. On Ellis Island, he learned that his father had died in 1943 in a car accident. The boy was immediately sent back to Europe and, before returning to his mother in Vienna, was stranded for a whole year in Antwerp in a children's home, where he learned to speak French and Dutch.

Upon moving to Germany, he was "discovered" in St. Pauli, Hamburg, and was offered his first recording contract in 1954. Starting in the late 1950s, Quinn also acted in several movies, again frequently cast as the seafaring loner. Titles include “Freddy, the Guitar and the Sea” (1959), “Freddy unter fremden Sternen” (1959), “Freddy and the Song of the South Pacific” (1962), and “Homesick for St. Pauli” (1963).Subsequently, Quinn also performed on the stage in such diverse roles as Prince Orlofsky in “Die Fledermaus”, the king in “The King and I”, and “Lord Fancourt Babberly in “Charley's Aunt”.

He's now retired and living in Hamburg, Germany.

Quinn appeared in the 1964 Euro-western “The Sheriff was a Lady” with Mamie Van Doren and sang several songs.

QUINN, Freddy (aka Freddy) (Franz Eugen Helmuth Manfred Nidl-Petz) [9/27/1931, Niederfladnitz, Lower Austria, Austria -     ] – composer, singer, musician (guitar), actor, married to  Lilli Blessmann [1918-2008] (1956-2008), married to Rosi Nidl-Petz [1958-    ] (2023-    ).

The Sheriff was a Lady – 1964 [sings: “Black Bill”, “Riding On”, “Who Knows Where”,

     “The Wild Wild West”, “Traveling West (With the Sun)”, “Old Joe”, “Give Me Your

     Word”.