German postcard by Photochemie, Berlin, no. K. 1772.
The most popular revue comedian at the Tivoli Winter Palace
Frederik Adolf Wilhelm Buch was born in Copenhagen, Denmark, in 1875.
He was the son of saddlemaker Valdemar Buch and his wife Marie Katrine Buch. Frederik was the brother of the actress Dagmar Buch (married Krarup).
He was originally trained as a painter, but due to his singing voice, he began to perform as a cabaret and folk singer. Buch began his career in Aarhus, where he participated in the revue 'Kronprinsen' in 1910-1911.
He later came to Copenhagen, where from 1914-1919 he was the most popular revue comedian at the Tivoli Winter Palace. In 1919-1923 he participated in the summer revues in Vennelyst.
German postcard by Photochemie, Berlin, no. K. 1936. Photo: Nordisk. Karen Sandberg and Frederik Buch in Telefondamen/The Telephone Girl (Eduard Schnedler Sørensen, 1917). The German release title was Der unsichtbare Zeuge.
A flood of farces
Frederik Buch made his film debut at Nordisk Film in 1908 and, with very few exceptions, has only acted for this company. In the first years, he was mostly used as an extra and in small roles, but with his comic appearance, first Sofus Wolder caught sight of him and then Lau Lauritzen.
Little Frederik Buch became a permanent member of Lauritzen's ensemble of comic actors and appeared in the period 1915-1919 in a flood of farces. He also acted in supporting parts in dramas and detectives, e.g. in Telefondamen/The Telephone Girl (Eduard Schnedler Sørensen, 1917), starring Karen Sandberg and Alf Blütecher.
In all, Buch acted in about 200 films and was thus the second most used actor in the silent film years, surpassed only by Lauritz Olsen. He didn't follow Lauritzen to Palladium in 1920 but managed to continue his career in Germany, where he was already known under the name of "Knöpfchen" (in the Netherlands he was likewise known as "Knopje") and was equated with another of the great film comedians of the time, Charlie Chaplin.
In Germany in 1921-1922, Buch recorded several films under the direction of the prolific director Heinrich Bolten-Baecker, almost all farces around the character of Knoppchen.
After 1922 he didn't act in film anymore. Frederik Buch died early, at age 49, in Copenhagen in 1925. In his second marriage, he married Anna Hertha Alvilda Jensen in 1912.
German postcard by Photochemie, Berlin, no. K. 1771. Photo: Nordisk Films Compagni.
Spanish collectors card by Amatller, Marca Luna.
Sources: Det Danske Filminstitut (Danish), Wikipedia (Danish and English), and IMDb.
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