30 March 2022

Eva Ingeborg Scholz (1928-2022)

On 21 March 2022, German film and television actress Eva Ingeborg Scholz (1928-2022) passed away. Since her East-German debut in 1948, she played in more than 110 film and television productions. Scholz was 94.

Eva Ingeborg Scholz in Des Teufels General (1955)
West-German postcard by Kolibri-Verlag, no. 1400. Photo: Real / Europa Film-Verleih / Gabriele. Eva Ingeborg Scholz in Des Teufels General/The Devil's General (Helmut Käutner, 1955).

Expressive eyes, and a strong on-screen presence


Eva Ingeborg Scholz was born in 1928 in Brandenburg, Prussia. She attended the Max Reinhardt School and acted at the Schlosspark Theatre and the Renaissance Theatre from 1947 to 1950.

From 1950 to 1953 she was engaged at the Komödie Berlin, after which she was part of the ensemble at the Münchner Kammerspiele. As an ensemble member, she covered both comedic and dramatic assignments.

She made her film debut in the title role of the East German film 1-2-3 Corona (Hans Müller, 1948) opposite Lutz Moik. It was a post-war love story with a circus setting, filmed at Ufa's Babelsberg studio.

I.S. Mowis at IMDb: "Though diminutive and rather unimposing in stature, she had expressive eyes, and, as it turned out, possessed a strong on-screen presence." From then on, she appeared regularly in films, including a performance as a young lodger in Peter Lorre's only directorial effort, the West-German drama Der Verlorene/The Lost One (1951).

Scholz alternated leading roles in light comedies and operettas such as Pension Schöller (Georg Jacoby, 1952) and Ball im Savoy/Ball at the Savoy (Paul Martin, 1955)) with high profile supporting parts in dramas. She did her best acting in films with a wartime theme, such as a supporting role opposite Curd Jürgens in Des Teufels General/The Devil's General (Helmut Käutner, 1955), based on the play by Carl Zuckmayer.

Eva Ingeborg Scholz in Ball im Savoy (1955)
West-German postcard by Ufa/Film-Foto, Berlin-Tempelhof, no. 1652. Photo: T. v. Mindszenty / Central Europa Film / Europa Film. Eva Ingeborg Scholz in Ball im Savoy/Ball at the Savoy (Paul Martin, 1955).

Eva Ingeborg Scholz in Unternehmen Schlafsack (1955)
West-German postcard by Kolibri-Verlag G,m.b.H., Minden/Westf., no. 1635. Photo: Real / Rank-Film / v Mindszenty. Eva Ingeborg Scholz in Unternehmen Schlafsack/Operation Sleeping Bag (Arthur Maria Rabenalt, 1955).

Disney and Fassbinder


From the early 1960s, Eva Ingeborg Scholz appeared increasingly on television, where she remained active until the age of 90 years in 2018. She appeared in popular television Krimi series like Tatort, Derrick, Der Alte/The Old Fox, and SOKO Stuttgart/Stuttgart Homicide.

In 2018, she won the Deutscher Schauspielpreis (German Actors Award) for her supporting role in the Tatort episode Die Liebe, ein seltsames Spiel (2017).

Eva-Ingeborg Scholz also worked as a dubbing artist and lent her voice to the title character of the animated film Cinderella (Clyde Geronimi, Wilfred Jackson, Hamilton Luske, 1950) and to Alice's sister in Alice in Wonderland (Clyde Geronimi, Wilfred Jackson, Hamilton Luske, 1951).

Among her later films are the Disney production Emil and the Detectives (Peter Tewksbury, 1964), based on the novel by Erich Kästner, in which she played Emil's mother, and Rainer Werner Fassbinder's Der amerikanische Soldat/The American Soldier (1970). One of her final films was the comedy Die Apothekerin/The Pharmacist (Rainer Kaufmann, 1997) with Katja Riemann.

She was married twice. Her first husband was screenwriter Georg Hurdalek with whom she had a son, Stefan Hurdalek (1951). In 1953, she married actor Wilfried Seyferth but he died a year later in a car accident. Their daughter is actress Katharina Seyferth (1954). Eva Ingeborg Scholz lived and worked in Gräfelfing near Munich. She died in March 2022 at the age of 94.

Eva Ingeborg Scholz in Pension Schöller (1952)
West-German postcard by Kunst und Bild, Berlin, no. A 566. Photo: Magna Film / Deutsche London Film. Eva Ingeborg Scholz in Pension Schöller (Georg Jacoby, 1952).

Sources: I.S. Mowis (IMDb), Wikipedia (German and English), and IMDb.

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