West German postcard by Kolibri-Verlag, Minden/Westf, no. 2131. Photo: Wanke / Cordialfilm / Union-Film. Rudolf Lenz in Liebe, Schnee und Sonnenschein / Love, Snow and Sunshine (Rudolf Nussgruber, 1956).
West German postcard by Kolibri-Verlag G.m.b.H., Minden/Westf., no. 2129. Photo: Wanke / Cordinal-Film / Union Film. Photo: Union-Film. Liesl Terval and Rudolf Lenz in Liebe, Schnee und Sonnenschein / Love, Snow and Sunshine (Rudolf Nussgruber, 1956).
West German postcard by Kolibri-Verlag G.m.b.H., Minden/Westf., no. 2094. Photo: Wanke / Cordinal-Film / Union Film. Anita Gutwell, Rudolf Lenz and Liesl Terval in Liebe, Schnee und Sonnenschein / Love, Snow and Sunshine (Rudolf Nussgruber, 1956).
The virile romantic lead of the Austrian Heimatfilm
Rudolf Lenz was born in 1920 in Graz, Austria. He was the son of motorbike manufacturer and engineer Rudolf Lenz and his wife Antonia, née Weiser. He studied mechanical engineering and served as a ship's engineer in the merchant navy from 1941 to 1945.
After the Second World War, Lenz came to the theatre through his aunt, the drama teacher Lore Weiser. He took acting lessons with Professor Kirchner in Vienna, made his debut at the Städtische Bühnen Graz in 1950 and then played at the Stadttheater Klagenfurt.
From 1952 to 1958, he was engaged as a young hero and lover at the Theater in der Josefstadt in Vienna. Parallel to his stage work, Lenz worked as a dubbing actor, for example in Tiefland, by and with Leni Riefenstahl, and also took on his first smaller roles in films. He received his first leading film role opposite Anita Gutwell in the Austrian Heimatfilm Echo der Berge / Der Förster vom Silberwald / Echo of the Mountains (Alfons Stummer, 1954).
Stephanie d'Heil at Steffi-Line: "Der Förster vom Silberwald was a huge success and, alongside Schwarzwaldmädel (1950) and Grün ist die Heide (1951), was one of the biggest box office hits of the 1950s and Lenz became the star of the Heimatfilm, which experienced an unexpected upswing thanks to the actor. The romantic romance between the forester Hubert and the Viennese artist Liesl (Anita Gutwell) is framed by marvellous animal and landscape shots, which are among the most beautiful that the Heimatfilm has to offer."
Lenz went on to star as a virile romantic lead in around thirty more Heimat films, set in rural Austria or southern Germany, which built on his original success. Gutwell and Lenz became a popular couple in the genre. In the next years, Lenz appeared in such films as Mädchenjahre einer Königin / Victoria in Dover (Ernst Marischka, 1954) starring Romy Schneider as the young Queen Victoria, Die Sennerin von St. Kathrein / The Milkmaid of St. Kathrein (Herbert B. Fredersdorf, 1955) in which he reunited with Anita Gutwell, and Der Jäger von Fall / The Hunter of Fall (Gustav Ucicky, 1956).
West German postcard by Kolibri-Verlag, Minden/Westf, no. 1824. Photo: Union-Film.
West German postcard by Kolibri-Verlag, Minden/Westf., no. 248. Photo: Divina / Gloria-Film / Bayer. Rudolf Lenz in Heimatlos / Homeless (Herbert B. Fredersdorf, 1958).
A limited comeback with supporting parts in Fassbinder films
When the wave of Heimat films in German-speaking countries began to wane, Rudolf Lenz's star also began to wane. Lenz tried his hand at presenting a travel series on television, went on tour with tabloid plays, ran an antique shop in Munich specialising in English furniture and was moderately successful as a seller of investment certificates.
In the early 1970s, Rudolf Lenz made a limited comeback with supporting parts in two West German TV series directed by Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Acht Stunden sind kein Tag (Rainer Werner Fassbinder, 1972) and the Science Fiction television serial Welt am Draht / World on a Wire (Rainer Werner Fassbinder, 1973), starring Klaus Löwitsch.
These appearances were followed by more supporting roles in Fassbinder's TV film Martha (Rainer Werner Fassbinder, 1974) with Margit Carstensen, and the literature adaptation Fontane Effi Briest (Rainer Werner Fassbinder, 1974). Lenz also appeared in Fassbinder's drama Faustrecht der Freiheit / Fox and His Friends (Rainer Werner Fassbinder, 1975) about the misadventures of a working-class gay man who wins the lottery, and Lili Marleen (Rainer Werner Fassbinder, 1981).
He also had a supporting part in the West German comedy Die wilden Fünfziger / The Roaring Fifties (Peter Zadek, 1983). Based on the novel 'Hurra, wir leben noch' by Johannes Mario Simmel, it is set around the German Wirtschaftswunder economic miracle of the 1950s.
From 1980, he ran a naturopathic practice in Munich together with his ex-wife and her husband. He enjoyed chatting about their ‘marriage of three’ on talk shows. Lenz was divorced twice and had a daughter. Rudolf Lenz died in 1987 in Inzell, Bavaria, West Germany. He was 67 and is interred in the cemetery in Inzell.
West German postcard by Ufa/Film-Foto, Berlin-Tempelhof, no. FK 2020. Photo: Gary Gruber / Union-Film.
West German postcard by Ufa/Film-Foto, Berlin-Tempelhof, no. FK 3976. Photo: Khan.
West German postcard by Ufa/Film-Foto, Berlin-Tempelhof, no. FK 4499. Photo: Erwin Schneider / Ufa.
Sources: Stephanie d'Heil (Steffi-Line), Wikipedia (German and English) and IMDb.
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