The actor Rolf Schimpf is dead. He died on Saturday at the age of 100, as his biographer and good friend Detlef Vetten confirmed to the German Press Agency after corresponding media reports. Schimpf became known primarily through his role in the ZDF television series “The Alte”, which he embodied for around 20 years. As a chief commissioner Leo Kress, he went on a criminal hunting in Munich until old age, a total of 222 episodes – until he ended in 2007. He was an investigator without star air and action and with his dry manner.
According to the set series “Derrick”, “the old” was the greatest export success of the ZDF with sales to more than a hundred countries. The Munich investigator once described Schimpf in the “Welt” as a secret of success in the “world”. “There are too many crime series that work with shootings and violence and exploding cars – and 'the old man' is one of the few who do not do that.”
After that it became quiet around the Berlin -born, who had moved to Munich decades ago with his wife, the actress Ilse Zielstorff. Now Schimpf has died, almost ten years after his wife. Schimpf and his wife played theater together, from the 1970s it was increasingly to be seen on television.
Schimpf was seriously injured in the Second World War
When Schimpf started as “the old” in 1986, he had already had plenty of acting experience. He has stood on stage and in front of the camera since the 1950s. He played in the ARD crime series “Tatort” as well as in almost 50 episodes of the crime series “SOKO 5113”.
He owed a lot to the Munich producer Helmut Ringelmann, who had shaped entertainment television with success formats such as “Derrick” or “the Commissioner”. In 1984 he got Scold for the drama series “Mensch Bachmann”, which ran on Saturday evening on ZDF.
Schimpf was born on November 14, 1924 in Berlin as the son of a naval officer. He was moved into the Wehrmacht in the Second World War and suffered a serious head injury. After the war he first learned a merchant before he became an actor.
