Horst Tappert

Horst Tappert

German actor
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Horst Tappert
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Horst Tappert Actor -

Born May 26, 1923 in Elberfeld [now Wuppertal], Germany

Died December 13, 2008 in Munich, Bavaria, Germany (diabetes)

Height 6' 1½" (1.87 m)

Mini Bio (1) Born on 26 May 1923 in Wuppertal, he served with the Nazi German Waffen-SS in World War II. After attending acting lessons at the theater in Stendal, where he also made his stage debut, he performed on several important stages in Germany, but became widely popular as cinema and television actor in the late 1950s and 1960s, probably best known as gentleman gangster in The Great British Train Robbery (1966). Nevertheless, the role of his role was the character of "Stephan Derrick", a Munich Chief Inspector, who became a cult figure all over the world. He played the role from 1974 to 1998 and received several awards such as the Golden Camera, Bambi and the Italian Telegatto.

- IMDb Mini Biography By: fippi2000

Family (3)

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Spouse

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Ursula Pistor (1957 - 13 December 2008) his death

??? (?-?) divorced

??? (?-?) divorced

Trivia (8)

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In December 2001, one of Tappert's sons, Gary, died of organ failure after having gone into a coma. He was 52, and an architect.

Only German actor, who has fan clubs in Europe as well as overseas. Even Pope John Paul II liked to watch him on Derrick (1974).

Received Germany's Cross of Merit in 1988.

Enjoyed fishing and hunting.

Lived in Gräfelfing near Munich with his third wife Ursula and is the father of three children from two prior marriages: Karin, Ralph and Gary (died 2001).

He was already 51 when the Derrick series started, and he outlived the series, unlike a few much younger people who appeared on the series during the 24 years.

His daughter Karin died in 2010 of cancer.

In April 2013 information emerged that actor Horst Tappert served as a member of the notorious Waffen-SS during World War II and hid the fact for years. Re-runs of "Derrick" were suspended in Germany and some other countries as a result. He never personally disclosed his connection with the SS.

Horst Tappert (26 May 1923 – 13 December 2008) was a German movie and television actor best known for the role of Inspector Stephan Derrick in the television drama Derrick.

Biography Horst Tappert was born on 26 May 1923 in Elberfeld (now Wuppertal), Germany. His father, Julius Tappert (1892–1957), was a civil servant; his mother was Ewaldine Röll Tappert (1892–1981). Following high school and at the age of 17, Tappert was drafted into the German Army during World War II. Aged 19, he was, according to his widow against his will, transferred from the Army to the Waffen-SS, where the author of the Derrick series, Herbert Reinecker, had also served. Initially a member of a reserve antiaircraft unit in Arolsen, he was listed as a grenadier with the 3rd SS Division Totenkopf in March 1943. In 1945, he was briefly a prisoner of war in Seehausen, Altmark. Following the war, he was hired as a bookkeeper at a theatre in Stendal, Germany, and became interested in acting. He took acting classes and gave his stage debut in Stendal, playing Dr. Stribel in Paul Helwig's Die Flitterwochen.

In the following years, he changed employers several times, and in 1956, started working at the Kammerspiele, Munich. An independent actor since 1967, he worked as an actor until he died.

In the late 1950s, Tappert started taking part in movie and television productions. His big breakthrough was in 1966 with the three-part television show Die Gentlemen bitten zur Kasse, in which he played train robber Michael Donegan. In 1968, he changed sides by playing Scotland Yard detective Perkins in Edgar Wallace movies. When the second public television station in Germany, the ZDF, started planning a new mystery series with a different type of investigator in 1973, he was chosen for the character of detective Stephan Derrick, with sidekick assistant Harry Klein (played by Fritz Wepper).

The character Stephan Derrick became a cult figure. The series was licensed in 104 countries and was popular with audiences in China, Japan, and Italy (and even Pope John Paul II). The last of 281 episodes was filmed in 1998, when Tappert reached his self-imposed age limit of 75 years old, for being a television actor.

Personal life Divorced twice, he last lived in Gräfelfing near Munich with his third wife, Ursula Pistor (married in 1957). He was the father of three children. Tappert enjoyed fishing and hunting. He had a summer holiday home on the coast of northern Norway, a country where he also became a popular visitor, as Derrick, as well as a private person. Tappert and his wife Ursula had a cabin in Hamarøy municipality in Nordland from 1990 to 2008, when due to his age and failing health, they had to sell the cabin. His wife Ursula Pistor is also an actor, a graduate of the same acting school in Berlin as Ellinor Hamsun, daughter of Knut Hamsun.

In interviews and his memoirs, Tappert did not elaborate on his World War II career, claiming to have served as a company medic in the Wehrmacht, after which he became a prisoner of war. In April 2013, he was revealed to have joined the 3. SS-Panzergrenadier-Division Totenkopf, then deployed on the Eastern Front, in March 1943. Historian Jan Erik Schulte, an expert on the history of the SS, said that the circumstances of Tappert's membership in the SS and the question of whether he was pressured or coerced into joining remain unclear.

Following the discovery of Tappert's service with the Waffen SS during the war, German broadcaster ZDF dropped all repeats of Derrick. Similarly, Bavaria's interior ministry said it was considering stripping the late actor of an honorary chief police inspector title awarded to Tappert in 1980.

Tappert died on 13 December 2008 in Planegg, Germany

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Horst Tappert was born on Saturday, 26 May 1923 in Elberfeld, Wuppertal, Germany. His full name at birth was Horst Tappert. He was best known as an actor. Tappert's country of citizenship (nationality) was German. He died on Saturday, 13 December 2008 in Munich, Bavaria, Germany at the age of 85. He was 6' 1½" (187 cm) tall with an average build. He had blue eyes and grey hair (color). His zodiac star sign was Gemini.

You can find people similar to Horst Tappert by visiting our lists Actors from Wuppertal and People from Hamarøy.

Full name at birth
Horst Tappert
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Claim to fame
Inspector Stephan Derrick in Derrick
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Date of birth
26 May 1923
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Place of birth
Elberfeld, Wuppertal, Germany
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Date of death
13 December 2008
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Age
85 (age at death)
Place of death
Munich, Bavaria, Germany
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Cause of death
Diabetes
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Occupation
Actor | Director | Soundtrack
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Nationality
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PERSONAL DETAILS

Height
6' 1½" (187 cm)
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ADDITIONAL DETAILS

Residence
  • Elberfeld [now Wuppertal], Germany
  • Munich, Bavaria, Germany
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  • He was already 51 when the Derrick series started, and he outlived the series, unlike a few much younger people who appeared on the series during the 24 years.
  • Lives in Gräfelfing near Munich with his third wife Utsula and is the father of three children from two prior marriages: Karin, Ralph and Gary (died 2001).
  • Enjoys fishing and hunting.
  • Recieved Germany`s Cross of Merit in 1988.
  • Only German actor, who has fan clubs in Europe as well as overseas. Even Pope John Paul II liked to watch him on "Derrick"(1974).

Horst Tappert is known for his role in the film Patients (2016) as Derrick (uncredited).

He is also known for his role in the film OSS 117 - Lost in Rio (2009) as Oiseau devant (as Horst Tapper).

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