The charm of the actress, who was born in Vienna on June 9, 1927 as the daughter of a hotelier family, is legendary to this day. The path to the profession was not easy. At her mother’s request, Haas first attended a home economics school before she graduated from the Conservatory for Performing Arts in Vienna and also took private acting lessons from Burgtheater actress Julia Janssen.
The beginning of his career then took him to the theater stages, with the Landestheater Linz in Vienna being followed by the Bürgertheater, the Stadttheater and the Raimund Theater, and in Germany the Titania-Palast in Berlin and the Deutsches Theater in Munich. Then the discovery by Willi Forst should mark the turning point: He cast her as Mariandl for his “Hofrat Geiger”, which subsequently brought Haas several roles as a sweet Viennese girl.
As mentors and companions, greats like Paul Hörbiger, Curd Jürgens, Johannes Heesters, Franz Antel, Heinz Rühmann and, above all, Hans Moser were to support Mimin. In addition to her roles in “Mariandl”, “Mariandl’s Homecoming”, “Hallo Dienstmann”, “Kleiner Schwindel am Wolfgangsee”, “Greetings and kisses from the Wachau” or “Don’t worry darling, I’ll be careful” directed by her husband Erwin Beam Haas also recorded records, including “Im Weißen Rössl” and “Wiener Lieder”.
Waltraut Haas describes this eventful life in her memoirs, “Now I’ll tell you”, published in 2018, in which she not only tells of experiences with Hollywood stars like Errol Flynn and, above all, erects a literary monument to her husband Erwin Strahl, but also of disappointments despite all the basic optimism and reported defeats. When the genre of the lovable homeland film and with it her roles in works like “00Sex am Wolfgangsee” increasingly ended in shallow sex tearjerkers, Haas’ path led back to the theater stages, where she was mostly in the spotlight under the direction of her husband, who died in 2011.
In addition, the actress, who was awarded the Austrian Cross of Honor for Science and Art in 2003 or the Golden Viennese Medal of Honor in 2010, discovered German-language television for herself. She was last seen in 2020 in Catalina Molina’s “Happiness is a Bird” as a coma patient.
And Waltraut Haas wouldn’t be Waltraut Haas either if she didn’t celebrate her half-round birthday accordingly – with a “threesome” – with or without a hot dog, as they say. Specifically, the two artist landlords Tamara Trojani and Konstantin Schenk are Haas’ threesome in the Schönbrunn Dinner Theater in the evening. A “funny tritsch gossip dinner show” is promised – including the jubilee’s favorite menu. Enjoy!
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