She celebrated her last audience success at the age of almost 80 in the theater comedy “Glorious”. In it, Johanna von Koczian played the US millionaire Florence Foster Jenkins, who rented New York concert halls in 1930 to shine as an opera diva, but could actually only sing off-key. Her performance filled the comedy on Berlin’s Kurfürstendamm for months. As was announced yesterday, Johanna von Koczian died on Tuesday at the age of 90.
Video: Film excerpt “Single Bells”
In 1977 she sang “The Little Household” in such an ironic way that the song title became a saying that is still used today. Born on October 30, 1933 in Berlin, the daughter of the Austrian captain Gustav Wilhelm Viktor Freiherr von Kóczián-Miskolczy and his wife Lydia Alexandra Freifrau von Kóczián-Miskolczy née Grosspietsch began studying acting at the Salzburg Mozarteum at the age of 18. Under Gustaf Gründgens’ direction she was seen at the Salzburg Festival in “As You Like It” and soon excelled in theater, from musicals to plays.
From Shakespeare to “Country Doctor”
Her second film role brought her the German Federal Film Prize: 1958 in “We Wunderkinder”. At the beginning of the 1960s she recognized the growing importance of television: she appeared in the ARD series “The Stewardesses”, in crime films such as “Agatha, let the murder be” and in the film “Single Bells” (1997), which became a Christmas classic . Overall, their spectrum ranged from Shakespeare to the “country doctor”. She also wrote novels and young adult literature. Most recently, Johanna von Koczian lived in a nursing home in Berlin.
The actress Alexandra von Koczian (51) is her daughter. She comes from the relationship with music producer Wolf Kabitzky, to whom Johanna von Koczian was married for the second time from 1966 until his death in 2004.
