“I was never a sweetheart” is how Uschi Glas called her biography, which she is publishing today on her 80th birthday. The actress was born on March 2, 1944 in Landau, Lower Bavaria, as the youngest of four children.
Picture gallery: Uschi Glas turns 80
Uschi Glas (Photo: ORF) Bild 1/45
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Afterward, she describes her childhood as not unhappy, but demanding. The dream of moving from the country to the big city of Munich didn’t go down well with his strict father. But glass prevailed. By chance, she caught the eye of a film producer at a party, who gave her a supporting role in the Edgar Wallace crime thriller “The Uncanny Monk.”
The crime thriller was followed by his breakthrough in 1965 with the western “Winnetou and the Half-Blood Apanatschi”.
Image: Jauch and Scheikowski
Soon following, the offer came for “Get to the point, darling” – her best-known role to date. Her agent refused to take part in the low-budget production, but she rebelled once morest it.
Success proved her right. The black and white film became a cult film in young German cinema. The scene in which Glas suddenly drops her dress at a police station and stands there in a lace corsage became legendary. Actually, according to the director’s wishes, she should have been naked – but the actress always refused nude photos.
Image: ORF
Glas became a superstar as “Sweetheart”, got her first Bambi and was adored by the audience. But Glas had no chance with the internationally successful directors of the so-called young German films. While the art scene was politically more left-wing, glass was and remains politically conservative to this day. At the time she was close to CSU legend Franz Josef Strauss.
Comeback with “Fack ju Göhte”
Her format remained television, as can be seen in the ORF program this weekend: She played in successful series such as “The Commissioner”, “Polizeiinspektion 1” and “Our Most Beautiful Years”. In 1989, “Two Münchner in Hamburg” was a great success, as Glas played here alongside Elmar Wepper, as she often did in her career.
Image: APA/Tobias Hase
In her private life, she went through difficult times, especially the breakdown of her marriage to Bernd Tewaag, with whom she has three children. The crisis was a long time ago. She has been married to Dieter Hermann for almost 20 years. Her career has taken on a new twist in recent years – namely the ability to be self-ironic.
Image: APA/EPA/TOBIAS HASE
In 2013, Glas played the teacher Ingrid Leimbach-Knorr in the hit film “Fack ju Göhte”, which led to her suddenly becoming a household name among young people. In her Brotzeit association, which distributes breakfast to 15,000 children every day, the younger volunteers wouldn’t have been able to use her name. “Since the films, they’ve been happy when Ingrid Leimbach-Knorr comes over.”
