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Josef Kainz
Actor
*Jan. 2, 1858 Wieselburg (Hungary), +Sept. 20. 1910 Vienna
Kainz was one of the most famous actors in German speaking culture of his time, and still is today. He did not receive formal acting training but was an autodidact, already successful on German stages as a fifteen-year-old boy. The Burgtheater hired him in 1899, where he starred in great roles, like Mephisto, Hamlet Torquato Tasso and became an idol for many younger actors of the following generations. His brilliance in speech, physicality, variety and intellectual deliverance was exceptional, creating anew kind of old classic roles like Hamlet, Don Carlos, Mephisto, as well as presenting contemporary characters form Ibsen’s Gespenster or Hauptmann’s Versunkene Glocke with remarkable vividness.
