Actor
22 June 1943, Bad Aussee, Styria
Klaus Maria Brandauer was born in Bad Aussee, in the Salzkammergut just east of Salzburg. He became one of the most celebrated Austrian actors of his generation, and for six years stood at the centre of the Salzburg Festival’s most iconic open-air performance: Jedermann on Domplatz.
Brandauer grew up in a middle-class family in the Styrian Alps, adopted his mother’s surname as his stage name, and trained in Stuttgart before joining the Burgtheater ensemble in Vienna. By the late 1970s he was already known in German-speaking theatre. International recognition arrived in 1981 when Istvan Szabo cast him as Hendrik Hofgen in Mephisto, a film about an actor who trades artistic integrity for favour under the Nazis. The performance won Szabo’s film the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film and placed Brandauer in a category of actor audiences would take seriously far beyond the region.
Never Say Never Again followed in 1983, then Out of Africa in 1985, in which he played Karen Blixen’s husband opposite Meryl Streep. The latter earned him an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor. He could have settled into international cinema at that point. Instead he kept returning to the stage.
At the Salzburg Festival, Brandauer played Jedermann on Domplatz from 1983 to 1989, the morality play that has opened the festival’s outdoor season since 1920. The role is among the most exposed in Austrian theatre: performed in the open square, with the Salzburg cathedral as backdrop, the text calling out across the rooftops. His run lasted six years and drew audiences and critics who described the performances as among the most electric versions of the piece in the festival’s history. He returned to the festival in 2010 to play the title role in Peter Stein’s production of Oedipus at Colonus.
He remains a Kammerschauspieler and honorary member of the Burgtheater, one of the very few living figures who connects the Salzkammergut landscape, the festival tradition, and decades of international screen work.
Organizations
One of the world's most prestigious performing arts festivals. Held annually late July to end of August. Founded 1920 by Hugo von Hofmannsthal, Max Reinhardt, Richard Strauss, Franz Schalk, and Alfred Roller. Inaugural event: Jedermann on Domplatz. Herbert von Karajan defined the postwar era. Opera, drama, concerts.
