Biography

German actor and director of comedies, in films from 1924. Began on the stage in 1926 and worked in Berlin cabarets (including "Kabarett der Komiker" and "Die Katakombe") and theatres (Metropoltheater, Admiralspalast, Theater am Kurfürstendamm) during the 1930s. After the was he, co-founded and led the Munich cabaret "Die Schaubude". Became popular as funny or eccentric old men in comedies, operettas and Heimatfilms of the 1950s and '60s. Also was occasionally seen in international productions, notably in The Exorcist (1973) (as the servant Karl). Forced to wind down his career by the early 1980s due to the onset of blindness.

After finishing the film The Nasty Girl (1990), he died of a heart attack in Germany, at 82 years old. The film was released in 1990, two years later.

His son Oliver Schündler works a a producer for the Bavaria Film Company in Munich.

He revitalized his career with his part in The Exorcist (1973). He then appeared in some well-known films with actors such as Dennis Hopper and Marlene Dietrich (in Just a Gigolo (1978), her final film).

He continued acting during wartime and appeared in, among others, ...reitet für Deutschland (1941) and Das schwarze Schaf (1944). From 1950 he also directed more than 20 comedies with a regional background.