Hannes Schmidhauser(1926-2000)

Hannes Schmidhauser was born and grew up in Ticino. He studied drama at Zurich's Bühnenstudio to be an actor, which he became, but his activities were not limited to this field of action, to say the least. He is indeed known to have performed as a clown (in duet with Emil Hegethschweiler at the Kie Circus), to have had a career in soccer (playing three times in national league, six times in B league, and even winning the Swiss Cup with the Grasshoppers team!), to have been a reporter, a radio director (at Radio Monte Ceneri), a film assistant director, film director, film producer and distributor. Quite dizzying! Of course he was mainly an actor, but as can be expected, he would not be content to tread the boards. He naturally did so (playing at the Hegi Theater from 1947 to 1950 and later in Konstanz, Francfort and Berlin) but he also appeared on the big and small screens. Being chosen by Franz Schnyder for the role of Uli, Jeremias Gotthelf's "hero", was the chance of his lifetime. In "Uli, der Knecht" (1954)" and its sequel Uli, der Pächter (1955), he was so perfect as Uli, the lazy bawdy farm hand who reforms and becomes a prosperous farmer, that Swiss spectators rushed to the houses playing them and made a triumph to these two Gotthelf adaptations capturing so well the soul of eternal Switzerland. Twenty-odd roles would follow both at the cinema and on TV, his final one being General Sutter (1999), in the eponymous movie. In 1963, the talented fregoli even tried his hand at direction with Seelische Grausamkeit (1962). But, always coming up with something unexpected, he boldly put his work in line with the French New Wave, a few years before newcomers like Alain Tanner,Claude Goretta, and Michel Soutter started revolutionizing Swiss Cinema. Hannes Schmidhauser died in the early 2000s, aged 73. He is sorely missed and will be remembered as a major contributor to the aura of his native country, and in more than just one area!