Herta Staal(1930-2021)
- Actress
- Soundtrack
Vivacious and charming strawberry-blonde Viennese actress and singer Herta Staal reached the height of her career as a star of breezy musical comedies and fashionable rustic dramas (Heimatfilms) popularly in vogue during the immediate post-war era. In her teens, Herta had studied dance under choreographers Dia Lucca and Hedy Pfundmeyer and performed ballet at the Vienna State Opera, subsequently completing her training at the Vienna Conservatory. In 1948, she made her professional theatrical debut in an operetta by Robert Stolz and was then engaged as a soubrette at the famous Burgtheater. Her first screen appearance followed in 1952 after she had joined her first husband, the composer Hans Rahner, in Berlin.
Until her retirement in 1993, Herta alternated lighter roles on screen with dramatic acting in theatres throughout Germany and Austria. Benefitting from her well-rounded training as a singer and dancer, Herta managed to notch up a string of back-to-back box office successes in 1950s undemanding lightweight fare, beginning with Wolfgang Liebeneiner's The Dancing Heart (1953) and followed by Die tolle Lola (1954) (as a Parisian Varieté danseuse), Schützenliesel (1954), Das Bad auf der Tenne (1956), the unabashedly corny bucolic romance Die Rosel vom Schwarzwald (1956) and a likeable comedy of mistaken identity, Die Winzerin von Langenlois (1957). She co-starred with many of the big names in contemporary German and Austrian cinema, among them Gunnar Möller, Sonja Ziemann, Paul Hörbiger, Nadja Tiller, Georg Thomalla, Martin Held, Barbara Rütting and Willy Fritsch. During the 60s and 70s, Herta restricted her appearances to films made for television as well as working in radio and as a voice-over actress. Until her passing at the age of 91, she lived for 35 years in relative seclusion in her adopted home in Munich.
Until her retirement in 1993, Herta alternated lighter roles on screen with dramatic acting in theatres throughout Germany and Austria. Benefitting from her well-rounded training as a singer and dancer, Herta managed to notch up a string of back-to-back box office successes in 1950s undemanding lightweight fare, beginning with Wolfgang Liebeneiner's The Dancing Heart (1953) and followed by Die tolle Lola (1954) (as a Parisian Varieté danseuse), Schützenliesel (1954), Das Bad auf der Tenne (1956), the unabashedly corny bucolic romance Die Rosel vom Schwarzwald (1956) and a likeable comedy of mistaken identity, Die Winzerin von Langenlois (1957). She co-starred with many of the big names in contemporary German and Austrian cinema, among them Gunnar Möller, Sonja Ziemann, Paul Hörbiger, Nadja Tiller, Georg Thomalla, Martin Held, Barbara Rütting and Willy Fritsch. During the 60s and 70s, Herta restricted her appearances to films made for television as well as working in radio and as a voice-over actress. Until her passing at the age of 91, she lived for 35 years in relative seclusion in her adopted home in Munich.
