Fritz Wepper dead at 82: The film and television actor was best known for his role in Cabaret

Film and television actor Fritz Wepper, who was best known for starring alongside Liza Minnelli in Cabaret, has passed away at the age of 82. The German actor died at a hospice facility in Munich. His family told The Hollywood Reporter that Fritz Wepper had passed away “after a long illness that followed the life-threatening sepsis he suffered last year.”

When Friz Wepper was 18, he landed the role of Albert Mutz in Bernhard Wicki’s 1959 antiwar classic, The Bridge. As well as being nominated for the Oscar for best foreign language team and winning the Golden Globe in the category, the Munch Film Festival’s top award is named The Bridge in honour of the movie. 

Fritz Wepper’s biggest role was in 1972 when he starred alongside Liza Minnelli, Marisa Berenson and Michael York  in Bob Fosse’s Oscar-winning musical, ‘Cabaret.’ Although Cabaret was Friz Wepper’s only Hollywood movie, he did also appear in the CBS TV-movie Murder On the Orient Express in 2001. The movie starred Leslie Caron, Meredith Baxter and Peter Strauss.

Deadline reported that Fritz Wepper was a “familiar presence in Germany from his role in the crime-solving Detective Sergeant Harry Klein in the long running series Derrick (1974-98), Wepper made a lasting impression on international audiences with his performance as the charming if insecure, aspiring gigolo Fritz Wendel of Cabaret. 

Fritz Wepper was also well known in Germany for his roles in ‘High Society Murder’, which ran from 2007 to 2017, his last recurring role  was in ‘For Heaven’s Sake.’ Fritz Wepper is survived by his wife Susanne Kellerman and their teenage daughter Filippa, Fritz Wepper also had an adult daughter Sophie and had one granddaughter.