Years active 1960s - 1988 Name Kurt Raab | Role Film actor Art directed Chinese Roulette | |
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Born 20 July 1941 Bergreichenstein, Reichsgau Sudetenland Died June 28, 1988, Hamburg, Germany Awards German Film Award for Best Production Design Production designed The Merchant of Four Seasons Movies The Tenderness of Wolves, Satan's Brew, Why Does Herr R Run Amo, The Merchant of Four S, The Stationmaster's Wife Similar People Ulli Lommel, Peer Raben, Michael Fengler, Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Michael Ballhaus | ||
Kurt Raab (20 July 1941 – 28 June 1988) was a West German stage and film actor, as well as a screenwriter and playwright. Raab is best remembered for his work with German film director Rainer Werner Fassbinder, with whom he collaborated on 31 film projects.
Biography
Raab was born in Bergreichenstein, Sudetenland, which is now Kašperské Hory, Czech Republic. He completed the abitur at Musische Gymnasium Straubing, and studied in Munich.
He made his cinema debut in Fassbinder's Liebe ist kälter als der Tod (Love Is Colder than Death) in 1969. Over the next few years, he made numerous films with Fassbinder, including Warum läuft Herr R. Amok? (Why Does Herr R. Run Amok?) and Der Amerikanische Soldat (The American Soldier) in 1970, Warnung vor einer heiligen Nutte (Beware of a Holy Whore) in 1971, and Der Händler der vier Jahreszeiten (The Merchant of Four Seasons) in 1972.
He also worked as a production designer, assistant director, producer, and a screenwriter.
On 28 June 1988, at age 46, Raab died of AIDS related complications. Before Raab died, he worked to raise awareness about HIV/AIDS in Germany. In 1987 he discussed his illness in Herbert Achternbusch's Wohin?, a film about AIDS-hysteria. In 1988 he made Mitten im Leben, a documentary about AIDS, for Zweites Deutsches Fernsehen. However, the illness remained poorly understood and Raab was placed in quarantine-like conditions in the Hamburg Tropical Institute. Prejudice about AIDS was also evident when Raab's body was refused burial in Steinbeißen, the Lower Bavarian town in which his family had settled in 1945.
He appears in the Queen video 'It's a hard life' dressed as a ballerina.
He is buried in Ohlsdorf Cemetery in Hamburg.