Peter Alexander(1926-2011)

To paraphrase the Beatles, one could say that, like Michelle and Ma Belle, Peter Alexander and Music are words that go together well, for the Austrian entertainer (musician, singer and actor) was associated with music from cradle to tomb. Born in Vienna in 1926, the son of a banker and his wife, Peter Alexander Neumayer (his full name) entered the world of music courtesy of his grandfather who owned a music store in Pilsen. The boy was only five when he joined the Vienna Boys' Choir. And as Peter Alexander had another passion, acting, it is no wonder that he became a... singing actor! But all in due time: In his early twenties, the young man first started studying medicine. Naturally he soon realized he was on the wrong track and changed for drama studies at the Reinhard-Seminar in Vienna. After graduating he appeared in several plays and even played in a cabaret. At the same period, Peter Alexander's love for music resurfaced and he recorded his first songs in 1951. Success was on the cards as several of his songs became big hits. He even won the German Song Contest in Munich in 1952. From then on, Peter Alexander, who had played in the theater, but never in films, started working for the big screen. Actually, his first appearances were brief and he was always billed as a singer, a dancer, a musician or himself. But his being a star of song gradually implied a star actor status. As a matter of fact, Peter Alexander soon got top-billed, and in dozens of light comedies, which attracted millions of German-speaking spectators. In such films as Ich bin kein Casanova (1959), Die Abenteuer des Grafen Bobby (1961) and nearly all the others, Alexander was not what can be called a character actor embodying a a different role in each of those films, but he was invariably the charming, well-bred, joyful man, fond of "Festlicher Stimmung" (festive mood) and Lust (good laughs), often named Peter, in short, close to the kind of guy he was in real life. Of course, all this had nothing much to do with art and if Peter Alexander's name is still remembered fondly by the older generation in Austria and Germany, it must be recognized that he has not left any imprint in film history. Peter Alexander was synonymous with a joyful time meant for immediate consumption and that was that. An exception though: 'Wolfgang Liebeneiner' qv)'s Schwejk's Flegeljahre (1964), in which for once he did not play a nice guy close to who he was, but 'Jaroslav Hasek''s well-known "hero", the prototype of the dumb soldier who drives his superiors crazy. Peter Alexander 's portrayal of this archetypal character was just excellent and it makes you regret that the comedian was not offered more demanding roles during the two decades when he was at the top of his career. After 1972, as commercial German cinema was spiraling down into the abyss, Peter Alexander left his film career to devote himself to TV shows and, of course, to songs, songs, songs. He died in early 2011 at the age of 84. History does not record whether.. he sang his last words!