Frank Ripploh was a German actor, film director, and author. He is best remembered for his semi-autobiographical 1981 movie Taxi zum Klo

Taxi zum Klo

Taxi zum Klo is a 1981 film written by, directed by, and starring Frank Ripploh. The story of a schoolteacher and the contrasts between his public and private lives, the film documents gay culture in West Berlin in the period in which it was made. Ripploh has stated that much of the film was...

. The film, produced on a shoestring budget of 100,000 DM, explored the day-to-day life of a Berlin

Berlin

Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...

 schoolteacher who also led a very active gay sex life. Extremely explicit, especially for its day, Taxi zum Klo was considered groundbreaking for the subject matter it portrayed, and achieved something of a cult status among gay audiences of the time. Ripploh directed a sequel Taxi Nach Kairo (1987) that was never released in the U.S.

He also participated in the creation of a small number of other art house films during the 1980s, and had a role in the 1982 movie Querelle

Querelle

Querelle, a 1982 film directed by Rainer Werner Fassbinder, adapted from French author Jean Genet's 1947 novel Querelle de Brest. It marked Fassbinder's final film as a writer/director; it was posthumously released just months after the director died of a drug overdose in June 1982.-Plot:The plot...

directed by Rainer Werner Fassbinder

Rainer Werner Fassbinder

Rainer Werner Maria Fassbinder was a German movie director, screenwriter and actor. He is considered one of the most important representatives of the New German Cinema.He maintained a frenetic pace in film-making...

. Ripploh died of cancer in 2002.

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