Pierre Brice
Encyclopedia
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
actor, mainly known for his role as fictional Apache-chief Winnetou
Winnetou
Winnetou is a fictional Native American hero of several novels written by Karl May in German, including the sequels Winnetou I through Winnetou IV....
in German Karl May films.
Life and films
Brice was born in BrestBrest, France
Brest is a city in the Finistère department in Brittany in northwestern France. Located in a sheltered position not far from the western tip of the Breton peninsula, and the western extremity of metropolitan France, Brest is an important harbour and the second French military port after Toulon...
, France. When he was 19, Brice enlisted in the French Army
French Army
The French Army, officially the Armée de Terre , is the land-based and largest component of the French Armed Forces.As of 2010, the army employs 123,100 regulars, 18,350 part-time reservists and 7,700 Legionnaires. All soldiers are professionals, following the suspension of conscription, voted in...
and fought in the First Indochina War
First Indochina War
The First Indochina War was fought in French Indochina from December 19, 1946, until August 1, 1954, between the French Union's French Far East...
. While patrolling in Indochina, one of his team triggered a mine and its explosion sent Brice whirling trough the air, but left him virtually unhurt. Later he served as a paratrooper during the Algerian War. From 1962 to 1968 he acted in a total of eleven German Western
Western (genre)
The Western is a genre of various visual arts, such as film, television, radio, literature, painting and others. Westerns are devoted to telling stories set primarily in the latter half of the 19th century in the American Old West, hence the name. Some Westerns are set as early as the Battle of...
movies adapted from novels by German author Karl May
Karl May
Karl Friedrich May was a popular German writer, noted mainly for adventure novels set in the American Old West, and similar books set in the Orient and Middle East . In addition, he wrote stories set in his native Germany, in China and in South America...
, in which he played the fictional Indian
Native Americans in the United States
Native Americans in the United States are the indigenous peoples in North America within the boundaries of the present-day continental United States, parts of Alaska, and the island state of Hawaii. They are composed of numerous, distinct tribes, states, and ethnic groups, many of which survive as...
chief Winnetou
Winnetou
Winnetou is a fictional Native American hero of several novels written by Karl May in German, including the sequels Winnetou I through Winnetou IV....
of the Mescalero Apache tribe, alongside Lex Barker
Lex Barker
Lex Barker was an American actor best known for playing Tarzan of the Apes and leading characters from Karl May's novels.-Early life:...
(7 movies), Stewart Granger
Stewart Granger
Stewart Granger was an English-American film actor, mainly associated with heroic and romantic leading roles. He was a popular leading man from the 1940s to the early 1960s rising to fame through his appearances in the Gainsborough melodramas.-Early life:He was born James Lablache Stewart in Old...
(3 movies) and Rod Cameron
Rod Cameron
Rod Cameron was a Canadian-born movie actor whose career extended from the 1930s to the 1970s. He appeared in horror, war, action and science fiction movies, but is best remembered for his many Westerns....
(1 movie) as the white heroes. After the films he also played this role at the Karl May Festspiele in Elspe from 1977 to 1980 and 1982 to 1986 and at the Bad Segeberg open-air theatre, Germany, from 1988 to 1991; he also worked there until 1999 as director of several open-air theatre productions. (The open-air theatre in Bad Segeberg
Bad Segeberg
Bad Segeberg is a German town of 16,000 inhabitants, located in the state of Schleswig-Holstein, capital of the district Segeberg. It is situated approximately northeast of Hamburg, and west of Lübeck.It is famous for its annual Karl-May-Festival...
is dedicated only to productions of Karl May plays.)
Besides theatre productions, he was mainly seen in TV-series, including "Ein Schloss am Wörthersee" (A Castle by the Woerthersee) and "Die Hütte am See" (The Cottage by the Lake). In 1979 Brice again played Winnetou
Winnetou
Winnetou is a fictional Native American hero of several novels written by Karl May in German, including the sequels Winnetou I through Winnetou IV....
in a 14-part TV series called "Mein Freund Winnetou" (My friend Winnetou – Winnetou le Mescalero), which did not originate from Karl May material. In 1997 he appeared in a two-part TV
Television
Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...
mini series
Miniseries
A miniseries , in a serial storytelling medium, is a television show production which tells a story in a limited number of episodes. The exact number is open to interpretation; however, they are usually limited to fewer than a whole season. The term "miniseries" is generally a North American term...
"Winnetous Rückkehr" (The Return of Winnetou), which earned devastating criticism from the fans, since the character had died in the movie "Winnetou III" and now suddenly returned to life. Again, this did not originate from writings by Karl May.
Pierre Brice tried to escape the Winnetou character in a 1976 TV series, "Die Mädchen aus dem Weltraum" (Star Maidens), and in several movies for the big screen, playing Zorro
Zorro
Zorro is a fictional character created in 1919 by New York-based pulp writer Johnston McCulley. The character has been featured in numerous books, films, television series, and other media....
in the Italian "Zorro contro Maciste" (1963). He also worked with Terence Hill
Terence Hill
Terence Hill is an Italian actor. He is best known for starring in multiple action and western films together with his longtime filmpartner Bud Spencer.-Biography:...
(still called Mario Girotti at the time) in "Schüsse im Dreivierteltakt" (Shots in 3/4 Time) (1965), with Lex Barker in a non-Karl May film "Die Hölle von Manitoba" (A Place Called Glory City) (1965) and in the anthology "Gern hab' ich die Frauen gekillt" (Killer's Carnival) (1966). Stewart Granger, Lex Barker and Pierre Brice finally worked together in one movie – but for some reason, the actors did not share a single scene in the film.
Singing career
Like Lex Barker (who recorded two tracks as a singer), Pierre Brice tried to sing with the help of German composer Martin Boettcher, and even managed to issue several singles and CDs. Most of the songs were in German and, as Brice didn't understand the language at the time of recording, he had to sing them phoneticallyPhonetical singing
Phonetical singing is when a singer learns and performs, the lyrics of a song by the words' phonetic sounds without necessarily understanding of the content of the lyrics....
.
- PIERRE BRICE: Ich steh' allein / Ribanna – DECCA D 19 557 (mono)
- PIERRE BRICE: Wunderschön / Keiner weiß den Tag – Decca, D 19 560
- PIERRE BRICE: Winnetou, Du warst mein Freund / Meine roten Brüder – Barclay
- PIERRE BRICE: Du fehlst mir / Der große Traum – CBS
- Winnetou du warst mein Freund – 1996, sampler CD, Bear Family Records
contains the above songs, as well as Lex Barker songs.
Partial filmography
- Mill of the Stone WomenMill of the Stone WomenMill of the Stone Women is a 1960 Italian-French horror film directed by Giorgio Ferroni and starring: Pierre Brice and Scilla Gabel.-Cast:* Pierre Brice as Hans von Arnim* Scilla Gabel as Elfie Wahl* Wolfgang Preiss as Dr. Loren Bohlem...
(1960) - La Donna dei Faraoni (AKA: The Pharaoh's Woman) (1960)
- The RobbersThe Robbers (film)The Robbers is a 1962 Spanish crime film directed by Francisco Rovira Beleta. It was entered into the 12th Berlin International Film Festival.-Cast:* Pierre Brice - El Señorito* Manuel Gil - Ramón Orea Bellido 'Chico'...
(1962) - Among VulturesAmong VulturesAmong Vultures is a 1964 Western film directed by Alfred Vohrer and starring Stewart Granger, Pierre Brice, Elke Sommer and Götz George. An American frontiersman Old Surehand and his Apache companion Winnetou expose a criminal gang who are murdering settlers and laying the blame on the local...
(1964) - DaciiDacii (film)Dacii is a 1967 historical drama film about Domitian's Dacian War fought between the Roman empire and the Dacians in AD 87-88. This film was directed by Romanian director Sergiu Nicolaescu...
(1967)
Source
External links
- Homepage of Pierre Brice (in German)
- Winnetou on WWW.ALMISSA.COM (in Croatian/English)