German theatre and film actor, who starred as Mack the Knife in Brecht and Weill’s “The Threepenny Opera” more than 450 times.
He grew up in Switzerland, where he studied chemistry and physiology. In 1937 he was deemed unfit for service in the Wehrmacht, and then went to Berlin where he trained as an actor.
Kaiser made his stage début in 1941 at the Stadtheater in Jihlava, Czechoslovakia, when that country was occupied by Germany. This led to Kaiser’s engagement at the Volksbühne in Berlin from 1942 until 1945. Kaiser then had engagements in Frankfurt am Main, Munich and the Schauspiel Leipzig. In 1950 Kaiser returned to Berlin, where Bertolt Brecht recruited him to the Deutsches Theater and the Berliner Ensemble. Kaiser stayed with the Berliner Ensemble until 1967, becoming one of East Germany’s foremost stage actors.
Kaiser acted in films after the Second World War, including roles in Wolfgang Staudte’s Die Geschichte vom kleinen Muck (1953), Kurt Maetzig’s Ernst Thälmann, Sohn Seiner Klasse (1954), Martin Hellberg’s Thomas Müntzer, and Peter Palitzsch and Manfred Weckwerth’s film version of Brecht’s Mother Courage and Her Children (1961).
Kaiser believed in and supported the East German Communist state. He was distressed at its collapse in 1989, its corruption that came to light after its fall and German reunification, and the return of capitalism and mass unemployment to eastern Germany from 1989 onwards. On 22 October 1992, a few days before his birthday, Kaiser committed suicide by leaping out of the study window of his apartment.
Link to Wikipedia biography