The actor died at the age of 78 Helmut Berger. Of Austrian origin, a former model, he made his film debut in 1967 in an episode of the film Witchesdirected by Luchino Viscontiof which he will become actor-fetish: it will be in the following ones The fall of the Gods (1969), Ludwig (1973), Family group in an interior (1974). He died on the eve of his 79th birthday, at 4 in the morning, “unexpectedly”. Until recently he had continued to work, among his last films was him he biopic su Yves Saint Laurent which he played at the end of his life when he died of cancer in 2008.
On the occasion of the great director’s funeral in 1976, Berger described herself as “Visconti’s widow”. Openly bisexual, he had been his partner for many years and for a long time he complained that family members had prevented him from approaching what the director had left behind after his death. “I lived true love with him – he later said – We moved under the same roof four months after we met. He educated me, introduced me to a myriad of famous people such as Grace Kelly, Dalì, Callas … I had never met such an erudite being. With him everything was magical. Our story lasted twelve years”.
Born into a family of hoteliers, he had started working in that sector but was not at all interested in it. He said: “Deeply loved by my mother who, however, was dominated by my father, a hard man, I was raised by a nanny, then in various boarding schools, I made an obsession of love and without a doubt I sought the benevolent and protective gaze of my mother through everyone I met”. At 18 he moved to London where he began to earn by modeling and taking some acting lessons. Then the transfer to Italy, first to the University for Foreigners of Perugia then to Rome where he continued his modeling activity and where he met Visconti.
The first role that Visconti entrusts to him is in the episode The witch burned alivewhile the following year he won his first starring role in the film The young tigers (1968), directed by director Antonio Leonviola. Berger worked with Romy Schneider, Elizabeth Taylor, Henry Fonda e Burt Lancaster but it is above all in Visconti’s films that he has been able to best express his talent. In the years they were together Visconti and Berger made three more films together. First in 1969 The fall of the Gods in which Visconti portrays a steel industrial family (inspired by the Thyssens) against the background of Hitler’s seizure of power in ’33, then with Ludwig (1973) where he played King Ludwig II of Bavaria alongside Romy Schneider (once again in the role of the Empress Sissi), finally in 1974 that of the cynical Konrad in Family group in an interior.
Berger worked with Victor De Sica in The garden of the Finzi-Continis (1970), winner of the 1972 Academy Award for Best Foreign Film and, again in 1972, with Nelo Risi it is The infamous columnbased on the essay History of the infamous column Of Alessandro Manzoni. In 1975 he was the male lead of Salon Kitty Of Tinto Brassand the year after the film A romantic Englishwoman (1976), directed by the British director Joseph Losey.
After Visconti’s death, Berger experienced a deep depression and it took some time before he was able to return to the set. Francis Ford Coppola wrote him for The Godfather III as Keinszig, a powerful Swiss banker; Claude Chabrol wanted him in the television adaptation of the novel Fantomas; in 1992 Madonna called him for the music video of Erotica.