Heinz Erhardt

From an early age, the German comedian, poet, musician, and actor Heinz Erhardt dreamed of earning his living at the piano, yet the grandparents who raised him through most of his childhood pushed him instead toward a career in commerce. Even after they voiced their doubts, he kept his attention fixed on music and, once conscripted in World War II, served as pianist in the marine orchestra. In the postwar years he moved into broadcasting, taking on the role of moderator at NWDR (Nordwestdeutscher Rundfunk), the northwest German public radio station, where he began shaping a comic persona built around “pun poems.” A sustained career on stage and screen followed, bringing him honors throughout Europe and, four days before his death from a stroke in 1979, the German Distinguished Service Cross.