Peter Alexander

Peter Alexander stood as Austria's foremost postwar entertainer, achieving initial stardom through film musicals before fronting his own extended television variety series. Yet his most notable accomplishments came as a pop vocalist, amassing over two dozen Top Ten singles throughout four decades. Born Peter Alexander Ferdinand Maximilian Neumayer in Vienna on June 30, 1926, he launched his path as a member of the renowned Vienna Boys' Choir. World War II brought service in the Luftwaffenhelfer and the Reichsarbeitsdienst, ending in 1945 with capture by British forces, who held him as a prisoner of war. Once hostilities ceased, Alexander enrolled at Vienna's Max Reinhardt Seminary for acting instruction and began his professional work in 1948. Musicals such as Liebe and Tanz und 1000 Schlager turned him into a domestic sensation, prompting a parallel move into pop crooning in 1951 that yielded numerous Austrian successes like "Mädchen Weine Nicht," "Das Wunder Bist Du," "Der Letzte Walzer," and "Komm und Bedien Dich." The "Count Bobby" comedy film series further heightened his profile in the 1960s, after which he introduced Die Peter Alexander Show in 1972; the program served as his main outlet until production ceased in 1995. Following the death of his wife Hilde in 2003, Alexander withdrew entirely from public life, abandoning performance and adopting a reclusive existence, though he endures as a lasting symbol for later Austrian generations.