- Born
- Died
- Height5′ 7″ (1.70 m)
- Born and raised in Magdeburg (Germany), Frank Giering gained first
stage experience as a background actor at the former known
"Maxim-Gorki" theatre Magdeburg". During this time the desire arose to
become an actor even though he said at a later time, that this desire
was mainly animated due to his hunger to get visible and noticed
combined with the unrealistic belief to get more interesting for the
womankind.
Nevertheless he started his studies at the "Westfälischen
Schauspielschule Bochum" (Germany) but changed short time after to the
"Hochschule für Film und Fernsehen" (HFF) in Potsdam Babelsberg
(Germany). But again he felt quite uncomfortable with the education
methods. Some exercises led him to his physical and mental limits.
Furthermore he failed on his teacher's demands to "fill up the space of
the theatre". As he realized that he clenched more and more as soon as
he got instructions to "give more" or to become "louder" he decided to
break off.
His last public theatre performance before leaving the HFF Potsdam in
summer 1994 was the turning point. He gained the attention of an
assistant director, which gave him the possibility to attend a casting
for the television film
Der Verräter (1995), in
which he starred an instable young man searching for acceptance and
affection who got into the claws of a neo-Nazi gang.
Finally - in front of the film camera - he was able to live out his own
belief of acting which was the opposite of the requirements at school.
He loved to reduce and to express feelings solely by glances and a
minimum of gestures and facial expression. According to his teachers in
the theatre he was only able to catch the first row. But now he met the
facility - not to gain the last rows by broaden himself - but to bring
them closer using the camera. At last he felt like coming home.
With his first role he gained the attention of the Austrian director
Michael Haneke, who cast him for two of
his productions. After the Kafka adaption
The Castle (1997), Giering starred the
cine film Funny Games (1997). With
the figure of the sadistic murderer he became popular over night.
The final breakthrough followed 1999 with his performance as Floyd in
Gigantic (1999) by
Sebastian Schipper, a small but
particular film about friendship, longing and farewell and a very last
but magic night in Hamburg. For a short time he was announced as one of
the promising up-and-coming actors of Germany. Comparisons were drawn
with James Dean, much less due to
similarities in visual nature but due to an aura of "lostness" and
lonesomeness which both actors surrounded.
Giering felt quite overstrained to live up this expectation. He
described himself as extremely shy and uncertain, full of feelings of
inferiority and melancholia. Only in front of the camera he felt really
free and secure. Aside of the camera he suffered from fear of loss and
anxiety about the future, which also led to the break of several
relationships. Actually he said once that he couldn't believe in being
loved by someone. Due to the fact that he never had faith in the skills
he owned but only in those he lacked.
His alcohol consumption - to compensate his uncertainties and the
emptiness between the films - raised more and more a problem. In 2001
he decided for a half-yearly rehab. In the following he always stood by
his struggle against alcoholism (and his very own demons) in a quite
public way, also to give impulses and courage for people in the same
situation, something he sadly missed in his own setting.
Giering attended twice at the film festival Berlinale (Berlin,
Germany), 2002 starring Andreas Baader in
Baader (2002), 2004 with the Jon Fosse
adaption
Die Nacht singt ihre Lieder (2004).
Both films were failed by the bigger part of the press and leads to
controversial discussions.
Especially the production of "Die Nacht singt ihre Lieder" (about the
shattering of a love affair and the cruelty of silence in occasions
something rather should have been said) was a matter close to his heart
due to some parallels in his own vita. After this negative experience
Giering mainly gave up the cinema business and focused on television
productions. In his opinion he was much less attackable on the smaller
screen.
From 2006 until his death in June 2010 Giering played - next to
Christian Berkel - the role of
"Kommissar Henry Weber" in the TV series
Der Kriminalist (2006). After
his sudden death during the current production, the figure of Henry
Weber died, too. For paying deep respect and sympathy the production
company decided not to impute a fictional ending. For that reason
episode 7.3 "Tod eines Begleiters" opened with the funeral of Henry
Weber.
In many obituaries was read - due to the quantity and deficient
diligence by selecting his roles - Giering undersold himself and burned
out by less important featured parts. Indeed he seemed not to care
about what he was acting as long as he was acting and able to forget
his fears and lonesomeness for just that moment.
Just as many times it was mentioned that scarcely anybody else in
Germany was able to act with such an intensity and depth. Due to the
fact that he never ever played (simulate) emotions but lived it in the
moment of acting he offered much more of himself than usual and allowed
the audience to get adamantly close to him. That and the fact that
hardly anyone else ever radiated such a sadness and lonesomeness might
be the reason that he was able to deeply move even in his least roles.
Frank Giering died on 23th of June 2010. The official cause of dead is
given by multiple organ failure due to an acute bilious colic. On 9th
of July 2010 he was buried at the "Neustädter Friedhof" in Magdeburg
(Germany).- IMDb Mini Biography By: rose4630
- At first, his cause of death was given as heart failure, then it was believed he died of alcohol poisoning until it was revealed by his father that a bilious attack was what led to his death.
- Went to rehab in 2001 because of alcohol addiction.
- Studied acting at the Potsdam School of Film and Television.
- Lived with his mother until the age of 29 in Magdeburg. Then he moved to Berlin.
- [February 2010] I would just about manage to open a laptop. And this I would only be able to do because I saw it on TV. Twitter, Blackberry, iPhone - all of that is foreign to me. I don't have a driver's license either, I am a fossil, or a persistent GDR relic. Or I was [cryonically] frozen in 1956 and only got unfrozen again in 1971. Maybe that's why I am so old-fashioned and withdrawn.
- Often, I stare at the telephone all day long and wonder why nobody is calling me.
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