Death of Helmut Berger, Austrian actor icon of Luchino Visconti

Of magnetic beauty, he had played Ludwig II of Bavaria in the film "Ludwig or the Twilight of the Gods" by Italian director Luchino Visconti. Austrian actor Helmut Berger died Thursday in Austria at the age of 78, according to his agency.

While he was a film extra in Rome, Helmut Berger was discovered by the director Luchino Visconti, whose last lover he became. In 1966, the Italian director gave for the first time a small role to the then 22-year-old actor before entrusting him with more important, more disturbing roles as in "The Damned" released in 1969, alongside the British Dirk Bogarde.

The feature film tells the story of the rise and fall of members of one of the families that owned Germany's largest steel mills during the rise of Nazism. Ludwig will follow with Romy Schneider. Luchino Visconti said: "He is perfect. And since adolescence he has had these same sweet hysterisms, an identical melancholy, more desperate as he gets older... ", as the Cinémathèque reminds us in paying tribute to him.

"He's perfect. And since adolescence he has had these same sweet hysterisms, an identical melancholy, more desperate as he gets older...
(Luchino Visconti)

Helmut Berger, 1944-2023 pic.twitter.com/ZMJmaz4QyW

— La Cinémathèque (@cinemathequefr) May 18, 2023

In 1974, in "Violence and Passion", with Burt Lancaster, he is the gigolo of Anna Magnani. With the death of his mentor in 1976, his career declined. In the years that followed, Helmut Berger drew more and more on his past, making a name for himself more with appearances on talk shows than with his acting performances, according to Der Spiegel.

VIDEO. The trailer of "Violence and Passion", by Visconti

His agency's website now states: "Many years ago, Helmut Berger told me: 'I have lived three lives. And in 4 languages! I don't regret anything! » ».