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Renowned German actor of stage and screen, celebrated for his deep, resonant voice and refined demeanor. The son of an architect, Schoenfelder trained at the Prussian State Theatre in Berlin under Gustaf Gründgens and made his stage debut in 1936. His acting career was paused due to military service during the war, including a year as a prisoner of war until his release in 1946. Over the next fifteen years, he appeared in numerous German theatres, frequently portraying the role of a charming bon vivant. His warm voice, elegant presence, and prematurely gray hair reinforced his frequent casting as sophisticated gentlemen in musicals and boulevard comedies.
Beginning his film career in 1949 with leading roles, Schoenfelder transitioned in the 1960s to television, where he commonly played notable secondary characters such as kindly aristocrats, judges, professors, and diplomats. He also gained popularity as a voice-over artist, dubbing English and American actors like Alec Guinness, Henry Fonda, Vincent Price, and Peter Cushing. Additionally, he provided the German narration for well-known nature documentaries, including "Wild Kingdom" (1963), voicing Marlin Perkins. On stage, his career spanned over seventy years, encompassing German-language Shakespeare productions—often in noble roles—as well as comedies like 'Pension Schoeller' and 'Harvey'. From 1961 onward, he performed more than 1,200 times in 'My Fair Lady' at Berlin's Theater des Westens, initially as Colonel Pickering and later as Professor Higgins. A passionate and enduring actor, Schoenfelder's final stage appearance came at age 91 in David Mamet's 'November' at Berlin's Renaissance Theater.
