Alexander Girardi Bio/Wiki, Net Worth, Married 2018
Alexander Girardi was born on December 5, 1850 in Graz, Styria Austria-Hungary. He was an actor and writer, known for Der Millionenonkel (1913), The Tinker (1926) and Wann der Auerhahn balzt (1911). He was married to Helene Odilon. He died on April 20, 1918 in Vienna, Austria-Hungary.
He was not only an Austrian actor but also tenor singer in operettas.
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The dish Girardirostbraten (Girardi roast beef) is named after him - a beef dish heavily covered with bacon and button mushrooms.
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The next years Alexander Girardi became one of the leading stage actors who also was brilliant in musical plays.
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Girardi was unhappily married to actress Helene Odilon. Odilon had many affairs and had Girardi committed to a mental asylum (based on a certificate by Julius Wagner-Jauregg, who had not seen Girardi). Odilon and Girardi divorced in 1896.
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Giradi's life was the subject of the 1954 film Der Komödiant von Wien.
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Girardi's staple stage role was the comic. He worked in the tradition of Ferdinand Raimund and Johann Nestroy, and he made a significant contribution to the popular Vienna operetta.
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The actress Katharina Schratt persuaded Emperor Franz Joseph to release Girardi from the mental asylum where his wife had put him in.
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Girardi was born in Graz; his father was the locksmith Andreas Girardi who had migrated to Graz from Cortina d'Ampezzo.
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Girardi created the roles of Blasoni in Johann Strauss's Cagliostro in Wien (1875), Andredl in Karl Millöcker's Das verwunschene Schloss (1878), Jan Janicki in Millöcker's Der Bettelstudent (1882), Benozzo in Millöcker's Gasparone (1884), Kálmán Zsupán in Strauss's The Gypsy Baron (1885), Adam in Carl Zeller's Der Vogelhändler (1891), the title role in Edmund Eysler's Bruder Straubinger (1903), and Pali Rácz in Emmerich Kálmán's Der Zigeunerprimas (1912).
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He contributed greatly to the Golden Age of Vienna operetta.
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Following the early death of his father, Alexander Girardi was raised by his stepfather who put him into a locksmith apprenticeship. Against his stepfather's wishes, he joined the amateur theatre Die Tonhalle, where his acting talent was discovered.
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His favorite hat style, a straw hat with flat crown and brim (a boater), became popular as the Giradi Hat.
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They quickly recognized the acting ability of Alexander Girardi and in 1871 he already was engaged by the Viennese Strampfer-Theater.
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At the beginning of World War I Girardi retired from the stage and returned to Graz. Two months before his death in 1918, he was called to the Burgtheater in Vienna to play the role of Fortunatus Wurzel in Ferdinand Raimunds's Der Bauer als Millionär.
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He continued his triumphant success and he appeared among others at the Theater an der Wien and at the Deutsches Volkstheater Wien. Engagements in Berlin and Hamburg followed.
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Because of his huge popularity his acting abilities were banned on celluloid for the first time with "Fiakerlied" (1908).
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The actor Alexander Girardi first made an apprenticeship as a metalworker before he decided to become an actor. He soon made his stage debut with a lay group.
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One of his most renowned roles was Valentin in Ferdinand Raimund's Der Verschwender, particularly his rendition of the "Hobellied", the most famous number of the stage music by Conradin Kreutzer.
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The Alexander Girardi International Singing Competition in Coburg is named after him.
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In 1874 Girardi moved to the Theater an der Wien, where he continued to work for 22 years. In 1896/97 he worked at the Carltheater and then two years at the Volkstheater in Vienna. He also had guest appearances at other important theatres in Vienna and toured Germany (Berlin, Hamburg, Dresden).
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There is a street named for him in his birth town, Graz.
$18 Million