Keystone-SDA
This content was published on
11 October 2024 – 09:00
(Keystone-SDA) When asked about a wish for her 95th birthday, Liselotte “Lilo” Pulver recently said in an interview: “What I want most is health” – and then followed up with a mischievous laugh: “and a million”.
Lilo Powder is fine. That is probably the most important message from the “Glückspost” conversation with the Bernese actress. She doesn’t have any significant problems and wants to live to be over a hundred years old. She reported on a disciplined, structured everyday life: getting up at 7:30 a.m., daily gymnastics, walking, entertainment and getting a good night’s sleep. Lilo Pulver has lived in a retirement home in Bern for a long time.
Distinctive laugh
The fame of the blonde actress with the distinctive laugh, which went down in film history, was based on the role of Vreneli in the Gotthelf film adaptations “Uli the Knecht” (1954) and “Uli the Tenant” (1955) by Franz Schnyder. The works suddenly made her a sought-after actress.
In German comedies such as “The Wirtshaus im Spessart” (1958) or the love story “I often think of Piroschka” (1955), Pulver became one of the most popular actresses in German-speaking countries with her often cheeky, cheerful, tomboyish roles in the style of Audrey Hepburn .
International offers also didn’t take long to arrive. Pulver’s important successes include the comedy “One, Two, Three”, in which she played a supporting role in 1961 directed by Billy Wilder, as well as a leading role in the Remarque film adaptation “A Time to Love and a Time to Die” ( 1958).
However, Lilo Pulver was denied the final leap to Hollywood. Engagements in major films failed twice due to contractual details, as Pulver said in an interview in 2009. The then 80-year-old admitted that this still annoys her “incredibly” today.
The prize round came late
Early on, in the 1970s, the actress slowly withdrew from the public eye. She hosted the children’s program “Sesame Street” on television and made a few films until she appeared in front of the camera for the last time in 2007 in the television remake of “The Zurich Engagement”.
Germany honored Pulver with numerous awards long before Switzerland, including several Bambis, the Bavarian Film Prize and the Golden Camera.
The series of awards in the neighboring country ultimately also triggered awards in the actress’ homeland: in 2005, the Armin Ziegler Foundation honored her, in 2008 she received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Swiss Television Awards, and in 2011 she also received an award for her life’s work at the SwissAwards .
Strokes of fate
Before the engineer’s daughter Liselotte found her way into the limelight, she completed business school in Bern. After her first steps in show business as a model, she trained as an actress at the University of the Arts in Bern at the end of the 1940s. Her first engagements took her to the Bern City Theater and the Schauspielhaus Zurich.
Acting brought Lilo Pulver not only great fame, but also great love: while filming the film “Gustav Adolfs Page”, she met the German actor Helmut Schmid, the two fell in love, got married and became parents of two children.
In 1989, when Pulver had largely retired from the film business, her daughter took her own life at the age of 21. Just three years later, her husband died of a heart attack.
Despite these tragedies, Pulver told the Bund in 2009 that she was “spoiled by fate” and had “a lot of luck” in her life.
Recently she even dreamed about a new man again in the “Glückspost”. “Hope dies last – he should be beautiful, rich and funny,” the magazine quoted Pulver as saying. This was followed by a loud laugh.
