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Peter Simonischek, the Austrian actor who rose to international prominence late in life through Oscar-nominated feature Toni Erdmann, has died. He was 76.

He passed away surrounded by family in Vienna, according to a statement released by Austria’s national theater, the Burgtheater. No cause of death was given.

Simonischek was a well-known actor in the German-speaking world and performed at the Salzburg Festival. He played the title role in Austrian play Jedermann several times, appeared in TV movies such as Years of Love and features such as Franz Seitz Jr.’s Success.

He joined the Burgtheater in 1999, according to the institution, and was made an honorary member in 2019.

However, it was in 2016 when he played ageing prankster Winifred Conradi in the Austrian film Toni Erdmann that he gained international popularity. The film premiered at the Cannes Film Festival to widespread critical acclaim and was nominated for Best Foreign Language Film at the 89th Oscars,...

Günter Grass with David Bennent and Volker Schlöndorff on the set of The Tin Drum

Günter Grass, honored in 1999 with the Nobel Prize for Literature, died at the age of 87 today, April 13. Volker Schlöndorff directed The Tin Drum (Die Blechtrommel), based on Grass’s first novel and worked on the screenplay with Jean-Claude Carrière and Franz Seitz. Grass contributed additional dialogue. The film premiered at Cannes in 1979, winning the Palme d'Or in a tie with Francis Ford Coppola's Apocalypse Now and the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film in 1980. Last year in New York at Lincoln Center, Volker and I discussed his adaptations, from The Tin Drum to Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman and Cyril Gély's play Diplomatie (Diplomacy).

Peeling the onion signed by Günter Grass - June 2007 Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze

When Günter Grass came to New York in June 2007, I had the chance to discuss...

Our 2014 Honorary Oscar tribute series continues with a two-part look at the long fascinating career of Jean-Claude Carrière. Here's Tim with Part Two.

Yesterday, Amir did a wonderful job of introducing us to the supremely gifted and abnormally prolific Jean-Claude Carrière, focusing on his iconic collaboration with Luis Buñuel. As important as that work was for both men, it tells only a fraction of the tale. With nearly a hundred screenplays to his credit in a career that’s still holding steady, 54 years on, it’s simply not possible to reduce the full scope of Carrière’s contribution to cinema to his work just one collaborator.

And so we now turn to Carrière's writing in the years following Buñuel’s death. Given the transgressive, ultra-modern nature of their films together, it’s perhaps a bit surprising that Carrière’s output from the ‘80s to the present would be dominated by...

COLOGNE, Germany -- Franz Seitz, the German writer and producer of the Oscar and Palme d'Or winner The Tin Drum, has died. He was 85. Seitz passed away Jan. 19 at his home in Munich, but his death was only made public by his son Tuesday. In his career, which spanned 40 years, Seitz -- known as "Buba" to distinguish him from his father, director Franz Seitz -- produced more than 40 feature films. They included two adaptations of novels by German Nobel Prize winner Thomas Mann: Doctor Faustus, which he also wrote and directed, and The Magic Mountain (both in 1982).

COLOGNE, Germany -- Franz Seitz, the German director, writer and producer of the Oscar and Palme d'Or winner The Tin Drum, has died. He was 85. Seitz passed away Jan. 19 at his home in Munich, but his death was only made public by his son Tuesday. In his career, which spanned 40 years, Seitz -- known as "Buba" to distinguish him from his father, director Franz Seitz -- produced more than 40 feature films. They included two adaptations of novels by German Nobel Prize winner Thomas Mann: Doctor Faustus, which he also wrote and directed, and The Magic Mountain (both in 1982).