Helmut Bergertrue icon of European cinema of the 60s and 70s, e architect of the breaking of sexual taboos of that time, died this Thursday May 18 in Salzburg a few days before his 79th birthday. The Austrian was discovered as an actor by the legendary Italian director Luchino Visconti, with whom he has been in love for years.
Helmut Berger’s life was marked by great cinematic successes, followed by scandals and depressions, especially after the death of Luchino Visconti in 1976.
Born into a wealthy hotelier family in the Salzburg region of Austria, Berger learned English, French and Italian during study stays in Paris, Geneva, London and Italy.
His relationship with Visconti
In 1964, at the age of 20, he met Visconti, who was 38 years older than the then young Berger, who dreamed of being an actor.
Actor of great beauty and temperament, he had a meteoric career and starred in films considered anthological, especially by Visconti.
His first big hit has arrived The fall of the Gods (1969), directed by his mentor Visconti, for which Berger was nominated for a Golden Globe.
It was followed by successes in films such as The Picture of Dorian Gray (1970), The Finzi-Contini garden (1970) or Louis (1972).
In Ash Wednesday (1973) Berger appeared on the big screen alongside such Hollywood legends as Elizabeth Taylor and Enrico Fonda.
The most attractive man in the world
At that time, the magazine Vogue claimed that Helmut Berger was the most attractive man in the world.
The actor personified the breaking of sexual taboos in European cinema and he became particularly known for his portrayals of narcissistic and bisexual characters.
In his autobiography, published in 1998, the actor he claims to have had sex with dozens of celebrities of the timesuch as Rudolf Nureyev, Britt Ekland, Ursula Andress, Nathalie Delon, Linda Blair, Jerry Hall, Bianca and Mick Jagger.
After the death of Visconti, who was not only his mentor and lover but a sort of “surrogate father”, the actor fell into a deep crisis, with a suicide attemptexcesses of alcohol and a decadent lifestyle.
berger, what he has always described himself as bisexualhe went so far as to say that after Visconti he could no longer fall in love.
At that time she hardly appeared on the big screens, although she participated in nine episodes of the famous American soap opera Dynasty.
In 1990 he starred in the third installment of The Godfatherplaying the role of a corrupt banker.
Marriage and leaving the cinema
A few years later, in 1994, married the Italian actress Francesca Guidatoa marriage that lasted about 15 years.
Beginning in 2000, the actor stepped away from film and television to care for his elderly mother in Salzburg, who died in 2009.
Gay icon, the actor has received two awards (2008 and 2010) the Teddy Prize of the German Homosexual Collective.
After his mother’s death, Berger reappeared in public life, for example in 2013 when he entered a televised survival contest in the Australian bush.
In 2018, At the age of 74 he made his theater debutwhen he acted at the Berlin Volksbühne in a play in which he played a baron.
A year later, he announced that due to his delicate state of health, after suffering from several pneumonias, he was ending his acting career.
His agent, Helmut Werner, told local press today that Helmut Berger “lived to the end happy, satisfied and in good spirits in Salzburg”.
And he concluded with a quote from the deceased today: “I have lived three lives. And this in four languages. I regret nothing!”
Source: Clarin
