Froboess, Cornelia

(1943- )

   Actress. Froboess has the remarkable distinction of remaining a highly successful "provincial" actress, one who has remained in Munich for her entire career—a career that began when she was just five. As a child star in the 1950s, Froboess became a much-loved favorite on radio and television shows. In the late 1950s she became a bona fide teen idol with several hits to her credit on the German pop music charts, with songs by Paul Anka particularly successful in her renditions of them. Along with her singing career came several film roles, and between 1958 and 1963 she made more than 20 movies. By 1964 she had begun a serious study of theater in private lessons; in 1971 she became a fulltime member of the Munich Kammerspiele company, and there she established herself in numerous productions, many of which were invited to the Berliner Theatertreffen. Her most notable performances came in productions by Dieter Dorn, who cast her as the leads for Erdgeist (Earth Spirit) and Büchse der Pandora (Pandora's Box) by Frank Wedekind, Minna von Barnhelm by Gotthold Ephraim Lessing, Gross und Klein (Big and Small) by Botho Strauss, among many others. Froboess also combined her acting and singing talents in Lerner and Loewe's musical My Fair Lady in Munich, which ran for 10 years at Munich's Gärtnerplatz Theater.