Rufus Beck

Rufus Beck is the only child of a businessowning couple Because his parents traveled extensively abroad he lived in the boarding school of the Odenwald School After graduating from high school in 1976 and completing his civilian service Beck studied Islamic Studies Ethnology and Philosophy at the University of Heidelberg but later dropped out From 1976 onward he appeared as a musician and acting student at the Heidelberg Municipal Theatre The following year he was a guest performer at the Saarland State Theatre followed by engagements at the Tübingen State Theatre the Frankfurt Theatre the Cologne Theatre the Bavarian State Theatre the Munich Kammerspiele and the Berliner Ensemble He later also appeared as a guest performer at the Berlin Renaissance Theatre 2006 the Stuttgart State Theatre 2010 and the Hamburg Kammerspiele 2014 In 1989 Beck was named Young Actor of the Year by the magazine Theater heute Also in 1989 he received the Young Actor Award from the Friends of the Bavarian State Theatre In 1990 he toured the Soviet Union with Friedrich Schillers The Robbers performing in Moscow Irkutsk and AlmaAta He toured South America in 1991 with GE Lessings Miss Sara Sampson In 1994 he toured Germany with Peter Maffays Tabaluga Becks breakthrough in film came in 1994 with Sönke Wortmanns The Most Desired Man for which he received a Bambi Award for his role as Waltraut In 1999 he was nominated for the German Film Award for Jimmy the Kid He has appeared in more than 70 television and 14 feature films as of 2018 In the childrens film The Wild Soccer Bunch 2003 he played the role of Coach Willi He reprised this role in The Wild Soccer Bunch The Legend Lives 2016 Rufus Beck is the narrator and producer of more than 200 audiobooks including the Harry Potter novels He gives each of the many characters a distinct voice employing various dialects and accents His audiobooks have received numerous awards During the 2006 and 2007 festival seasons Beck played Mephisto in Goethes Faust at the Bad Hersfeld Festival Under the artistic direction of Dieter Wedel he played Joseph Süß Oppenheimer in Jehoschua Sobols The Story of Joseph Süß Oppenheimer Called Jud Süß at the 2011 Worms Nibelungen Festival In 2004 he directed the dance spectacular for the world tour of Night of the Sultans Pandoras Legend in Istanbul In 2003 2012 and 2016 he was responsible for directing writing and playing the magician and the beetle in the musical Tabaluga Rufus Beck wrote several stage adaptations for his own shows In 2006 he published the anthology Stories for Us Children His nonfiction book Children Love Fairy Tales and Discover Values was published in 2007 He appeared with his son Jonathan Beck in the film The Wild Soccer Bunch and toured with him in 201415 with the play Zorn Jonathan Beck also played the role of 0815 in his fathers Tabaluga productions in 2012 and 2016 and was also his assistant director Since 2018 he has starred in the television series DeutschLesLandes His daughters Sarah Beck and Natalie Spinell also work as actors Rufus Beck lives in Munich