German actor Rolf Schimpf, 100, died on March 22. When I see a German born in 1924, of course I go “hmmmm,” and looking up his war service, I see that Schimpf was in the Sturmartillerie, which “were intended to support infantry attacks and act as mobile anti-tank artillery.” Rolf was the son of naval officer Hans Schimpf, who died in 1935, but still manged to be a Nazi member and pal of Hermann Göring—still, we cannot be blamed for the actions of our parents (thank goodness!) and I am going to assume that Rolf was drafted into the Army against his will, as many Germans were. As for his acting career, he was best known for Der Alte (aka The Old Fox), a crime series in which he played Chief Inspector Leo Kress from 1986-2007. He also acted in the theater, and from 1958 till 2007, he was ubiquitous on German film and TV screens. Schimpf was married to actress Ilse Zielstorff from 1968 till her death in 2015. In 2019 he told Bild, “I’ll be 95, you’re no longer a man in the best years. The knees don't do quite anymore. Listen: sometimes better, sometimes lousy. I am still fit in the brain. But you have to say: Becoming an old is not a sugar lick.”
