Walter Riml (September 23, 1905 – June 21, 1994) was an Austrian

cameraman A camera operator, or depending on the context cameraman or camerawoman, is a professional operator of a film camera or video camera as part of a film crew. The term "cameraman" does not imply that a male is performing the task. In filmmaki ...

and

actor An actor or actress is a person who portrays a character in a performance. The actor performs "in the flesh" in the traditional medium of the theatre or in modern media such as film, radio, and television. The analogous Greek term is (), lit ...

Life

Born in

Innsbruck Innsbruck (; bar, Innschbruck, label=Austro-Bavarian ) is the capital of Tyrol and the fifth-largest city in Austria. On the River Inn, at its junction with the Wipp Valley, which provides access to the Brenner Pass to the south, it had a p ...

, the 2.05 m tall Tyrolean at first was trained as a carpenter and an interior designer. As a passionate sportsman and skier he contacted the

Mountain film A mountain film is a film genre that focuses on mountaineering and especially the battle of human against nature. In addition to mere adventure, the protagonists who return from the mountain come back changed, usually gaining wisdom and enlighten ...

-pioneer

Arnold Fanck Arnold Fanck (6 March 1889 – 28 September 1974) was a German film director and pioneer of the mountain film genre. He is best known for the extraordinary alpine footage he captured in such films as '' The Holy Mountain'' (1926), '' The White He ...

who made a film in the Tyrolean area of Arlberg in 1927. Fanck engaged him as a grip for the silent movie '' The Great Leap'' where Walter Riml appeared also in some short scenes. Fanck loved the artistic and humorous side of Walter Riml's talents and so he played a major role in Fanck's famous film '' The White Ecstasy'' (1931). Together with other already famous actors like

Leni Riefenstahl Helene Bertha Amalie "Leni" Riefenstahl (; 22 August 1902 – 8 September 2003) was a German film director, photographer and actress known for her role in producing Nazi propaganda. A talented swimmer and an artist, Riefenstahl also became in ...

, Hannes Schneider, Rudi Matt,

Gustav Diessl Gustav Diessl (30 December 1899 – 20 March 1948) was an Austrian artist, and film and stage actor. Biography Diessl was born Gustav Karl Balthasar Diessl in Vienna. In 1916, he was an extra on different stages in Vienna but was soon recruited ...

and the pilot

Ernst Udet Ernst Udet (26 April 1896 – 17 November 1941) was a German Reich, German pilot during World War I and a ''Luftwaffe'' Colonel-General (''Generaloberst'') during World War II. Udet joined the Deutsche Luftstreitkräfte, Imperial German Ai ...

Walter Riml played also in ''

Abenteuer im Engadin ''Abenteuer'' (English: "Adventure") is the thirteenth studio album by German schlager singer Andrea Berg. It was released on 30 September 2011 in Germany and soon after in Austria and Switzerland. It marks Berg's second collaboration with Diet ...

'' or '' S.O.S. Eisberg'' and showed his further talent for the film business in '' The White Ecstasy''. Walter Riml played the tall carpenter "Fietje" from Hamburg together with his petite carpenter-partner "Tietje" Guzzi Lantschner, both in the traditional black carpenter costumes. Their ski acrobatic scenes became legendary until today. This film is also a favourite film for today's snowboarding generation because of the fabulous ski jumps. Another film with these two comedians was '' North Pole, Ahoy'' filmed in Greenland, directed by

Andrew Marton Andrew Marton (born Endre Marton; 26 January 1904 – 7 January 1992) was a Hungarian-American film director. In his career, he directed 39 films and television programs, and worked on 16 as a second unit director, including the chariot race in ...

, produced by Universal Films. This film was a parodistic story in connection with '' S.O.S. Eisberg''. Walter Riml was interested in becoming a professional cameraman and very soon into his career he got his visual education from two famous cameramen

Hans Schneeberger Hans Schneeberger (7 April 1895 – 19 November 1971) was an Austrian cinematographer who worked on over eighty films during his career. During the 1920s and early 1930s Schneeberger worked frequently with the director Arnold Fanck, including film ...

and

Richard Angst Richard Angst (23 July 1905 – 24 July 1984) was a Swiss cinematographer who worked on more than ninety films during his career, most of them in Germany. Angst emerged as a leading photographer of mountain films during the silent era. He often wo ...

. Because of his visual talents

committed to him as her still-photographer and as a second cameraman for her first movie '' Das blaue Licht'' (''The Blue Light''). The most famous photos of Leni Riefenstahl as the witch "Junta" from this film were shot by Walter Riml. This fact she mentioned in her book "Im Kampf in Schnee und Eis". Walter Riml became a great cameraman and expert for mountain films. Therefore,

Luis Trenker Luis Trenker (born Alois Franz Trenker, 4 October 1892 – 13 April 1990) was a South Tyrolean film producer, director, writer, actor, architect, alpinist, and bobsledder. Biography Early life Alois Franz Trenker was born on 4 October 1892 in ...

engaged him several times. In the 30es, Walter Riml filmed in

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the n ...

'' Die Tochter des Samurai'' (1936) together with Arnold Fanck. Because of a bomb attack in 1944 in Berlin he lost his archive with more than 30,000 negatives from his travels and works in Japan and

Greenland Greenland ( kl, Kalaallit Nunaat, ; da, Grønland, ) is an island country in North America that is part of the Kingdom of Denmark. It is located between the Arctic and Atlantic oceans, east of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. Greenland ...

. Therefore, planned film projects together with the American film producer Paul Kohner could not be realised any more. After the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...

he was a cameraman for the

US Army The United States Army (USA) is the land service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army of the United States in the U.S. Constitution.Article II, section 2, cla ...

. In 1957 he was one of the four western cameramen who were allowed to make a film about the daily life in

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...

. Riml also worked on different TV productions. Until the mid-1960s Walter Riml made a lot of the typical and famous mountain films and films with regional background. One of them is the famous film ''

Two Times Lotte ''Two Times Lotte'' (german: Das doppelte Lottchen) is a 1950 West German film, directed by Josef von Báky and starring Antje Weisgerber, Peter Mosbacher, Jutta Günther and Isa Günther.Davidson & Hake p. 237 Based on a 1949 novel ''Lisa and L ...

'' based on the book by Erich Kästner. In 1962 the American director

John Sturges John Eliot Sturges (; January 3, 1910 – August 18, 1992) was an American film director. His films include ''Bad Day at Black Rock'' (1955), '' Gunfight at the O.K. Corral'' (1957), '' The Magnificent Seven'' (1960), '' The Great Escape'' (19 ...

engaged him as a second cameraman for his film '' The Great Escape'' with stars like Steve McQueen, Richard Attenborough and Charles Bronson. As a specialist for films in snow atmosphere he filmed scenes in the

James Bond The ''James Bond'' series focuses on a fictional British Secret Service agent created in 1953 by writer Ian Fleming, who featured him in twelve novels and two short-story collections. Since Fleming's death in 1964, eight other authors have ...

film '' On Her Majesty's Secret Service'' in 1969. His last filmwork was in 1970, a documentary for US television about the film ''

The Last Valley The Last Valley may refer to: * ''The Last Valley'' (novel), an historical novel about the Thirty Years' War ** ''The Last Valley'' (film), a 1971 film adaptation of the novel directed by James Clavell {{DEFAULTSORT:Last Valley, The ...

'' with

Michael Caine Sir Michael Caine (born Maurice Joseph Micklewhite; 14 March 1933) is an English actor. Known for his distinctive Cockney accent, he has appeared in more than 160 films in a career spanning seven decades, and is considered a British film ico ...

and Omar Sharif. Walter Riml died at the age of 89 in the year 1994 in

Steinach am Brenner Steinach am Brenner is a market town in the district of Innsbruck-Land in the Austrian state of Tyrol located south of Innsbruck in the Wipptal at the Sill River. Geography Steinach am Brenner is located in Wipptal, along the Sill River Valley at ...

. In his long life he worked on more than 100 film productions and documentaries worldwide.

List of films

Actor

Cameraman

Literature

* ''Gesprengte Ketten: The Great Escape, Behind the Scenes'', Photographs of cameraman Walter Riml, Editor Helma Türk & Christian Riml, House Publishing 2013, English/Germa

References

External links

Homepage of Walter Riml

Info about the shooting of ''TGE'' and the Photo Book ''The Great Escape''
*
Biography with Photo
{{DEFAULTSORT:Riml, Walter 1905 births 1994 deaths Austrian male film actors Austrian photographers Actors from Innsbruck Austrian cinematographers 20th-century Austrian male actors Film people from Innsbruck