Dirch Hartvig Passer (18 May 1926 â€" 3 September 1980) was a
celebrated Danish actor. He was greatly renowned for his
improvisational skills and, with a filmography comprising 90 movies,
one of Denmark's most prolific actors. His life is depicted in the
Danish semi-biographical film A Funny Man (2011, Danish title Dirch)
directed by Martin Zandvliet.When he was young, Passer was very shy,
but had an ambition to become an actor. Instead, he conformed to his
father's wishes by attending the J. Lauritzen sea training school near
Svendborg in 1944. But since he had persistent problems with
seasickness, he later attended the drama school De frederiksbergske
teatres Elevskole.During the 1950s he formed a duo with his colleague
and friend Kjeld Petersen. Their revue sketches, based upon the
contrast between Petersen’s mixture of joviality and desperate anger
and Passer’s deadpan responses, are still considered classics by the
public. The sudden death of Kjeld Petersen in 1962 led Passer to avoid
revues for five years, but he built up an individual reputation and in
1967 he returned to the revue gaining new victories. Many thin jokes
in the scripts were greatly improved by his performance. In
particular, his many amiable eccentrics and "nature experts" together
with his sketch roles as a baby and as a nonsense "Russian"-speaking
clown made him famous. From his later years must be mentioned an
almost silent sketch in which he portrays a man’s vain attempt to
stop smoking (also shown in West German TV). It was told that he could
speak any language, however he wouldn't understand any of it, which
was one of his good qualities.
celebrated Danish actor. He was greatly renowned for his
improvisational skills and, with a filmography comprising 90 movies,
one of Denmark's most prolific actors. His life is depicted in the
Danish semi-biographical film A Funny Man (2011, Danish title Dirch)
directed by Martin Zandvliet.When he was young, Passer was very shy,
but had an ambition to become an actor. Instead, he conformed to his
father's wishes by attending the J. Lauritzen sea training school near
Svendborg in 1944. But since he had persistent problems with
seasickness, he later attended the drama school De frederiksbergske
teatres Elevskole.During the 1950s he formed a duo with his colleague
and friend Kjeld Petersen. Their revue sketches, based upon the
contrast between Petersen’s mixture of joviality and desperate anger
and Passer’s deadpan responses, are still considered classics by the
public. The sudden death of Kjeld Petersen in 1962 led Passer to avoid
revues for five years, but he built up an individual reputation and in
1967 he returned to the revue gaining new victories. Many thin jokes
in the scripts were greatly improved by his performance. In
particular, his many amiable eccentrics and "nature experts" together
with his sketch roles as a baby and as a nonsense "Russian"-speaking
clown made him famous. From his later years must be mentioned an
almost silent sketch in which he portrays a man’s vain attempt to
stop smoking (also shown in West German TV). It was told that he could
speak any language, however he wouldn't understand any of it, which
was one of his good qualities.
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