Dieter Franke was born October 13, 1934, in Hartau (now Chemnitz-Hartau) as the son of a set decorator. His artistic career started at the theatre in Greiz where he gathered experience as an extra, as a stagehand, and as a property master. From 1954 to 1958, Dranke attended actor's training at Staatlichen Schauspielschule in Berlin, before he became a cast member of Städtisches Theater in Karl-Marx-Stadt.

Five years later, Franke already moved back to Berlin. He stayed at Freie Volksbühne for one year, before he went to Deutsches Theater in 1964 where he became a firmly estabished member of the ensemble and celebrated his greatest stage successes. With his acting performances as Mephisto in Goethe's "Faust", Charlemagne in "Der Drache" ("The Dragon") by Evgeny Shvarts, or as Judge Adam in Kleist's "Der Zerbrochne Krug" ("The Broken Jug"), Franke thrilled theatre goers and critics alike.

Franke also starred in DEFA and GDR television productions and made convincing appearances in quite a number of film and TV productions, for instance as ambulance driver Adam Kowalski in "Mein lieber Robinson" ("My Friend Robinson", 1971), as friendly devil in "Wer reißt denn gleich vor"m Teufel aus" ("The Devil's Three Golden Hairs", 1977), or as brigadier Kotbuß in "Dach überm Kopf" (1980). In "Camping, Camping" (1976), Franke played a stressed out husband who escapes the perfect idyll of his family vacation. During his whole career, Franke made convincing performances in contemporary movies as well as in children"s and fairy tale films.

In 1982, Franke had to leave the shooting for the DEFA film "Automärchen" (1982), directed by Erwin Stranka because he was already suffering from a severe illness for a long time. Kurt Böwe then took over the leading role of the garage owner Sengebusch. On October 23, 1982, Dieter Franke died in Berlin at the age of 48.

The contents of this entry were funded with the support of the DEFA-Stiftung.