Heinz Erhardt

Heinz Erhardt was born on Feb 20, 1909 in Russian Empire [now Latvia]. Heinz Erhardt's big-screen debut came with Widower with 5 Daughters directed by Erich Engels in 1957, strarring Friedrich Scherzer.

The multi-talented comedian, pianist, singer and home-spun poet Heinz Erhardt was born in Riga, the son of a successful bandmaster. After his parents split up, he had a somewhat unsettled upbringing, spent, alternately, with his mother in St. Petersburg, with his grandparents in Riga and with his father in Hannover. Forced to change school some fifteen times, he eventually completed his education -- though failing to matriculate -- and commenced musical studies at the Leipzig Conservatory under the distinguished concert pianist and educator Professor Robert Teichmüller. He then had a stint as a piano salesman, but soon put his talents to better use 'tickling the ivories' and performing as a cabaret artist and stand-up comic in cafés and on radio in Danzig. He made his proper stage debut at the Riga Schauspielhaus in 1932 in a play, for which he had also composed the music. Then followed several years of financial hardship supporting his new family, a wife and four children. However, in 1938 he was invited by the actor and emcee