Was 82 years old

“Bella Block” star Hannelore Hoger has died

Mourning for Hannelore Hoger: The actress, who enjoyed great success as TV commissioner Bella Block, has died at the age of 82.(Bild: Christopher Tamcke / Action Press )

Hannelore Hoger is dead. The actress, who was best known as TV commissioner Bella Block, died on December 21 at the age of 82 in her native Hamburg. 

This was confirmed by her manager on behalf of her daughter Nina Hoger to the "Bild" newspaper. 

"The stars in the theater sky are mourning. Hannelore Hoger was the epitome of a great actress," Hoger's management quoted Hamburg's Senator for Culture and President of the German Theater Association, Carsten Brosda. "Whether in the theater, in film or on television - she knew how to completely transform herself into a character while always remaining present in the role. Her art was psychologically sensitive acting, her gift was a feel for a large audience, and her passion was unconditional freedom."

Celebrated success as TV commissioner Bella Block
Television audiences loved the actress above all for her role as TV detective Bella Block in the crime series of the same name, which was shown between 1994 and 2018. 

2018 was the last time Hannelore Hoger appeared on TV as Bella Block.(Bild: Georg Wendt / dpa )

She no longer missed her signature role, she told the German newspaper a few years ago. The role was over and had become too boring for her: "I was no longer allowed to have a boyfriend, smoke or even have a cigarette."

Fascinated by the theater
She got to know the world of acting at an early age because her father worked as a stage manager at the Ohnsorg Theater in the Hanseatic city. As early as 1958, Hoger began training at what is now the Hochschule für Musik und Theater. She found her first engagement in 1961 at the theater in Ulm.

With stops in Bremen, Stuttgart, Cologne, Berlin, Bochum and Hamburg, Hoger's career developed into one of the most important stage artists of the 1970s and 1980s. Her collaboration with the great directors Peter Zadek and Augusto Fernandes was particularly outstanding. To continue working on her acting skills, Hoger took lessons with the legendary Lee Strasberg in New York.

She was in permanent theater engagements for a total of 25 years. She also directed plays, such as Hebbel's civil tragedy "Maria Magdalena" in Darmstadt in 1986.

Cinema and television career
Hoger first appeared in the cinema in 1968. She frequently appeared in productions by Alexander Kluge, the important representative of New German Cinema ("Deutschland im Herbst", 1978).

Hoger showed her comedic talent in Helmut Dietl's chic glossy "Rossini" (1997), where she shone as a gossip reporter alongside colleagues such as Götz George and Mario Adorf. She had been on television since 1965 - in 1988, Hoger appeared alongside her daughter and colleague Nina Hoger in the Ralph Giordano multi-part "Die Bertinis".