Mourning the loss of a TV legend

“Sesame Street” star Horst Janson is dead

Horst Janson with Bert, Ernie, and Grover from "Sesame Street"(Bild: Eventpress Herrmann / dpa Picture Alliance)

Whether as "Bastian," in "Salto Mortale," or as a friend of Tiffy and Samson on "Sesame Street," Horst Janson captivated audiences in high-rating television shows in the 1970s and 1980s. He has now passed away at the age of 89. 

The actor had been struggling with health problems over the past year. In the summer of 2024, it was reported that he had been hospitalized after falling down the stairs. Janson lived in Grünwald near Munich with his second wife, Hella, to whom he had been married for more than 40 years.

Born in Mainz, he played his first role as a schoolboy in a Grillparzer play. He later took acting lessons in Wiesbaden and continued to perform on the theater stage. His first film role followed in 1959 in "Die Buddenbrooks," and from then on, one engagement followed another.

Millions of viewers
He became known to millions of viewers as Sascha in the circus series "Salto Mortale," in which he starred from 1969 to 1972. Children admired and envied him in the early 1980s because he was allowed to live with Tiffy and Samson on "Sesame Street." Whether "Forsthaus Falkenau," "Immenhof," "Ein Fall für zwei," "Tatort," or Rosamunde Pilcher romances—there was hardly a television series in which Janson did not appear. In 2005 and 2006, the passionate hobby sailor stood in front of the camera as captain for the TV series "Unter weißen Segeln" (Under White Sails).

Hollywood
Janson was also engaged internationally. In the 1970s, he starred alongside Hollywood stars such as Tony Curtis, Peter O'Toole, Richard Burton, and Charles Bronson. Who can claim to have been "stabbed by Roger Moore in Malta?" he wrote in his book about this eventful time. In addition, it had always been important to him to perform in theater, Janson says. His favorite play: "The Old Man and the Sea," based on the novella by Ernest Hemingway. He also appeared in the Karl May Festival in Bad Segeberg.