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Gerhard Polt, born May 7, 1942, in Munich, grew up in the staunchly catholic city of Altötting. After finishing school, Polt studied political science, art history, and history. He then went to Sweden to study nordic languages. On his return to Munich, Polt started to work as a translator and interpreter. From 1976 on, Polt performed in several satirical shows. Then, in 1979, Polt became known to a larger audience with the ARD series "Fast wia im richtigen Leben" alongside his permanent stage partner, Gisela Schneeberger, and with several appearances in Dieter Hildebrandt's satirical TV show, "Scheibenwischer". In his sketches and scenes, Polt mainly portrays the narrow-minded conservative, full of resentment, yet congenially helpless, who tries to come up with simple truths in order to cope with his more and more complex surroundings.
In his first movie, "Kehraus" (1983), directed by Hanns Christian Müller, Polt also played one of those characters: the naive fork-lift driver Ferdinand Weitel has to overcome a veritable hell of Carnival to get rid of useless insurance policies, an insurance agent had talked him into. In his second, enormously successful, movie "Man spricht deutsh" (1988), again directed by Müller, Polt perfectly unveils the clichées of the Teutonic vacationer travelling in Southern Europe. In 1992, Polt directed his first movie, "Herr Ober!", and also played the leading part in this story about an amateur poet who unexpectedly becomes a star. Polt then did not do another movie until 2004. However, the Roman farce "Germanikus" did not go well with either critics nor the audience.
It took ten years until he starred again in a theatrical release: "Und Äktschn!", for which he also provided the screenplay, has him playing a small-town amateur filmmaker trying to best his biggest rival by shooting a box-office hit. The satire gets mostly favourable reviews from critics.
Gerhard Polt regularly performs with the Bavarian band "Biermösl Blosn" in musical revues, releases spoken-word albums and books and enjoys great success with his stage programmes. A multi-time award winner, he won the German Film Award and the Ernst Lubitsch Award for "Kehraus", and received the 2001 Jean-Paul-Award for his literary work. Moreover, he was the recipient of the 2006 Kasseler Literaturpreis, the 2007 Karl-Valentin-Preis, the 2010 Bayerischer Kabarettpreis and the 2012 Kulturpreis Bayern.
In 2016, Polt was awarded the culture prize of the municipality of Unterföhring, which is voted for by the audience. In 2017, he received the Honorary Award of the Bavarian Minister President at the Bavarian Television Award, and in 2019 the Honorary Cultural Award of the City of Munich. In 2021, he was awarded the Bavarian Order of Merit.
Despite these numerous lifetime achievement awards, Polt did not retire. He continued (and continues) to tour with the Well brothers, and in 2022 he appeared again in a feature film: the Austrian-German comedy "Der Onkel - The Hawk" ("The Hawk"), starring Anke Engelke and Michael Ostrowski, featured Polt in a prominent supporting role as an appraiser. The premiere took place in April 2022 in the Diagonale Graz competition.