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Henry Hübchen, born February 20, 1947, in Berlin, attended drama school at Schauspielschule Berlin-Schöneweide. In 1970, he made his stage debut at the theatre in Magdeburg. Since 1974, Hübchen is a permanent cast member of Berlin's Volksbühne where over the course of countless productions he has turned into the artistic alter ego of director Frank Castorf and where he also directs plays. In 1994, theatre magazine "Theater heute" named him "Best actor of the year".
Hübchen made his debut on the movie screen in 1965 in "Die Söhne der großen Bärin" ("The Sons of Great Bear") and played his first larger role in "Jakob, der Lügner" ("Jacob the liar", 1975). In the GDR, Hübchen became popular in the TV crime series "Polizeiruf 110" and in "Das wirkliche Blau", a film version of the story by Anna Seghers. In West Germany, Hübchen became known in the TV mini-series "Karl May" (1992), in "Der Schattenmann" (1996), and in "Der König von St. Pauli" (1998) as well as in the two TV crime series "Polizeiruf 110" and "Commissario Laurenti".
At the same time, Hübchen whose acting range covers grotesquely funny to cryptic, psychopathological characters, started a second career on the movie screen. His best-known films include "Ein Mann für jede Tonart" (1993), "Sonnenallee" ("Sun Alley", 1999), "Sass" (2000), and "Alles auf Zucker" ("Go for Zucker!", 2004). In "Alles auf Zucker", Hübchen played a Berlin gambler with Jewish heritage and his masterly performance in this comedic part won him the 2005 German film award. In Andreas Dresen's film "Whisky mit Wodka" ("Whisky with Vodka", 2009), he made a self-ironic performance as a popular ageing actor.
This was followed by several memorable TV roles, including the King Gustav in the fairy tale adaptation "Die Gänsemagd" (2009) and a Russian secret service officer in "Der Uranberg" (2010). He went on to play the father of poet Goethe in Philipp Stölzl's "Goethe!" (2010), and a baker who follows his granddaughter into the Polish countryside in the tragicomedy "Polnische Ostern". His sinister portrayal of a slave trader in the adaptation of Mark Twain's "Die Abenteuer des Huck Finn" was contrasted by his comic turn as archangel Gabriel, who has been demoted to a simple priest on Earth , in "Jesus liebt mich" by Florian David Fitz.
In 2013, Hübchen appeared in very different characters in three theatrical releases: He played a small town mayor in the satire "Hai Alarm am Müggelsee", a cantankerous family man in the comedy "Da geht noch was" ("Quality Time"), and a betrayed husband who confronts the lover of his wife in a devious cat and mouse game in "Am Hang".
Always busy, Hübchen starred in a whole slew of TV productions, including "Frauen verstehen" (2014, TV), "Die Zeit mit Euch" (2014, TV), "Unterm Eis" (2015, TV), "Der Pfarrer und das Mädchen" (2015, TV) and "Besuch für Emma" (2015, TV).
On the big screen, he followed a memorable turn as the oddball helper of two kid detectives in the children's film "Rico, Oskar und das Herzgebreche" ("The Pasta Detectives 2", 2015) with a leading role in Robert Thalheim's spy comedy "Kundschafter des Friedens" (2016).
In the children's film "Hanni & Nanni: Mehr als beste Freunde" (2017) he portrayed the likable and grandiose landowner Godehard von Knigge, in the TV drama "Spätwerk" he played an ageing writer in a crisis of meaning. Stefan Ruzowitzky and Michael Krummenacher cast him as a former NVA officer in the end time series "8 Tage" ("8 Days"), and in the detective drama "Tage des letzten Schnees" (2019) he played a detective inspector. Hübchen showed his humorous side in Dani Levy's absurd comedy "Die Känguru-Chroniken" (2020): in the film he plays a mean Berlin right-wing populist and real estate shark.
Hübchen was a GDR champion of windsurfing (1981 and 1982) and wrote songs for the rock band "City", including their hit "Casablanca" (1987). His wife Sanna heads an agency for actors, his daughter Theresa (born in 1971) works as an actress.