Dirch Passer
Dirch Passer (right) with composer Aage Stentoft The image above is a candidate for speedy deletion. It will be deleted on 2007-05-17.
Born	May 18 1926  Denmark
Died	September 3 1980
Years active	1947-1978

Dirch Hartvig Passer (May 18, 1926 - September 3, 1980) was a Danish actor. He was greatly renowned for his improvisational skills and, with a filmography comprising 110 movies, one of the most prolific Danish actors ever.

When he was young, Passer was very shy, and had a dream of becoming an actor, but consented to his father's wishes by attending J. Lauritzen's sea training school near Svendborg in 1944. But since he had ongoing problems with seasickness, he later started at De frederiksbergske teatres Elevskole.

During the 1950s he formed a duo with his colleague and friend Kjeld Petersen. Their revue sketches, based upon the contrast between Petersen’s mixture of joviality and desperate anger and Passer’s deadpan responses, are still classics. The sudden death of Kjeld Petersen in 1962 led Passer to avoid revues for some years, but he built up an individual reputation and in 1967 he returned to the revue gaining new victories. Many thin jokes in the scripts were greatly improved by his performance. In particular, his many amiable eccentrics and “nature experts” together with his sketch roles as a baby and as a nonsense "Russian"-speaking clown made him famous. From his later years must be mentioned an almost silent sketch in which he portrays a man’s vain attempt to stop smoking (also shown in West German TV). It was told that he could speak any language, however he wouldn't understand any of it, which was one of his good qualities.

He was often referred to as a loud actor in spite of the fact that under-acting was responsible for much of his force. A Danish critic, Jens Kistrup, once said that one of the secrets behind the comedy of Passer was its combination of elements that are normally regarded as incompatible. He possessed noisiness and discretion, loudness and quietness, boundlessness and complete control, craziness and softness — all this combined with a special intimacy with the audience. Among his inspirations he mentioned Joe E. Brown but he was also known for his admiration of the British comedian Tommy Cooper. In his films, which were of very mixed quality, he often played kind and somewhat crazy "Everymen" or antiheroes. Among his best movie roles were stage roles transferred to film; here must be mentioned the hero in Charley’s Aunt (1959), Celestin-Floridor in Frøken Nitouche (1963) and Leopold in Summer in Tyrol (i.e. The White Horse Inn, 1964).

Numerous Danish actors see him as a role model. In day-to-day life he was quite shy in behaviour, somewhat the opposite of his theatrical appearances. He died during a sketch in which he was portraying the Danish rock singer Kim Larsen.

Filmography

Stjerneskud - 1947 Dorte - 1951 Rekrut 67 Petersen - 1952 Vejrhanen - 1952 Vi arme syndere - 1952 Ved Kongelunden - 1953 I kongens klær - 1954 Det var på Rundetårn - 1955 Færgekroen - 1956 Hvad vil De ha'? - 1956 Den store gavtyv - 1956 Tag til marked i Fjordby - 1957 Krudt og klunker - 1958 Pigen og vandpytten - 1958 Styrmand Karlsen - 1958 Charles' tante - 1959 Poeten og Lillemor (film) - 1959 Soldaterkammerater rykker ud - 1959 Vi er allesammen tossede - 1959 Onkel Bill fra New York - 1959 Baronessen fra benzintanken - 1960 Elefanter på loftet - 1960 Forelsket i København - 1960 Panik i paradis - 1960 Poeten og Lillemor og Lotte - 1960 Skibet er ladet med... - 1960 Sømand i knibe - 1960 Gøngehøvdingen - 1961 Peters baby - 1961 Poeten og Lillemor i forårshumør - 1961 Reptilicus - 1961 Støv på hjernen - 1961 Det støver stadig - 1962 Han, hun, Dirch og Dario - 1962 Lykkens musikanter - 1962 Oskar (1962 film) - 1962 Sømænd og svigermødre - 1962 Venus fra Vestø - 1962 Det tossede paradis - 1962 Bussen (film) - 1963 Frk. Nitouche - 1963 Hvis lille pige er du? - 1963

Pigen og pressefotografen - 1963 Støv for alle pengene - 1963 Tre piger i Paris - 1963 Vi har det jo dejligt - 1963 Don Olsen kommer til byen - 1964 Majorens oppasser - 1964 Sommer i Tyrol - 1964 Flådens friske fyre - 1965 Passer passer piger - 1965 Pigen og millionæren - 1965 Der var engang - 1966 Jeg - en elsker - 1966 Pigen og greven - 1966 Slap af, Frede - 1966 Cirkusrevyen - 1967 Nyhavns glade gutter - 1967 Mig og min lillebror - 1967 Dyrlægens plejebørn - 1968 Mig og min lillebror og storsmuglerne - 1968 Soldaterkammerater på bjørnetjeneste - 1968 Min søsters børn vælter byen - 1968 Mig og min lillebror og Bølle - 1969 Pigen fra Egborg - 1969 Sjov i gaden - 1969 Nøglen til Paradis - 1970 Præriens skrappe drenge - 1970 Hurra for de blå husarer - 1970 Amour (film) - 1970 Guld til præriens skrappe drenge - 1971 Min søsters børn når de er værst - 1971 Hvor er liget Møller? - 1971 Takt og tone i himmelsengen - 1972 Lenin, din gavtyv - 1972 Solstik på badehotellet - 1973 Mig og Mafiaen - 1973 Mafiaen, det er osse mig - 1974 Piger i trøjen - 1975 Piger i trøjen 2 - 1976 Spøgelsestoget - 1976 Piger til søs - 1977 Alt på et bræt - 1977 Fængslende feriedage - 1978

External links

• Dirch Passer at the Internet Movie Database