Josef Meinrad

Who was Josef Meinrad?

Josef Meinrad was an Austrian actor.

Josef Meinrad was born Josef Moučka in Vienna, as the fourth and youngest child of the tram driver Franz Moučka and his second wife Katharina. For his secondary education, he received a scholarship in a school run by Redemptorists in Katzelsdorf near Wiener Neustadt. At first, he wanted to become a priest, but he left the boarding school in 1929 and became a clerk, while taking acting lessons. He made his public acting debut in 1930, by which time he called himself Josef Meinrad. His first brief engagement at the Burgtheater was in 1939, he then played at the Salzburg Festival in 1947. Later that year, Meinrad became a full-time permanent member of the Burgtheater company and was part of that ensemble until his 65th birthday in 1978; he played 195 roles on that stage.

Meinrad was the keeper of the Iffland-Ring, which for 200 years has been given to the most important actor of the German-speaking theatre; he passed the ring on to Bruno Ganz.

From 1950 until his death he was married to Germaine Renée Clement, who died in 2006. Meinrad died in 1996 from cancer, aged 82, in Großgmain and is buried there.