Floppy hat, yellow socks, pants that are too short: The Danish actor Morten Grunwald was instantly recognizable as Benny from the "Olsen Gang". In 14 films, from 1968 to 1986, he played the role. Now the artist is 83 years old.
This reports the Danish TV station DR 1, which interrupted its program for an appreciation of the actor. In October it became known that Grunwald was terminally ill with lung cancer. He refused radiotherapy.
Morten Grunwald was the last surviving protagonist of the films about the rogue trio. Egon actor Ove Sprogøe died in 2004, Poul Bundgaard, who played the Kjeld, back in 1998.
DDP
Scenery from "The Olsen Gang Runs Amuck" from 1973. In the middle: Morten Grunwald as Benny.
Grunwald played the Benny as a big boy with a loose mouth, which also coined the most famous saying of the films: "Mighty huge!". That was at least the translation in the Defa synchronization. In the Danish original, Benny said: "Skide godt" translates as "shit good".
Especially in the sixties and seventies, Morten Grunwald played in many of the countless family comedies that were made in Denmark at the time. When he premiered as Benny in 1968 in "The Olsen Gang", he had already appeared in 18 films.
International, especially in the GDR, Grunwald was known with this role. In Denmark, he also made a name for himself as a passionate theater maker. From 1971 he directed the Bristol Theater in Copenhagen, which he founded, later moving to the Østre Gasværk Theater. He was also on stage in plays like "Waiting for Godot" and "American Buffalo". He did not retire until 2017.
Grunwald lived together since 1965 with the actress Lily Weiding. The two married in 1980.