Uwe Kockisch (31 January 1944 – 22 December 2025) was a German stage, screen and television actor.
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Career
Kockisch completed his training to become an actor at the Ernst Busch Academy of Dramatic Arts in Berlin. He accepted engagements in Cottbus and Karl-Marx-Stadt (Chemnitz). He appeared in plays at the Maxim Gorki Theater for over 20 years and later, for two years, at the Schaubühne in Berlin.
He began working in the film industry in 1974. In 1981, he played the lead role in Dein unbekannter Bruder (Your Unknown Brother), available at Netflix, an East German film by Ulrich Weiss. Kockisch appeared in such crime series as Tatort and Polizeiruf 110, and played an inspector in the TV series Zappek. From 2003 he portrayed Commissario Guido Brunetti in a number of television films based on the crime novels by Donna Leon. In 2010 he held one of the lead roles in the six-part miniseries The Weissensee Saga: A Berlin Love Story, as the Stasi officer Hans Kupfer.
Personal life and death
Kockisch was born in Cottbus, Germany on 31 January 1944. As a youth, he attempted to escape from East Germany, but was caught and had to spend a year in prison.
He was married and later lived in Madrid, Spain. Kockisch died of lung cancer in Madrid on 22 December 2025, at the age of 81.
Awards
2008: Uwe Kockisch received the Adolf Grimme Award for Best Lead Actor in the "Fiction" category, for his role in the movie City for Ransom by Dominik Graf.
2011: Deutscher Fernsehpreis representing the actors for the six-part miniseries The Weissensee Saga: A Berlin Love Story.
Selected filmography
1973: Erziehung vor Verdun. Der große Krieg der weißen Männer (Education before Verdun)
1975: Für die Liebe noch zu mager
1975: Die schwarze Mühle (TV)
1978: Unser Drache Kasimir (TV)
1978: Marx und Engels – Stationen ihres Lebens (TV series)
1979: Lachtauben weinen nicht
1981: Unser kurzes Leben (Our Short Life)
1981: Bürgschaft für ein Jahr
1982: Dein unbekannter Bruder (Your Unknown Brother)
1982: Sabine Kleist, 7 Jahre… (Sabine Kleist, Aged Seven...)
1984: Die Zeit der Einsamkeit
1985: Erscheinen Pflicht
1986: Rabenvater
1988: Treffen in Travers
1990: Grönland
1992: The Mystery of the Amber Room
1992: Miraculi
1994: Ärzte: Die Narbe des Himmels (TV)
1995: Operation Medusa (TV)
1995–1996: Zappek (TV series)
1996: Polizeiruf 110 - Kurzer Traum (TV episode)
Donna Leon series
As Commissario Guido Brunetti, Kockisch appeared in the following television films based on the crime novels by Donna Leon:
2003: ep 5 - Venezianisches Finale (Death at La Fenice) - Director: Sigi Rothemund
2003: ep 6 - Feine Freunde (Friends in High Places) - Director: Sigi Rothemund
2004: ep 7 - Sanft entschlafen (The Death of Faith – aka Quietly in Their Sleep) - Director: Sigi Rothemund
2004: ep 8 - Acqua alta (Acqua alta – aka Death in High Water) - Director: Sigi Rothemund
2005: ep 9 - Beweise, dass es böse ist (Doctored Evidence) - Director: Sigi Rothemund
2005: ep 10 - Verschwiegene Kanäle (Uniform Justice) - Director: Sigi Rothemund
2006: ep 11 - Endstation Venedig (Death in a Strange Country) - Director: Sigi Rothemund
2006: ep 12 - Das Gesetz der Lagune (A Sea of Troubles) - Director: Sigi Rothemund
2008: ep 13 - Die dunkle Stunde der Serenissima (Wilful Behavior) - Director: Sigi Rothemund
2008: ep 14 - Blutige Steine (Blood from a Stone) - Director: Sigi Rothemund
2009: ep 15 - Wie durch ein dunkles Glas (Through a Glass, Darkly) - Director: Sigi Rothemund
2010: ep 16 - Lasset die Kinder zu mir kommen (Suffer the Little Children) - Director: Sigi Rothemund