Photographs by

Mark B. Anstendig

Rainer Rudolph

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The German actor Rainer Rudolph.

The young Rainer Rudolph was a force of nature. I met him shortly after first arriving in Berlin. He was very young and studying acting with the most famous acting teacher in Germany, who had a school in Berlin and accepted only a limited number of extremely talented students. Rudolph was an enormous ball of infectious energy and enthusiasm, totally full of his studies and his work.

We became friends while I was still solely a student of conducting and did not yet own a camera. But when I became a photographer, Rainer was one of the first to ask me to do his portraits.

Rainer's was a beauty that was far beyond the purely physical. Pretty he was not. He had something way beyond that. A child of the difficult war years and hard times thereafter, he truly exemplified the best of the thoughtful youth of that period. His face was oddly unsymmetrical, yet gave the impression of symmetry. It was extremely appealing. And he radiated a vast depth and variety of moods.

We remained good friends through my whole decade in Berlin and even thereafter. Rainer even visited me in San Francisco during the 80's. It is with great pleasure and fond memories that I scan this portrait session into my computer.

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