Actor. He was a 20th century German actor of stage, film and television as well as a director. Born into a theatrical family, which dated back for seven generations to the 18th century, he left formal schooling at an early age to pursue a full-time acting career with his father. By 1936, he had left touring and was working in the family's theater in Cologne. With his sister, he started managing the theater, the Volkstheater Millowitsch, in 1940. The theater was damaged during World War II but opened again in 1945 with daily performances. With a lapse in theatrical attendance, his first film role of at least 20 films was in "Search for Majora" in 1949. On October 27, 1953 he successfully performed in "Der Etappenhase," or "The Stage Bunny," a folk comedy that was the first televised theatrical performance with a real audience in German television history. This performance has been repeated numerous times on television before being dropped in the 21st century. After renting the theater to others for ballet, cabaret and comedy performances, he became active again in the 1960s in the theater performances. He did not care for having to move between stage, film, and television careers, yet did. As a film director, he is known for "Paradies de flatten sunder, Das" in 1968, and the adaption of the play to film, "Der Etappenhase in 1956 along with a mentionable part in Chevy Chase's 1985 film, "National Lampoon's European Vacation." From 1990 to 1996, he played, as an elderly actor in his eighth decade, the role of retired chief inspector Hermann-Josef Klefisch in the television crime series. He had a long, successful 75-year career. In 1988 he was awarded the honorary citizenship of Cologne along with the Federal Cross of Merit in 1984 and the Order of Merit of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia in 1989. During his lifetime, a bronze statue of him sitting on a bench was erected in a square, Willy-Millowitsch-Platz, near his theater in old-town Cologne. Since his death, the statue has been moved twice. Politically in 1992, he participated in an anti-Nazi campaign. Shortly before his death, his son Peter became manager of the theater. His funeral was broadcast on German television and the service was celebrated in the "Kölner Dom," Germany's biggest cathedral, a privilege usually granted only to the Archbishops of Cologne. He was buried in the family's plot. He married twice: First in 1939 for a short time and on September 28, 1946 Gerda Feldhoff and the couple had four children. The doors of his family theater closed in March of 2019.