Erni Mangold dies at 99 after seven decades on stage
Saturday 5th September 2026 on 09:45 in
Austria
Actress Erni Mangold, known for her blunt wit and fearless manner, died on Saturday at the age of 99, ORF reported. The Lower Austrian performer spent more than seven decades on stage and appeared in more than 100 film and television productions.
Mangold announced her retirement from the stage in 2017 with Harold and Maude at the Kammerspiele, a theatre venue in Vienna. The production brought her career full circle: she had made her stage debut at the same theatre in 1946.
Born Ernestine Mangold on January 26, 1927, in Großweikersdorf in the Tulln district, she grew up in a family with strong artistic interests. Her father worked as a painter on the side and her mother was a passionate pianist.
After training at Vienna’s Krauss acting school, Mangold performed at the Josefstadt theatre until 1956. She then spent eight years at the Deutsches Schauspielhaus in Hamburg under Gustaf Gründgens, followed by an engagement at the Düsseldorf Schauspielhaus under Karlheinz Stroux.
Further engagements in Germany, Switzerland and Austria followed between 1965 and 1972. Mangold also became involved in alternative theatre, performing at Vienna’s Kulisse before Hans Gratzer brought her to the Vienna Schauspielhaus in 1981. She later discovered playwright Werner Schwab.
Mangold was recognised for her range, from classical roles such as Marthe Schwerdtlein in Faust, Lady Macbeth and Frau Muskat in Liliom to eccentric parts in Arsenic and Old Lace and Elfriede Jelinek’s Princess Dramas. In 1999, she was appointed a Kammerschauspielerin, an honorary title for a distinguished stage performer.
Her film and television credits included The Angel with the Trumpet from 1948, Hanussen from 1955, Kassbach from 1979 and Richard Linklater’s Before Sunrise from 1995. She won the Austrian Film Award for best actress in 2015 for her role as a geriatric patient in Houchang Allahyari’s The Last Dance.
Mangold also taught acting at the Mozarteum in Salzburg, Vienna’s Krauss acting school and the Max Reinhardt Seminar. From 1983 to 1995, she was a full professor at the seminar.
In 2020, three years after leaving the stage, she appeared in Wolfgang Murnberger’s film Schönes Schlamassel.