Branko Samarovski, born in Zemun in the former Yugoslavia, completed his acting training at the Mozarteum in Salzburg. His first engagements took him to the Schauspielhaus Graz and Darmstadt from 1966. From 1972 to 1979, he was engaged at the Staatstheater Stuttgart, where he played numerous leading roles under Alfred Kirchner and Claus Peymann, among others. From 1979 to 1985 he worked under the direction of Claus Peymann at the Schauspielhaus Bochum. From 1985 to 1991 he was engaged at the Berlin Schaubühne, where he worked with Klaus Michael Grüber, Peter Stein and Luc Bondy, among others. Branko Samarovski has been a member of the Vienna Burgtheater ensemble since 1991. Branko Samarovski first appeared in the cinema in 1978 in Herbert Achternbusch’s cinema satire The Young Monk. He has subsequently appeared in numerous film and television productions, including several films by Michael Haneke such as the literary adaptation Die Rebellion (1993), the dramas 71 Fragmente einer Chronologie des Zufalls (1994) and Wolfszeit (2003) as well as the multi-award-winning film Das weiße Band.
For his portrayal of the disabled man in Haneke’s Joseph Roth film The Rebellion, he received the Golden Squad award from the Association of Austrian Cinematographers. At the 2017 Austrian Film Awards, Branko Samarovsky was honoured as ‘Best Actor in a Supporting Role’ in Kai Wessel’s Nebel im August.
Branko Samarovski made his debut at the Salzburg Festival in 1966 in Leopold Lindtberg’s production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream in Oberon’s Court Company. In 1970, he appeared in Oskar Werner’s production of Shakespeare’s Hamlet. In 1981 he played in the world premiere of Am Ziel by Thomas Bernhard (directed by Claus Peymann). Since then, he has been a regular guest in Salzburg in productions by Klaus Michael Grüber and Peter Stein, among others, as the Devil in Hofmannsthal’s Jedermann (director: Gernot Friedel), as Siegfried von Mörner in Kleist’s Prinz Friedrich von Homburg (director: Andrea Breth) and most recently in 2016 as Alonso in Deborah Warner’s production of Sturm.
