Johannes Mario Simmel
Johannes Mario Simmel, also known as J. M. Simmel, was an Austrian writer.
He was born in Vienna and grew up in Austria and England. He was trained as a chemical engineer and worked in research from 1943 to the end of World War II. After the end of the war, he worked as a translator for the United States Office of Military Government based in Germany and published reviews and stories in the Vienna Welt am Abend. Starting in 1950, he worked as a reporter for the Munich illustrated Quick in Europe and America.
He wrote a number of screenplays and novels, which have sold tens of millions of copies. Many of his novels were successfully filmed in the 1960s and 1970s. He won numerous prizes, including the Award of Excellence of the Society of Writers of the UN. Important issues in his novels are a fervent pacifism as well as the relativity of good and bad. Several novels are said to have a true background, possibly autobiographic.
According to his Swiss lawyer, Simmel died on 1 January 2009 in Lucerne, at 84 years of age. This date was the 99th birthday of "Thomas Lieven", the main character of "It can't always be caviar."
Awards and honors
- 1959 First prize in the competition playwright Mannheim
- 1981 Culture Award of German Freemasons
- 1984 Gold Medal of the City of Vienna
- 1992 Austrian Cross of Honour for Science and Art, 1st class
- 1993 Hermann Kesten Prize
- 2004: Grand Decoration of Honour in Silver for Services to the Republic of Austria
- 2005 Merit Cross 1st Class of the Federal Republic of Germany
- 2011 naming of Simmelgasse in Floridsdorf
Filmography
- My Schoolfriend, directed by Robert Siodmak
- The Nina B. Affair, directed by Robert Siodmak
- ', directed by Géza von Radványi
- ', directed by Géza von Radványi
- Und Jimmy ging zum Regenbogen, directed by Alfred Vohrer
- Love Is Only a Word, directed by Alfred Vohrer
- The Stuff That Dreams Are Made Of, directed by Alfred Vohrer
- All People Will Be Brothers, directed by Alfred Vohrer
- ', directed by Alfred Vohrer
- Only the Wind Knows the Answer, directed by Alfred Vohrer
- To the Bitter End, directed by Gerd Oswald
- ', directed by Roland Klick
- Es muss nicht immer Kaviar sein, directed by Thomas Engel
- Why Am I So Happy?, directed by Michael Kehlmann
- The Roaring Fifties, directed by Peter Zadek
- ', directed by Duccio Tessari
- Mit den Clowns kamen die Tränen, directed by Reinhard Hauff
- ', directed by
- ', directed by
- Love Is Just a Word, directed by
- ', directed by
Screenwriter
- 1951: Spring on Ice
- 1953: Diary of a Married Woman
- 1955: Hotel Adlon
- 1955: Dunja
- 1956: Kitty and the Great Big World
- 1957: The Girl and the Legend
- 1958: Stefanie
- 1960: ''''