Did you recognize him? Swiss acting star plays corpse in "Tatort"
In "Tatort: Mike & Nisha", Lena Odenthal (Ulrike Folkerts, left) and Johanna Stern (Lisa Bitter) question the neighbors of a couple who have disappeared.
Image: SWR/Benoît Linder
Mid-twenties Mike (Jeremias Meyer) and Nisha (Amina Merai) are deeply in love and want to get married.
Image: SWR/Benoît Linder
Mike (Jeremias Meyer, second from left) tells his parents (Bruno Cathomas and Judith Hofmann, right) that he wants to marry his new girlfriend Nisha (Amina Merai).
Image: SWR/Benoît Linder
Neighbors straight from hell: Gerlinde Wagner (Anna Stieblich, right), who cares for her mother and sometimes uses alcohol to help her, and her loner neighbor Erwin Ramthor (Wolf Bachofner) don't get along too well.
Image: SWR/Benoît Linder
Nisha (Amina Merai) has Persian roots. Her mother recently died of cancer and her father is unknown.
Image: SWR/Benoît Linder
In addition to the established investigators Odenthal (Ulrike Folkerts, right) and Stern (Lisa Bitter, second from left), young investigators Nico Langenkamp (Johannes Scheidweiler) and Mara Hermann (Davina Chanel Fox) are now also investigating in Ludwigshafen.
Image: SWR/Benoît Linder
Neighbor Erwin Ramthor (Wolf Bachofner) is considered a difficult contemporary.
Image: SWR/Benoît Linder
Will the pair of murderers be caught, or will the script let them get away with it?
Image: SWR/Benoît Linder
In "Tatort: Mike & Nisha", Lena Odenthal (Ulrike Folkerts, left) and Johanna Stern (Lisa Bitter) question the neighbors of a couple who have disappeared.
Image: SWR/Benoît Linder
Mid-twenties Mike (Jeremias Meyer) and Nisha (Amina Merai) are deeply in love and want to get married.
Image: SWR/Benoît Linder
Mike (Jeremias Meyer, second from left) tells his parents (Bruno Cathomas and Judith Hofmann, right) that he wants to marry his new girlfriend Nisha (Amina Merai).
Image: SWR/Benoît Linder
Neighbors straight from hell: Gerlinde Wagner (Anna Stieblich, right), who cares for her mother and sometimes uses alcohol to help her, and her loner neighbor Erwin Ramthor (Wolf Bachofner) don't get along too well.
Image: SWR/Benoît Linder
Nisha (Amina Merai) has Persian roots. Her mother recently died of cancer and her father is unknown.
Image: SWR/Benoît Linder
In addition to the established investigators Odenthal (Ulrike Folkerts, right) and Stern (Lisa Bitter, second from left), young investigators Nico Langenkamp (Johannes Scheidweiler) and Mara Hermann (Davina Chanel Fox) are now also investigating in Ludwigshafen.
Image: SWR/Benoît Linder
Neighbor Erwin Ramthor (Wolf Bachofner) is considered a difficult contemporary.
Image: SWR/Benoît Linder
Will the pair of murderers be caught, or will the script let them get away with it?
Image: SWR/Benoît Linder
Crime thriller fans recognized him immediately: Bruno Cathomas, the Graubünden actor and former head of the Hessian homicide squad in "Tatort", plays the bitterly evil father Gustav, who is murdered by his son, in the Ludwigshafen case.
No time? blue News summarizes for you
- Actor Bruno Cathomas returns in Ludwigshafen's "Tatort: Mike & Nisha" in a short but intense role as murdered father Gustav.
- Cathomas, once a "Tatort" investigator in Frankfurt himself, celebrates an unusual comeback as a corpse in a psychologically charged family drama.
- Cathomas on the role as a corpse: "Lying around as a corpse was also much harder than I thought."
His appearance in Ludwigshafen's "Tatort: Mike & Nisha" was a memorably short - but intense one.
Laax actor Bruno Cathomas plays the irascible family man Gustav, who constantly criticizes his son - and snaps when he learns that he is to marry and become a father.
Mike and Nisha, on the other hand, lose their nerve - and murder father Gustav and mother Emilia Schaub (Judith Hofmann) in cold blood without further ado.
Die-hard "Tatort" fans immediately recognized the choleric family man Gustav, who is no stranger to the Sunday evening crime universe: Gustav, alias Bruno Cathomas, was once a chief investigator himself.
For years, he was the boss of Margarita Broich and Wolfram Koch in Frankfurt's "Tatort". From 2017 to 2019, Cathomas played Fosco Cariddi, the head of the homicide squad and thus the chief investigator from Hesse.
And now Bruno Cathomas is celebrating a brief TV comeback in "Tatort" - as a corpse. It soon becomes clear why Gustav reacted so distraught to the wedding and baby news: he is also the father of Mike's fiancée Nisha - so his son is also Nisha's half-brother.
A confused situation that escalates in an instant and turns a seemingly harmless son into an ice-cold murderer. A brutal psycho-murder that challenges investigators Lena Odenthal (Ulrike Folkerts) and her colleague Stern (Lisa Bitter).
Bruno Cathomas on his role in "Tatort": "A real psycho chamber play, great!"
"This family dinner was a real psychological chamber play, it was a real challenge. Something like that is always great for actors," the former "Tatort" star told the "Bild" newspaper.
It was a short, concise performance, but a role that Cathomas enjoyed: "Playing the corpse in this case was even more fun for me than any detective," he says enthusiastically, adding: "because it wasn't just the corpse, but also the role of this nasty father beforehand. That was a nice task."
Playing a corpse is anything but easy, even for an experienced actor like Cathomas: "Lying around as a corpse was also much harder than I thought. I wasn't allowed to breathe or move - for minutes on end. A very special exercise in concentration - especially for someone as active as me," he explained.
Another well-known Swiss actress also plays a central role in "Tatort": Judith Hofmann ("Rosie", "The Innocent") plays Emilia Schaub's mother alongside Cathomas.
Bruno Cathomas, a big name in Germany
Bruno Cathomas, born in Laax in 1965, is one of the most distinguished Swiss actors. After training at the Zurich Academy of Dramatic Arts, he played at renowned theaters such as the Berliner Volksbühne, Theater Basel, Thalia Theater Hamburg and Schauspiel Köln.
In addition to numerous theater roles, he has also appeared in films such as "Viehjud Levi" and "Chicken Mexicaine" - for the latter he received the Swiss Film Award. In 2024, Cathomas moved to the Burgtheater Vienna. Now he is celebrating a crime thriller comeback as a "Tatort" corpse.
