Loriot

Loriot is the pen name of Vicco von Bülow (1923 to 2011), a German comedian, humorist, cartoonist, film director, actor and writer. Born in Brandenburg an der Havel into the aristocratic von Bülow family, he served as an army officer on the Eastern Front during the Second World War, then studied graphic design and painting in Hamburg and from 1950 published cartoons as Loriot, the French word for oriole, the bird on his family's coat of arms. In 1971 he created the cartoon dog Wum, who became the mascot of the charity Aktion Sorgenkind and whose 1972 song stayed at the top of the German pop charts for nine weeks. His television comedy series Loriot began in 1976 with six episodes of sketches and cartoons, and he directed two feature films, Ödipussi (1988) and Pappa Ante Portas (1991). He also staged operas and narrated Saint-Saëns's The Carnival of the Animals. A special comedy edition of the television series Unsere Besten ranked him the most famous German comedian ever.