Wolfgang Draeger

Wolfgang Draeger bonds with Big Bird

Draeger on-camera on Sesamstrasse

Wolfgang Draeger (1928-2023) was a German actor and voice artist who dubbed Big Bird (Bibo) on Sesamstrasse. He stayed with the series for four decades, dubbing Big Bird in select specials recorded at Studio Hamburg and heard as other secondary characters as well (including half of The Two-Headed Monster, various announcers, and other minor parts). Over the years, he wrote or co-wrote song translations (such as "The Countess Counts," "Breakfast Time," and "When You Cooperate") and script adaptations for sketches including "Colambo" installments and "The Adventures of Prairie Dawn: The Empty Box." He was an occasional dubbing director on the series as well.

He appeared on-camera in a 1970s insert, part of the recurring "Sportverein Hagen Ahrensburg" series, as a man who has a soccer ball kicked into his garden. Outside Sesamstrasse, Draeger dubbed Big Bird's clip in E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial.

Draeger studied at the Berlin-Reinickendorf Conservatory for Music and Art. Beginning in 1952, he worked as a radio announcer for RIAS and NWDR and his earliest dubbing assignments were in 1953. He appeared in two German children's films based on Brothers Grimm tales, adapting "The Wishing Table" (1956) and "The Goose Girl" (1957), but by then, he was already working almost exclusively as a voice actor, lending his voice to Tab Hunter and Martin Milner in Westerns, Harvey Lembeck in Stalag 17, and Jack Albertson in The Shaggy Dog.

Draeger was the regular dubbing voice of such varied actors as Woody Allen, James Cagney, and Dudley Moore. He dubbed Gene Wilder in Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory and Trans-American Express, Alan Arkin four times, Eric Idle as Sir Robin in Monty Python and the Holy Grail, George Harrison in The Beatles' films, John McEnery in Romeo and Juliet, Charles Grodin in Catch-22, Austin Pendleton in The Thief Who Came to Dinner, Harry Dean Stanton in Repoman, Martin Landau in The Hallelujah Trail, and Roman Polanski in Chinatown. On TV, he dubbed Martin E. Brooks as Dr. Rudy Wells on The Six Million Dollar Man and The Bionic Woman, as well as Arte Johnson on Fantasy Island.

In animation, he voiced Inspector Gadget, the Clock King on Batman: The Animated Series, Jon Arbuckle in the Garfield specials, and Cheetah on Kimba the White Lion, as well as being heard in four of the Looney Tunes compilation features (as either Bugs Bunny or Sylvester). He was a staple of German audio dramas, often as comics characters (Popeye, the narrator in Asterix, and Prince Barin in Flash Gordon), or in mysteries (Chief Reynolds and others in the Alfred Hitchcock Three Investigators series, Kommissar Glockner in TKKG records, and Horatio Mcintire in the Edgar Wallace series). His few later on-camera credits include an episode of Direktion City and the TV movie Mein Gott, Willi! (with Dieter Hallervorden). His final Three Investigators recording was released in 2022.

Draeger's daughter Kerstin Draeger also went into the family profession as a voice and dubbing actor and director.

Muppet dub credits

• Sesamstrasse
• Peter Alexander präsentiert Spezialitäten
• Weihnachten in der Sesamstraße (Christmas Eve on Sesame Street)
• Bibo in China (Big Bird in China)
• Bitte nicht die Bilder essen! (Don't Eat the Pictures)
• Silvester auf der Sesamstrasse (Sesame Street Stays Up Late)
• Elmo rettet Weihnachten (Elmo Saves Christmas)

External links

• Deutsche Synchronkartei - German dubbing credits
• Hoerspielland- Audio book discography