Buddy Elias was born 1925 in Frankfurt am Main. He took acting lessons at the conservatory in Basel and completed his training with Ernst Ginsberg in Zürich. At the beginning of his career he played at various stages in Switzerland. He was the star comedian in 'Holiday on Ice' from 1947 until 1961. Since 1962 Buddy Elias had permanent engagements at German and Swiss theaters, but also in England and France. At the Landestheater Tübingen he played Mephisto in 'Urfaust' (1962) and the title part in 'Mustergatte'(1962). At the Comedy Basel he played from 1964-1968, e.g. the ballad singer in 'Galileo Galilei', Truffaldino in 'Diener zweier Herren', the title part in 'Die venezianischen Zwillinge', Lorenzo in 'Romeo und Julia', the title part in 'Arturo Ui', and Mosca in 'Volpone'. Countless engagements followed at the Schauspielhaus Zürich, the Stadttheater Zürich, the Atelier-Theater Bern, the Hanse-Theater, the Theater am Goetheplatz in Bremen, the Nationaltheater Mannheim, the Freie Volksbühne Berlin, the Theater am Kurfürstendamm, the Theater des Westens, the Hansa Theater and the Renaissance-Theater in Berlin, the Deutsches Theater in Munich und the Deutschen Schauspielhaus in Hamburg. He last played the role of Calchas in Herbert Wernicke's 'La belle Helene' in Aix-en-Provence and at the Salzburg Festival and 'Der starke Stamm' (Marieluise Fleißer/director: Thomas Ostermeier) in Munich.

Since 1972 Buddy Elias has participated in almost 80 film and television productions, e.g.:

1972 'Gun Before Butter', director Peter Zadek 1975 'Vranek ist an allem Schuld', director Ulrich Stark 1976 'The Magician',director Menachem Golan 1977 'Mulligans Rückkehr', director Helmut Käutner 1978 'David', director Peter Lilienthal 1980 'Wie der Mond über Feuer und Blut', director Axel Corti 1981 'Der Zauberberg', director Hans Geissendörfer 1983 'Der Fall Openheimer', director Rainer Wolffhardt 1983 'Das Traumschiff', director Alfred Vohrer 1984 'Emigranten', director Axel Corti 1986 'La visite chez le prince', director Serge Korber 1987 'Die Schwarzwaldklinik', director Hans-Jürgen Tögel 1990 'Bronsteins Kinder', director Jerzy Kawalerowicz 1991/92 'Mit Leib und Seele', director Peter Deutsch 1992 'Glückliche Reise', director Hermann Leitner 1992 'SoKo 5113', director Kai Borsche 1993 'Die Botschafterin', director Peter Deutsch 1993 'Wolffs Revier', director Michael Lähn 1994 'Mutter Courage', director Michael Verhoeven 1997 'Shalom Deutschland', director Josef Rödel 1997 'Totalschaden' (Crash), director Thorsten Näter 1998 'Sunshine / Sonnenschein', director Istvan Szabo 1998 'Stan Becker - Echte Freunde', director Kaspar Heidelbach 1999 'St Angela', director Egon Monk 2000 'Nobel', director Fabio Carpi 2001 'Der Verleger', director Bernd Böhlich 2002 'Die Liebe in Gedanken', director Achim von Bories. 2003 'Bella Block - Hinter den Spiegeln', director: Thorsten Näter 2003 'Mit deinen Augen', director: Karl Kasis 2004 'Die Wahrheit des Dieter D.', director: Barbara Politsch 2004 'Tod einer Ärztin', director: Markus Fischer 2004 'Propaganda', director: Horst Königstein 2004 'Jetzt erst Recht', director: Andi Niessner 2005 'GG 19 - Episodenfilm zum Gerundgesetz, Art. 8', director: Mira Thiel 2006 'Sami', director: Mehdi Benhadji-Djilali

Buddy Elias lives in Basel. A cousin of Anne Frank, he is her last living relative and presides the "Anne Frank-Foundation".