Ignaz Kirchner (born Hanns-Peter Kirchner-Wierichs; 13 July 1946 – 26 September 2018) was a German actor who made a career on German-speaking stages, especially at Vienna's Burgtheater where he played for 30 years. A character actor, he worked with leading stage directors. He often played opposite Gert Voss, both in classical drama such as Shakespeare's Antonio, with Voss as Shylock, and as Jago, with Voss as Othello, and especially in black comedies, such as Goldberg in Tabori's Die Goldberg-Variationen (with Voss as Mr. Jay), and in Neil Simon's The Sunshine Boys, Beckett's Endspiel and Genet's Die Zofen. Kirchner and Voss were named Schauspielerpaar des Jahres twice, in 1992 and 1998. Career Born in Wuppertal, Kirchner was raised from age ten in a Jesuit boarding school in Vorarlberg, Austria. He later chose the name of Ignatius of Loyola as his stage name. He first was an apprentice in a book shop, and then trained in acting at the Schauspielschule Bochum. He made his stage debut in 1970, when he was still at university, in Roger Vitrac's Der Coup von Trafalgar staged by Alfred Kirchner. The actor played in 1973 and 1974 at the , participating in two productions by . In 1974 he moved on to Stuttgart, on an invitation by , where he remained until 1978. He then worked for Theater Bremen, where he had his greatest success in the title role of Shakespeare's Hamlet, directed in 1980 by . From 1982 to 1986, Kirchner was a member of the Münchner Kammerspiele, where he worked with directors such as Dieter Dorn, and . There he met George Tabori, with whom he would later collaborate at the Burgtheater in Vienna. In the 1983/84 season, he appeared at the Schauspiel Köln as the Duke in Marivaux's Der Streit, directed by , also as Lopachin in Chekhov's Der Kirschgarten, directed by Jürgen Flimm, and as Estragon in Beckett's Warten auf Godot, directed by Gosch. In 1987, Kirchner became a member of the Burgtheater, where Peymann was now Intendant. His first role was as Schlomo Herzl in the premiere of Tabori's Mein Kampf. Further roles included in 1988 the title role Ödipus, Tyrann by Sophocles and Heiner Müller, directed by , and Antonio in Shakespeare's Der Kaufmann von Venedig. In 1990, he played Doctor Lvov in Chekhov's Ivanov, staged by Peter Zadek, and Jago with Tabori. He and his partner on stage, Gert Voss,