Alfred Franz Maria Biolek (10 July 1934 – 23 July 2021) was a German entertainer and television producer. Biolek held a PhD in law and was an honorary professor at the Academy of Media Arts Cologne. He received many awards for his work on television which included popular long-running series, and pioneering work for talk shows and cooking shows in the 1970s. He also received awards for his efforts for promoting the culture of food and wine. He supported and founded charities for Africa. Youth Biolek was born in Freistadt (Fryštát) in Czechoslovakia (now Czech Republic), into a Sudeten German family. His father was a lawyer. After expulsion from Czechoslovakia in 1946, the Biolek family moved to Waiblingen near Stuttgart, where Biolek's father practiced law again. Biolek was raised a Catholic, and served as an altar boy. Later he temporarily joined the German conservative party CDU. He attended the Gymnasium in Waiblingen and graduated in 1954. He then studied law in Freiburg im Breisgau, Munich, and Vienna. In 1958 he took a first state exam of law (third-best exam in Baden-Württemberg) and graduated with honors. In 1962 he achieved a doctorate, followed by a second state examination in law in 1963. In 1969 Biolek moved to Munich and worked for a larger law firm. Living in the city, Biolek underwent a radical change and distanced himself from his previous conservative mindset. He took part in the bohemian community in Munich, and belonged to filmmaker Rainer Werner Fassbinder's social circle. Television career From 1963, Biolek worked as an assessor in the legal department of the new public German TV channel ZDF where he soon switched to editorial tasks. He became the anchor man of the TV show Drehscheibe. From 1970 to 1973, he was head of the main entertainment department at the Bavaria film and television production company in Munich. In 1974, he developed for the broadcaster WDR in Cologne, together with Rudi Carrell, the show series . The successful Saturday night show became his breakthrough. From 1975, he was presenter of a new talk show, with the journalist , (Meeting in Cologne). In February 1978, he started his first produced and moderated show, titled Bio's Bahnhof (Bio's station), where e.g. Kate Bush had her television debut. In the 1980s, commercially less successful shows followed: Bei Bio, Show Bühne, and the game show Mensch Meier. ran from 1991 for 12 years,