Torben Ulrich, the father of Metallica drummer Lars Ulrich, has died at the age of 95.
Lars took to social media today (December 21) to share the news. A cause of death was has not been shared at the time of publishing. Lars wrote on Instagram: “95 years of adventures, unique experiences, curiosity, pushing boundaries, challenging the status quo, tennis, music, art, writing….and quite a bit of Danish contrarian attitude.”
He continued in the post: “Thank you endlessly! I love you dad.”
Torben Ulrich, born on October 4, 1928 in Denmark, was a tennis pro, filmmaker, musician, poet, radio and newspaper journalist and painter.
Between the 1940s and 1980s, Torben Ulrich spent most of his time as a professional tennis athlete, while still dabbling in various artforms including music, film, and journalism. During his time as a tennis pro, Ulrich had played for and won several tournaments, including the Stuttgart Open tournament in 1953. He reportedly also played over 100 Davis Cup matches, though he did not win the tournament.
Besides tennis, Torben Ulrich was also fond of jazz music, apprenticing for Reuters and contributing to several Danish jazz magazines. In the ’50s, he formed a New Orleans-inspired jazz band, in which he played the clarinet.
In 2005, he founded an collaborative improvised music group named Instead Of, with Lori Goldston – who had worked with Nirvana – and other musicians like Angelina Baldoz and Jaison Scott. In 2021 – at the age of 92 – he released the album ‘Oakland moments: cello, voice, reuniting (rejoicing)’ with Lori Goldston.
Torben has co-directed two films; 1988’s The Ball And The Wall with Gil de Kermadec, and 2002’s Body & Being: Before The Wall with Rick New and Molly Martin. He had also appeared in to of Jørgen Leth’s films, Motion Picture (1969) and Moments Of Play (1986).
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