Ignaz Kirchner (born Hanns-Peter Kirchner-Wierichs; 13 July 1946 – 26 September 2018)[1] was a German actor who made a career on German-speaking stages, especially at Vienna's Burgtheater where he played for 30 years.

He then worked for Theater Bremen, where he had his greatest success in the title role of Shakespeare's Hamlet, directed in 1980 by Jürgen Gosch [de].

He and his partner on stage, Gert Voss, were awarded the Actor Duo of the Year (Schauspielerpaar des Jahres) prize by the trade magazine theater heute in 1991 for the roles as Mr. Jay and Goldberg in Tabori's black comedy Die Goldberg-Variationen.

(Like Shylock and Antonio, and Othello and Jago, Mr. Jay and Goldberg are also a sadomasochistic male couple, a combination like master and servant, father and son, and Laurel and Hardy.

He performed solo programs such as Wilhelm Reich's Rede an den kleinen Mann[8] and a series reciting Robert Walser's novels.

[1] He played in 1998 Clov in Beckett's Endspiel alongside Voss as Hamm,[6] staged by Tabori in a production that was invited to the Berliner Theatertreffen.

A year later, he appeared as Sandperger in Karl Schönherr's Glaube und Heimat with Martin Kušej, and a supervisor and a policeman in Roberto Zucco by Bernard-Marie Koltès with Klaus Michael Grüber.

[11] He appeared at the Salzburg Festival in the speaking role Samiel in Weber's opera Der Freischütz in 2005, staged by Falk Richter.