[1] Born in Vienna, Haas grew up at Schloss Schönbrunn, where her mother was a restaurateur.

Haas made her stage debut in Linz but was soon won over to the big screen.

She achieved fame and recognition already through her first movie, the cult classic Der Hofrat Geiger (1947), in which she played Mariandl, the illegitimate daughter of a woman who runs an inn in the picturesque Wachau valley.

Her other famous movie role was that of Josepha Vogelhuber in the 1960 film The White Horse Inn (Im weißen Rößl) opposite Peter Alexander.

From 1966 until his death in 2011, Waltraut Haas was married to actor Erwin Strahl, with whom she frequently performed both on the stage and in films.