His parents were Peter and Käthe Millowitsch and came from a long family tradition of engagement with the theater which can be traced back to 1792.

During World War II, the theater was damaged, but not severely, and by October 1945 it was fully restored, owing to the support of mayor and later German chancellor, Konrad Adenauer, who proclaimed that the people need something to laugh about again.

Despite bitter criticism of the entry of low 'folk culture' into television by the director of the Nordwestdeutscher Rundfunk, Adolf Grimme, it was an instant success.

He renovated the theater in 1967 and the Volkstheater once again became a focal point of local culture, and many young dialect artists started their careers there.

Throughout the 1970s, Millowitsch stuck to the folk theater, and it wasn't until the end of the 1980s that he also turned back to television and took the title role in a detective series as Kommissar Klefisch, whom he played until 1996.

Aside from his theatrical merits, he also wrote classic popular folk songs, such as Schnaps, das war sein letztes Wort and Wir sind alle kleine Sünderlein.

He also embraced political causes and in 1992 he participated in the important anti-Nazi campaign, Arsch huh, Zäng ussenander (Kölsch, meaning: Move your butts and pipe up!