Internationally known for his single line in National Lampoon's National Lampoon's European Vacation (1985) : "Wer zum Teufel waren die Leute?" (Who the devil were those people?).
Very popular actor in his home town Cologne, which erected a monument
in his honor during his lifetime and named a square near his theater
the Willy-Millowitsch-Platz.
After taking over the "Volkstheater Millowitsch", where plays in
Cologne dialect have been shown, from his father in 1940, he was its
director until 1996.