Author page with no posts – show author name

like the title states, i wish to display the ‘name’ of the author even there are no posts by him/her.
but ‘get_the_author()’ doesnt return the string and i cant figure out any other method.

the code here doesnt work for me as suggested by WP:
https://www.ads-software.com/support/topic/author-page-with-no-posts?replies=6#post-798266

my author.php file is quite simple and contains this:

<?php if ( have_posts() ) the_post(); ?>
<div id="content" role="main">
    <h1 class="page-title">
    <?php get_the_author(); ?>
    </h1>
    <?php rewind_posts();
    get_template_part( 'loop', 'author' ); ?>
</div>

would appreciate any help here…