Great German Actors
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- Actor
- Producer
- Director
Christoph Waltz is an Austrian-German actor. He is known for his work with American filmmaker Quentin Tarantino, receiving acclaim for portraying SS-Standartenführer Hans Landa in Inglourious Basterds (2009) and bounty hunter Dr. King Schultz in Django Unchained (2012). For each performance, he won an Academy Award, a BAFTA Award, and a Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor. Additionally, he received the Best Actor Award at the Cannes Film Festival and a Screen Actors Guild Award for his portrayal of Landa.
Christoph Waltz was born in Vienna, Austria, into a theatrical family, his mother Elisabeth Urbancic, an Austrian-born costume designer, and Johannes Waltz, a German-born stage builder. He has three siblings. His maternal grandmother was Viennese Burgtheater actress Maria Mayen, and his step-grandfather was fellow Burgtheater actor Emmerich Reimers. His maternal grandfather, Rudolf von Urban, was a psychologist and psychiatrist who wrote the 1949 book "Sex Perfection and Marital Happiness".
Waltz attended the Theresianium and Billrothstrasse in Vienna. Upon graduation, he attended the Max-Reinhardt-Seminar before going to New York to the Lee Strasberg Institute. While in New York, Christoph met his first wife, and moved back to Vienna, then to London.
During the 80s, Christoph worked primarily in theatre, commuting from his home in London to Germany. Slowly Waltz began to work in TV, taking one-off roles in series, and TV movies. Film roles soon followed. Attempts to break into English-speaking film and TV were, however, unsuccessful. Waltz has expressed his gratitude to have been able to make a living and support his family through acting. For thirty years he worked steadily, tirelessly, in this manner.
It was not until he met Quentin Tarantino that his career in Hollywood took off. The role of Colonel Hans Landa in Inglourious Basterds (2009) catapulted Waltz from a lifetime working in German TV/film to the new life of an international superstar and Academy Award-winning actor. He won 27 awards for his performance as Hans Landa, including the Cannes prix d'interpretation Masculin for 2009, the Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actor, the BAFTA Best Supporting Actor award, and the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor (which he won again for 2012's Django Unchained (2012)).
He also has portrayed computer genius Qohen Leth in the film The Zero Theorem (2013), American plagiarist Walter Keane in the biographical film _Big Eyes (2014), and 007's nemesis and head of SPECTRE Ernst Stavro Blofeld in _Spectre (2015)_. In Quentin Tarantino's 2009 film Inglourious Basterds, Waltz portrayed SS-Standartenführer Hans Landa, aka "The Jew Hunter". Clever, courteous, and multilingual - but also self-serving, cunning, implacable, and murderous. Waltz played gangster Benjamin Chudnofsky in The Green Hornet (2011). That same year, he starred in Water for Elephants (2011), Roman Polanski's Carnage (2011), and a remake of The Three Musketeers (2011). He played German bounty hunter Dr. King Schultz in Quentin Tarantino's Django Unchained (2012), a role Tarantino wrote specifically for Waltz.
Waltz resides in Berlin and Los Angeles. His wife is costume builder Judith Holste.- Actor
- Producer
Henning Baum was born on 20 September 1972 in Essen, Germany. He is an actor and producer, known for Der letzte Bulle (2010), Mit Herz und Handschellen (2002) and Jim Button and Luke the Engine Driver (2018).- Miroslav Nemec was born on 26 June 1954 in Zagreb, Croatia, Yugoslavia [now Croatia]. He is an actor, known for Tatort (1970), Der Salzbaron (1994) and Katrin ist die Beste (1997).
- Actor
- Composer
- Soundtrack
His stepfather was a chief petty officer in the Navy. He spent his childhood and youth in Neustadt, Holstein. After secondary school, he attended secondary school, switched to vocational school and then to technical high school, where he completed his technical high school diploma. He then studied music and mathematics at the University of Education for five semesters. He dropped out of his studies without graduating. He then trained at the Kiel Drama School from 1982 to 1985. As a result, Prahl worked as a theater actor at the Schleswig-Holstein State Theater as well as in touring theater and other stages. The artist then moved to Berlin in the early 1990s, where he received engagements at the Renaissance Theater, the GRIPS Theater and the Kammerspiele of the German Theater.
Prahl then switched to film and television. In 1994 he got his first TV engagement in the television series Bella Block. With the multi-award-winning, episodic film "Nachtgestalten", in which Prahl plays a police officer, a closer collaboration with director Andreas Dresen developed from 1999 onwards. He also appeared under him in the productions "Halbe Stapel" (2002) and "Willenbrock" (2004) as a cheated husband and a resourceful used car dealer. He was awarded the Bavarian Film Prize for his performance in "Half Stairs". In 2002 he played a German sergeant in the Holocaust drama "The Pianist" under the renowned director Roman Polanski. Axel Prahl has made a name for himself among audiences primarily through his versatility.
The mime masters his craft from comedy to tragic figures. His great acting achievements also include the embodiment of "little people" and narrow-minded scofflaws, as in the TV production "Hope Dies Last" (2002), which he co-created as the revenge-seeking district leader Eddy, in the award-winning TV drama "Das Miracle of Lengende" (2003), in which he plays a miner, or in the film "Befreite Zone" (2004), in which he can be seen as vacuum cleaner salesman Rolf Kubicek. He was once again awarded the Adolf Grimme Prize for his excellent casting in "Hope Dies Last". Pahl appears in the role of a representative in a music video released in 2006 for the song "If it happens" from "We Are Heroes".
Axel Pahl has been known to a larger series audience since 2002 as Chief Inspector Frank Thiel from Münster in the international television series "Tatort". In 2011, the actor separated from his second wife, with whom he has twins, after 12 years of marriage. He moved from Marienwerder in Brandenburg back to Berlin.- Actor
- Director
- Producer
Jan Josef Liefers was born on 8 August 1964 in Dresden, East Germany [now Saxony, Federal Republic of Germany]. He is an actor and director, known for Tatort (1970), The Baader Meinhof Complex (2008) and Baron on the Cannonball (2012). He has been married to Anna Loos since 5 August 2004. They have two children. He was previously married to Aleksandra Tabakova.- Actor
- Additional Crew
Lambert Hamel was born on 7 June 1940 in Ludwigshafen, Germany. He is an actor, known for Der Idiot (1968), Vater wider Willen (1995) and Rette mich, wer kann (1986).- Victoria Trauttmansdorff was born on 8 September 1960 in Vienna, Austria. She is an actress, known for The Golden Glove (2019), Gegenüber (2007) and Hannah Arendt (2012). She is married to Wolf-Dietrich Sprenger. They have two children.
- Actor
- Writer
- Director
Mario Adorf, a tell-tale name indeed. Mario calls to mind the actor's Italian roots (his father was a Calabrian surgeon) whereas Adorf reveals his German origins (his mother was a radiologist from the German region Eifel). As for the full name Mario Adorf it echoes to perfection the international character of this living legend's long career. Born in 1930, Mario Adorf was still studying drama at the famous Otto Falkenberg School in Munich when he landed his first role in the first installment of the "O8/15" series in 1954. It was a small part but it didn't go unnoticed and got him new roles in German films, the most remarkable of which being that of Bruno Lüdke, the mentally retarded serial killer in Robert Siodmak's 1957 masterpiece "Nachts, wenn der Teufel kam". It earned him his first prize (the German Film Award of the outstanding young actor of 1958). After this Mario Adorf's career turned international. His Mediterranean looks, his rugged face, his dark oily frizzy hair and his volubility made him an ideal villain in European-made westerns, spy or mafia films. These flicks - made in the 1960s - were mostly just commercial and Adorf hammed his parts but he did it so brilliantly that he alone made them watchable. From the 1970s on, the quality of his films improved and Adorf could lend his remarkable acting talents to more ambitious works such as "Il Delitto Matteotti", in which he was a striking Mussolini, or "Die Blechtrommel", where he was terrifying as a boorish grocer contaminated by Nazism. The list of great directors he worked with is impressive: Robert Siodmak, Volker Schlöndorff, Wolgang Staudte, Michel Deville, Dino Risi, Mikhaïl Kalatozov, Luigi Comencini, Peter Fleischmann, Billy Wilder, John Frankenheimer, Claude Chabrol, Fassbinder... Likewise he served many a great author, either in the theatre (Shakespeare, Tennessee Williams, Richard Nash) or the big or small screen (Grass, Böll, Schnitzler, Heny Miller, Joseph Conrad, Gorky, Patrick Süskind...). He also sang and wrote books (five novels and one memoir). Hyperactive for more than fifty-five years now, Mario Adorf, still in fine form at the age of seventy-eight, is still ... hyperactive!- Actor
- Director
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Dominique Horwitz was born on 23 April 1957 in Paris, France. He is an actor and director, known for Stalingrad (1993), Anne Frank: The Whole Story (2001) and Trickser (1997). He has been married to Anna Wittig since 2007. He was previously married to Patricia Horwitz.- Joachim Król was born on 17 June 1957 in Herne, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. He is an actor, known for Maybe... Maybe Not (1994), Tatort (1970) and Run Lola Run (1998).
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- Director
- Writer
Udo Wachtveitl was born on 21 October 1958 in Munich, Bavaria, West Germany. He is an actor and director, known for Tatort (1970), Die fünfte Jahreszeit (1982) and Im Schleudergang (2013).- Axel Milberg was born on 1 August 1956 in Kiel, Germany. He is an actor, known for Tatort (1970), Doktor Martin (2007) and Hannah Arendt (2012). He has been married to Judith Betzler since January 2004. They have one child.
- Actor
- Producer
- Director
Moritz Bleibtreu is a German actor born on August 13, 1971 in Munich growing up in Hamburg. He first appears in children's television series Neues aus Uhlenbusch (1977) at the age of six. His breakthrough was the role called "Abdul" in the movie Knockin' on Heaven's Door (1997). He also became internationally known for his work on Run Lola Run (1998), The Experiment (2001) and World War Z (2013). In Germany, He is well known for the classic stoner-movie called Lammbock (2001) in which he plays the leading role. He speaks fluent German, English, French and Italian and is the son of Austrian actors Hans Brenner and Monica Bleibtreu.- Actress
- Writer
She grew up in Vaihingen as the daughter of a nurse and a journalist. Her father suffered from Alzheimer's and cancer and died when she was 13 years old. Mother and daughter took turns caring for her. After graduating from school with a high school diploma, she studied at the New Munich Drama School until 1987, followed by an internship at the Munich Kammerspiele. The first engagements followed; Between 1988 and 1992 she played at theaters in Stuttgart, Wilhelmshaven and Munich, among others. She found her way into film in 1988 at the age of 25. Sawatzki made her debut in "Faust - From Heaven through the World to Hell" directed by Dieter Dorn. This was followed by numerous episodic roles in TV series.
From 1993 she played the role of Luise Gehbauer in the ARD series "Aufachse", with Manfred Krug in the leading role. From 1995 to 1998, Sawatzki appeared in the role of Sonja Hersfeld in 26 episodes of the television series "A.S. - Danger is His Business". From 1997 she was in a relationship with the actor Christian Berkel, whom she married in 2002. Together they became parents to two sons in 1999 and 2002. The couple settled in Berlin-Schlachtersee. She celebrated her breakthrough in 1997 in the role of Alma Siebert in the film "The Pharmacist" based on the novel by Ingrid Noll. In 1989 she appeared in six episodes of the TV drama "The King of St. Pauli". In 1999 she received the role of Sonja Vogel in the cinema production "Late Show", directed by Helmut Dietl, with Thomas Gottschalk and Harald Schmidt in the leading roles.
In 2001 she appeared in front of the camera for the first time as crime scene chief inspector Charlotte Singer, alongside her colleague Fritz Dellwo (Jörg Schüttauf). Until 2009 she played the role in 18 productions. She was awarded the Adolf Grimme Prize (2005) and the Hessian Television Prize (2006), among others. Meanwhile, in 2003 she was photographed for a photo series in the German edition of "Playboy". She made her stage debut alongside her husband in 2004 at the Renaissance Theater Berlin in Edward Albee's "The Goat or Who is Sylvia?". For her portrayal of Adina Gabriel in the television series "Poor Millionaires" from 2005 to 2006, Sawatzki was honored with the German Comedy Prize as Best Actress.
She received another award for Best Actress at the World Film Festival Montréal for the role of Evchen Morell in the television film "The Other Boy" from 2007. In 2009 she received the German Reading Prize. She then played the housewife Isabella "Bella" Jung in the six-part ZDF film series of the same name from 2010 to 2014. She received the Bavarian Television Prize in 2011 for "Bella Vita". In the same year, Sawatzki took part in the 4th season of the RTL dance show "Let's Dance". Together with her Italian dance partner Stefano Terrazzino, she took 8th place. She also made a name for herself as a dubbing and audio book speaker; Her speaking role in the animated film "Puss in Boots" was honored at the Stuttgart Animated Film Festival in 2011.
In 2013 she published her first two novels, "An Too Good Girl" and "Take a Deep Breath, the Family is Coming"; The material was made into a film in 2015. From July 2015 she hosted the TLC crime documentary series "Deadly Sins - Thou Shalt Not Kill". In 2019, Piper published her sixth title "Andrea Sawatzki - Others Do It for a Job". In the same year she played the second leading role in the cinema production "Zoro's Solo"; The tragicomedy was also Mert Dincer's film debut.- Actor
- Soundtrack
Ulrich Noethen was born on 18 November 1959 in Munich, Germany. He is an actor, known for Downfall (2004), Das Sams (2001) and Das fliegende Klassenzimmer (2003). He was previously married to Friederike Wagner.- Actor
- Soundtrack
Günther Maria Halmer was born on 5 January 1943 in Rosenheim, Bavaria, Germany. He is an actor, known for Sophie's Choice (1982), Gandhi (1982) and Anwalt Abel (1988). He has been married to Claudia Halmer since 1976. They have two children.- Actress
- Writer
Ann-Kathrin Kramer was born on 4 April 1966 in Wuppertal, North Rhine-Westphalia, West Germany. She is an actress and writer, known for Sea of Lies (2008), Callboys - Jede Lust hat ihren Preis (1999) and Heaven & A Thing Called Love (2005). She has been married to Harald Krassnitzer since 7 July 2009. She was previously married to Peter Finkbeiner.- Actress
- Soundtrack
Nina Kunzendorf was born on 10 November 1971 in Mannheim, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. She is an actress, known for Phoenix (2014), Tatort (1970) and Unspoken (2010).- Actor
- Director
- Additional Crew
Volker Lechtenbrink was born on 18 August 1944 in Cranz, East Prussia, Germany [now Zelenogradsk, Kaliningrad Oblast, Russia]. He was an actor and director, known for M.E.T.R.O. - Ein Team auf Leben und Tod (2006), Der Hausgeist (1991) and The Bridge (1959). He was married to Gül Ural-Aytekin, Jeannette Arndt, Anja Topf and Yvonne van Meerveld. He died on 22 November 2021 in Hamburg, Germany.- Lisa Martinek studied acting at the Hamburg University for Music and Theatre from 1993 to 1997. During that time she also performed at the Thalia Theater in Hamburg and acted in several TV and film productions. From 1997 to 2001 she was a member of the Schauspielhaus Leipzig, engagements with Schauspiel Frankfurt and Deutsches Theater Berlin followed. For her role as bike courier Lena in the movie Trial by Fire (Härtetest) she was nominated for the Deutscher Filmpreis, the highest German movie award, in 1998. She was also nominated for the Deutscher Fernsehpreis (German Television Award) in the category Best Lead for her work in the made-for-TV movie Jagd auf den Flammenmann. She starred alongside Academy Award winner Christoph Waltz in the 2007 made-for-TV remake of Helmut Käutner's Die Zürcher Verlobung and played the role of Juliane, which, in the original 50 years prior, had been played by Lilo Pulver. From 2006 to 2011 she starred as inspector Clara Hertz alongside Charlotte Schwab in the ZDF crime series Das Duo. Lisa Martinek lives with her husband Giulio Ricciarelli and their children in Berlin and Munich.
- Charlotte Schwab was born on 17 December 1952 in Basel, Switzerland. She is an actress and publicist, known for Alarm für Cobra 11 - Einsatz für Team 2 (2003), Alarm für Cobra 11 - Die Autobahnpolizei (1996) and Kreuzfahrt ins Glück (2007). She is married to Sven-Eric Bechtolf. They have one child. She was previously married to Peter Simonischek.
- Peter Prager was born on 18 March 1952 in Leipzig, German Democratic Republic. He is an actor, known for Nord bei Nordwest (2014), Die Stadt und die Macht (2016) and Klemperer - Ein Leben in Deutschland (1999). He is married to Suse. He was previously married to Cornelia and ???.
- Actor
- Producer
- Director
Daniel Brühl was born in Barcelona, Spain. His father was German TV director Hanno Brühl (1937-2010), who was born in São Paulo, Brazil. His Spanish mother was a teacher. He also has a brother and a sister, Oliver and Miriam. Shortly after his birth, his family moved to Cologne, Germany, where he grew up and attended the Dreikönigsgymnasium. Brought up in a fully multilingual home, he speaks fluent German, English, Portuguese, Spanish, French and Catalan.- Sylvester Groth was born in Jerichow, German Democratic Republic on March 31st, 1958. He is an actor with an extensive television and theater career, well known for portraying Goebbels in Inglourious Basterds (2009), Clausen in Dark (2019) and starring in The Man from U.N.C.L.E. (2015), Stalingrad (1993) and Deutschland 83 (2015).
- Christian Berkel was born on 28 October 1957 in West Berlin, West Germany. He is an actor, known for Valkyrie (2008), The Man from U.N.C.L.E. (2015) and Downfall (2004). He has been married to Andrea Sawatzki since 17 December 2011. They have two children.