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- Actress
- Producer
- Soundtrack
Zazie Beetz (born c. 1991) is a German-American actress known for the role of Vanessa on Atlanta (2016), as well as for starring in Deadpool 2 (2018), Joker (2019), and Nine Days (2020).
Born in Berlin to a German father and an African-American mother, Beetz was raised in New York speaking both German and English at home. Performing in community theaters and local stages since childhood, Zazie found her joy in grade school and grew up acting. She attended LaGuardia Arts High school, where she continued to engage her love for performing arts, but decided to not pursue a conservatory program afterward. Instead, she went to Skidmore College, where she received a bachelor's degree in French. Beetz currently resides in her hometown, New York.- Actor
- Producer
- Writer
Actor and musician Bruce Willis is well known for playing wisecracking or hard-edged characters, often in spectacular action films. Collectively, he has appeared in films that have grossed in excess of $2.5 billion USD.
Walter Bruce Willis was born on March 19, 1955, in Idar-Oberstein, West Germany, to a German mother, Marlene Kassel, and an American father, David Andrew Willis (from Carneys Point, New Jersey), who were then living on a United States military base. His family moved to the U.S. shortly after he was born, and he was raised in Penns Grove, New Jersey, where his mother worked at a bank and his father was a welder and factory worker. Willis picked up an interest for the dramatic arts in high school, and was allegedly "discovered" whilst working in a café in New York City and then appeared in a couple of off-Broadway productions. While bartending one night, he was seen by a casting director who liked his personality and needed a bartender for a small movie role.
After countless auditions, Willis contributed minor film appearances, usually uncredited, before landing the role of private eye "David Addison" alongside sultry Cybill Shepherd in the hit romantic comedy television series Moonlighting (1985). His sarcastic and wisecracking P.I. is seen by some as a dry run for the role of hard-boiled NYC detective "John McClane" in the monster hit Die Hard (1988), in which Willis' character single-handedly battled a gang of ruthless international thieves in a Los Angeles skyscraper. He reprised the role of McClane in the sequel, Die Hard 2 (1990), set at a snowbound Washington's Dulles International Airport as a group of renegade Special Forces soldiers seek to repatriate a corrupt South American general. Excellent box office returns demanded a further sequel Die Hard with a Vengeance (1995), this time co-starring Samuel L. Jackson as a cynical Harlem shop owner unwittingly thrust into assisting McClane during a terrorist bombing campaign on a sweltering day in New York.
Willis found time out from all the action mayhem to provide the voice of "Mikey" the baby in the very popular family comedies Look Who's Talking (1989), and its sequel Look Who's Talking Too (1990) also starring John Travolta and Kirstie Alley. Over the next decade, Willis starred in some very successful films, some very offbeat films and some unfortunate box office flops. The Bonfire of the Vanities (1990) and Hudson Hawk (1991) were both large scale financial disasters that were savaged by the critics, and both are arguably best left off the CVs of all the actors involved, however Willis was still popular with movie audiences and selling plenty of theatre tickets with the hyper-violent The Last Boy Scout (1991), the darkly humored Death Becomes Her (1992) and the mediocre police thriller Striking Distance (1993).
During the 1990s, Willis also appeared in several independent and low budget productions that won him new fans and praise from the critics for his intriguing performances working with some very diverse film directors. He appeared in the oddly appealing North (1994), as a cagey prizefighter in the Quentin Tarantino directed mega-hit Pulp Fiction (1994), the Terry Gilliam directed apocalyptic thriller 12 Monkeys (1995), the Luc Besson directed sci-fi opus The Fifth Element (1997) and the M. Night Shyamalan directed spine-tingling epic The Sixth Sense (1999).
Willis next starred in the gangster comedy The Whole Nine Yards (2000), worked again with "hot" director M. Night Shyamalan in the less than gripping Unbreakable (2000), and in two military dramas, Hart's War (2002) and Tears of the Sun (2003) that both failed to really fire with movie audiences or critics alike. However, Willis bounced back into the spotlight in the critically applauded Frank Miller graphic novel turned movie Sin City (2005), the voice of "RJ" the scheming raccoon in the animated hit Over the Hedge (2006) and "Die Hard" fans rejoiced to see "John McClane" return to the big screen in the high tech Live Free or Die Hard (2007) aka "Die Hard 4.0".
Willis was married to actress Demi Moore for approximately thirteen years and they share custody to their three daughters.- Actress
- Additional Crew
- Soundtrack
Sandra Hüller was born in Suhl. She studied acting at the Ernst Busch Academy of Dramatic Arts in Berlin. For her performance of Anneliese Michel in Hans-Christian Schmid's drama Requiem she won The Silver Bear for Best Actress. She is internationally known for her starring role in Maren Ade's Toni Erdmann, for which she won among others the European Film Award and the Toronto Film Critics Association Award for Best Actress.- Actor
- Producer
- Executive
Michael Fassbender is an Irish actor who was born in Heidelberg, Germany, to a German father, Josef, and an Irish mother, Adele (originally from Larne, County Antrim, in Northern Ireland). Michael was raised in the town of Killarney, Co. Kerry, in south-west Ireland, where his family moved to when he was two years old. His parents ran a restaurant (his father is a chef).
Fassbender is based in London, England, and became known in the U.S. after his role in the Quentin Tarantino's Inglourious Basterds (2009). In 2011, Fassbender debuted as the Marvel antihero Magneto in the prequel X-Men: First Class (2011); he would go on to share the role with Ian McKellen in X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014). Also in 2011, Fassbender's performance as a sex addict in Shame (2011) received critical acclaim. He won the Volpi Cup for Best Actor at the Venice Film Festival and was nominated for Golden Globe and BAFTA Awards. In 2013, his role as slave owner Edwin Epps in slavery epic 12 Years a Slave (2013) was similarly praised, earning him his first Oscar nomination, for Best Supporting Actor. 12 Years a Slave marked Fassbender's third collaboration with Steve McQueen, who also directed Hunger and Shame. In 2013, Fassbender appeared in another Ridley Scott film, The Counselor (2013). In 2015, he portrayed Steve Jobs (2015) in the Danny Boyle-directed biopic of the same name, and played Macbeth (2015) in Justin Kurzel's adaptation of William Shakespeare's play. For the former, he has received Academy Award, BAFTA, Golden Globe and SAG nominations for Best Actor. As well as acting, Fassbender produced the 2015 western Slow West (2015), which he also starred in.- Actress
- Producer
- Camera and Electrical Department
Diane Kruger was born Diane Heidkrüger in Algermissen, near Hildesheim, Germany, to Maria-Theresa, a bank employee, and Hans-Heinrich Heidkrüger, a computer specialist. She studied ballet with the Royal Ballet in London before an injury ended her career. She returned to Germany and became a top fashion model. She later pursued acting and relocated to Paris at the suggestion of filmmaker Luc Besson (The Fifth Element (1997)). She married French actor Guillaume Canet (The Beach (2000)) in 2001.- Actress
- Producer
- Director
At fourteen years old, Q'orianka Kilcher emerged into the front ranks of young actresses with her portrayal of Pocahontas opposite Colin Farrell and Christian Bale in Terrence Malick's 'The New World', an epic about the encounter between English and North American societies in the early 1600s. Her performance won her the National Board of Reviews best breakthrough performance of 2006 and the 2006 Alma Award for best Latin American actress in a feature film, as well as numerous nominations and rave reviews.
Kilcher was born in Schweigmatt, Baden-Württemberg, Germany to a Peruvian indigenous father of Quechua-Huachipaeri background and an Alaskan-born mother of Swiss-German origin. She was raised in Kapa'a, Hawaii. Having started her performing arts career at six years old, she is not only an award-winning actress with critical acclaim, but an amazing singer, lyricist, and expert dancer. Kilcher is also a committed human rights and environmental activist, as well as a fearless, powerful, young force who uses her voice as tool to bring the need for universal dignity, compassion, environmental justice, and basic Human Rights to the attention of the international community.
Traveling frequently to speak at youth events, colleges, and universities, Kilcher has been invited as a featured keynote speaker and workshop facilitator at many international conferences and events for organizations such as Amnesty International, the I.F.G. (International Forum on Globalization), and Amazon Watch I.F.I.P. (International Funders for Indigenous Peoples). She was a panelist on the "Indigenous Peoples: Human Rights, Dignity and Development with Identity in collaboration with the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples" United Nations panel. She also lends her energy as spokeswoman, collaborator, and supporter to several international and national NGOs.
In her free time, Kilcher is an accomplished singer/song-writer, and recently launched her own youth driven human rights and environmental organization on Q Initiative, heading campaigns to connect young Hollywood with youth-activist leaders and projects from around the world.
Through her production company, IQ-Films, Kilcher is also producing several cause-driven documentaries and youth-programming projects.- Actress
- Soundtrack
Jeri Ryan was born Jeri Lynn Zimmerman on February 22, 1968 in Munich, West Germany, to Gerhard Florian Zimmerman, a Master Sergeant in the United States Army, and his wife Sharon, a social worker. She and her older brother Mark grew up on several military bases, including Kansas, Maryland, Hawaii, Georgia and Texas. Finally, at age 11, her father retired from the Army and her family settled down in Paducah, Kentucky. After graduating from Lone Oak High School in 1986, she attended Northwestern University Chicago as a National Merit Scholar. While studying there, she won a number of beauty contests (a.o.- sixth annual Miss Northwestern Alpha Delta Phi Pageant in 1989).
With a B.S. degree in Theatre, she came to Los Angeles, California and since then she has been on several television series and films - including popular series like Matlock (1986), Melrose Place (1992) and Star Trek: Voyager (1995) as well as Dark Skies (1996). Her television experience also includes roles in a variety of telefilms including Nightmare in Columbia County (1991), NBC's In the Line of Duty: Ambush in Waco (1993), Co-ed Call Girl (1996), The Sentinel (1996), Men Cry Bullets (1998), Dracula 2000 (2000), The Last Man (2000) and Down with Love (2003). Jeri Ryan resides in an area of Los Angeles, California with her husband chef Christophe Eme, her son Alex and daughter Gisele.- Actress
- Soundtrack
Svenja Jung was born in Weroth, Germany on May 28th, 1993. She is an actor well known for her roles in Zeit der Geheimnisse (2019), Fucking Berlin (2016), Die Mitte der Welt (2016), and Deutschland89 (2020). She also acted in the Netflix miniseries Holiday Secrets (2019), alongside Corinna Harfouch. She was nominated for the New Faces Award in 2017.- Actress
- Producer
- Additional Crew
After playing a lead role in Oscar and Golden Globe nominated movie "Schtonk!" by Helmut Dietl 1992, Veronica Ferres became one of the most well-known German actresses. She has worked in over one hundred and fifty feature films; more than thirty of which were American / English productions. Two Emmy-Award-winning productions stand out among the numerous films, TV series and TV movies that Veronica has done.
Her breakthrough into film was imminent following her lead role in the successful comedy "The Superwoman (Das Superweib)", followed by the Academy Award nominated "Schtonk!", "Rossini" and "Saviours in the night". Recent films include "Short Term Memory Loss", and the remarkable comedy "Under German Beds (Unter Deutschen Betten)". In 2018 Veronica was featured in the film "Siberia", alongside Keanu Reeves, as well as "Berlin, I Love You" with Helen Mirren.
Among the highlights of her lengthy career in the international film-making world, include work with Catherine Zeta-Jones in "Catherine the Great", John Malkovich in "Ladies Room", "Klimt", "The Giacomo Variation" and "Les Misérables", Jeff Goldblum in "Adam Resurrected", Nicholas Cage in "Pay the Ghost", Robert De Niro, Danny DeVito and Harvey Keitel in "The Comedian", Michael Shannon & Gabriel Garcia Bernal in Werner Herzog's "Salt and Fire", and Sir Ben Kingsley in "Death of an Author".
Some of her recent works include Nicholas Jarecki's "Crisis", alongside Gary Oldman and Luke Evans, the mystery thriller "The darker the lake" directed by Lok Kwan Woo and the romantic comedy "Love, Weddings and Other Disasters" starring Diane Keaton and Jeremy Irons. Furthermore she appeared in "Best Sellers" with Michael Caine and in "Every breath you take" with Casey Affleck, Michelle Monaghan and Sam Claflin. In 2020 she starred in the thriller "Zero Contact" alongside Anthony Hopkins. Her short film Malou was on the Academy Award short-list for 2020. In 2021, she shot "Paradise Highway" with Juliette Binoche and Morgan Freeman, which premiered at the Locarno Film Festival.
In 2022 she starred in the action thriller "The Bricklayer" alongside Aaron Eckhart and Nina Dobrev. Furthermore, Veronica played a leading role in the popular German television series "Tatort" in the episode "Königinnen" directed by Rudi Gaul.
In the same year, Veronica Ferres played in the new film adaptation of Robert E. Howard's original Marvel comic "Red Sonja", directed by M.J. Bassett the mother of Red Sonja as well as the Goddess Ashera alongside Mathila Lutz, Wallis Day and Robert Sheehan. Recently she finished the english language streaming series "El Turco" in Budapest.
In 2023, Veronica Ferres shot the American feature film "Unholy Trinity" in Montana, directed by Richard Gray, where she played the female lead alongside Pierce Brosnan and Samuel L. Jackson. She also starred in the ZDFneo horror series "Hameln" directed by Rainier Matsutani, which is based on the legend of the "Pied Piper of Hamelin", as well as the fictional feature film "Andere Eltern", directed by Lutz Heineking, jr.
She is an alumna of University of Munich where she studied German literature, psychology and drama. Furthermore she teaches at the German University of Television and Film school in Munich.
A few of her personal awards include: The Adolph Grimme Prize, The German Television Prize, two Golden Camera Awards, The Bavarian Film Award, The Bavarian Television Prize, two Bambi Awards as well as an Emmy for "The Manns" (Best Mini Series).- Director
- Producer
- Writer
Wim Wenders is an Oscar-nominated German filmmaker who was born Ernst Wilhelm Wenders on August 14, 1945 in Düsseldorf, which then was located in the British Occupation Zone of what became the Bundesrepublik Deutschland (Federal Republic of Germany, known colloquially as West Germany until reunification). At university, Wenders originally studied to become a physician before switching to philosophy before terminating his studies in 1965. Moving to Paris, he intended to become a painter.
He fell in love with the cinema but failed to gain admission to the French national film school. He supported himself as an engraver while attending movie houses. Upon his return to West Germany in 1967, he was employed by United Artists at its Düsseldorf office before he was accepted by the University of Television and Film Munich school for its autumn 1967 semester, where he remained until 1970. While attending film school, he worked as a newspaper film critic. In addition to shorts, he made a feature film as part of his studies, Summer in the City (1971).
Wenders gained recognition as part of the German New Wave of the 1970s. Other directors that were part of the New German Cinema were Rainer Werner Fassbinder and Werner Herzog. His second feature, a film made from Peter Handke's novel The Goalie's Anxiety at the Penalty Kick (1972), brought him acclaim, as did Alice in the Cities (1974) and Kings of the Road (1976). It was his 1977 feature The American Friend (1977) ("The American Friend"), starring Dennis Hopper as Patricia Highsmith's anti-hero Tom Ripley, that represented his international breakthrough. He was nominated for the Palme d'Or at the 1977 Cannes Film Festival for "The American Friend", which was cited as Best Foreign Film by the National Board of Review in the United States.
Francis Ford Coppola, as producer, gave Wenders the chance to direct in America, but Hammett (1982) (1982) was a critical and commercial failure. However, his American-made Paris, Texas (1984) (1984) received critical hosannas, winning three awards at Cannes, including the Palme d'Or, and Wenders won a BAFTA for best director. "Paris, Texas" was a prelude to his greatest success, 1987's Wings of Desire (1987) ("Wings of Desire"), which he made back in Germany. The film brought him the best director award at Cannes and was a solid hit, even spawning an egregious Hollywood remake.
Wenders followed it up with a critical and commercial flop in 1991, Until the End of the World (1991) ("Until the End of the World"), though Faraway, So Close! (1993) won the Grand Prize of the Jury at Cannes. Still, is reputation as a feature film director never quite recovered in the United States after the bomb that was "Until the End of the World." Since the mid-1990s, Wenders has distinguished himself as a non-fiction filmmaker, directing several highly acclaimed documentaries, most notably Buena Vista Social Club (1999) and Pina (2011), both of which brought him Oscar nominations.- Actor
- Soundtrack
Louis Hofmann was born in the Bensberg district of Bergisch Gladbach, and grew up in Cologne.
His first appearance on TV was for Servicezeit (1997), an evening magazine program on WDR Fernsehen television network. 2 years later, he decided to become an actor and applied to an acting agency and was subsequently represented by Agentur Schwarz.
Hofmann guest-starred in legal comedy-drama Danni Lowinski (2010) and television series Der verlorene Vater (2010). He also appeared in the television film Tod in Istanbul (2010) and the TV series Alarm für Cobra 11 - Die Autobahnpolizei (1996)
Hofmann's first cinematic leading role was in the Tom Sawyer (2011) by director Hermine Huntgeburth's adaptation of Mark Twain's classic novel. Along with Leon Seidel, who played the role of Huck Finn, he sang on the soundtrack of the film in the song, "Barfuß Gehen" ("Going Barefoot"), and represented the same character in The Adventures of Huck Finn (2012).
In 2013, Hofmann played a guest-starring role in an episode of the television series Stolberg (2006). Beginning on 24 October 2013 Hofmann appeared in the comedy The Almost Perfect Man (2013)
His role as Wolfgang in film Sanctuary (2015) earned him the 2015 Bavarian Film Prize as Best Newcomer Actor and the 2016 German Actors Award (Deutscher Schauspielerpreis) in the newcomer category. His first international role as a German prisoner of war in the Danish-German co-production Land of Mine (2015) (Danish: Under sandet) earned him the Best Supporting Actor prize at Denmark's Bodil Awards in 2016. At the 2016 German Film Awards, he received with the Special Prize Jaeger-LeCoultre Homage to German Cinema presented to honor the work of German actors in international films.
In 2016, Hofmann played Phil in Center of My World (2016), a coming-of-age romantic drama film directed by Jakob M. Erwa, based on the 1998 bestselling novel The Centre of the World by Andreas Steinhöfel. He was presented with a European Shooting Stars Award at Berlinale 2017 by the European Film Promotion organization.
He was cast as Jonas Kahnwald in Dark (2017), a science fiction thriller released on Netflix on 1 December 2017 and followed with two seasons. Dark (2017) project was one of four projects he played in a single year, two of them in English.
He played the lead role in the German film Prelude (2019). The film tells about the piano student David, who is going through the torments of first love. Hofmann himself described this picture as "a mixture of the films Whiplash and Black Swan". In an interview, he admitted that only after this film he realized what character parts he is drawn to: to a dramatic, suffering character overwhelmed by life circumstances.- Music Department
- Composer
- Actor
German-born composer Hans Zimmer is recognized as one of Hollywood's most innovative musical talents. He featured in the music video for The Buggles' single "Video Killed the Radio Star", which became a worldwide hit and helped usher in a new era of global entertainment as the first music video to be aired on MTV (August 1, 1981).
Hans Florian Zimmer was born in Frankfurt am Main, then in West Germany, the son of Brigitte (Weil) and Hans Joachim Zimmer. He entered the world of film music in London during a long collaboration with famed composer and mentor Stanley Myers, which included the film My Beautiful Laundrette (1985). He soon began work on several successful solo projects, including the critically acclaimed A World Apart, and during these years Zimmer pioneered the use of combining old and new musical technologies. Today, this work has earned him the reputation of being the father of integrating the electronic musical world with traditional orchestral arrangements.
A turning point in Zimmer's career came in 1988 when he was asked to score Rain Man for director Barry Levinson. The film went on to win the Oscar for Best Picture of the Year and earned Zimmer his first Academy Award Nomination for Best Original Score. The next year, Zimmer composed the score for another Best Picture Oscar recipient, Driving Miss Daisy (1989), starring Jessica Tandy, and Morgan Freeman.
Having already scored two Best Picture winners, in the early 1990s, Zimmer cemented his position as a preeminent talent with the award-winning score for The Lion King (1994). The soundtrack has sold over 15 million copies to date and earned him an Academy Award for Best Original Score, a Golden Globe, an American Music Award, a Tony, and two Grammy Awards. In total, Zimmer's work has been nominated for 7 Golden Globes, 7 Grammys and seven Oscars for Rain Man (1988), Gladiator (2000), The Lion King (1994), As Good as It Gets (1997), The The Preacher's Wife (1996), The Thin Red Line (1998), The Prince of Egypt (1998), and The Last Samurai (2003).
With his career in full swing, Zimmer was anxious to replicate the mentoring experience he had benefited from under Stanley Myers' guidance. With state-of-the-art technology and a supportive creative environment, Zimmer was able to offer film-scoring opportunities to young composers at his Santa Monica-based musical "think tank." This approach helped launch the careers of such notable composers as Mark Mancina, John Powell, Harry Gregson-Williams, Nick Glennie-Smith, and Klaus Badelt.
In 2000, Zimmer scored the music for Gladiator (2000), for which he received an Oscar nomination, in addition to Golden Globe and Broadcast Film Critics Awards for his epic score. It sold more than three million copies worldwide and spawned a second album Gladiator: More Music From The Motion Picture, released on the Universal Classics/Decca label. Zimmer's other scores that year included Mission: Impossible II (2000), The Road to El Dorado (2000), and An Everlasting Piece (2000), directed by Barry Levinson.
Some of his other impressive scores include Pearl Harbor (2001), The Ring (2002), four films directed by Ridley Scott; Matchstick Men (2003), Hannibal (2001), Black Hawk Down (2001), and Thelma & Louise (1991), Penny Marshall's Riding in Cars with Boys (2001), and A League of Their Own (1992), Tony Scott's True Romance (1993), Tears of the Sun (2003), Ron Howard's Backdraft (1991), Days of Thunder (1990), Smilla's Sense of Snow (1997), and the animated Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron (2002) for which he also co-wrote four of the songs with Bryan Adams, including the Golden Globe nominated Here I Am.
At the 27th annual Flanders International Film Festival, Zimmer performed live for the first time in concert with a 100-piece orchestra and a 100-voice choir. Choosing selections from his impressive body of work, Zimmer performed newly orchestrated concert versions of Gladiator, Mission: Impossible II (2000), Rain Man (1988), The Lion King (1994), and The Thin Red Line (1998). The concert was recorded by Decca and released as a concert album entitled "The Wings Of A Film: The Music Of Hans Zimmer."
In 2003, Zimmer completed his 100th film score for the film The Last Samurai, starring Tom Cruise, for which he received both a Golden Globe and a Broadcast Film Critics nomination. Zimmer then scored Nancy Meyers' comedy Something's Gotta Give (2003), the animated Dreamworks film, Shark Tale (2004) (featuring voices of Will Smith, Renée Zellweger, Robert De Niro, Jack Black, and Martin Scorsese), and Jim Brooks' Spanglish (2004) starring Adam Sandler and Téa Leoni (for which he also received a Golden Globe nomination). His 2005 projects include Paramount's The Weather Man (2005) starring Nicolas Cage, Dreamworks' Madagascar (2005), and the Warner Bros. summer release, Batman Begins (2005).
Zimmer's additional honors and awards include the prestigious Lifetime Achievement Award in Film Composition from the National Board of Review, and the Frederick Loewe Award in 2003 at the Palm Springs International Film Festival. He has also received ASCAP's Henry Mancini Award for Lifetime Achievement. Hans and his wife live in Los Angeles and he is the father of four children.- Actor
- Producer
- Director
Actor, producer, writer, and director Til Schweiger is Germany's best-known actor and also the country's most successful director. With more than 51 Million admissions no other German filmmaker drew more people to cinemas. He runs his own production company Barefoot Films based in Berlin, Germany.
Til Schweiger (born December 19, 1963) was raised along with his two brothers in his hometown Giessen. In his early years, Schweiger began studying German and Medicine. He decided to drop out of university to pursue his career as an actor and went to drama school from 1986-1989. After graduation, he played at several theaters as a stage actor to gain more experience.
In 1991, Schweiger landed his first lead role in Manta, Manta (1991) following his big breakthrough role on Maybe... Maybe Not (1994) with the support of Germany's renowned film producer and mentor Bernd Eichinger. In 1996, Til Schweiger founded his first film production company Mr. Brown Entertainment together with business partner and film producer Tom Zickler. Schweiger debuted as producer with Knockin' on Heaven's Door (1997) winning several Festival Awards. The road movie remains a cult favorite with audiences worldwide. Within the same year, Schweiger was the first foreign actor to win the "Polish Oscar" at the International Warsaw Film festival for his performance in in Bandyta (1997). He has since built up acting credits in dozens of German movies including Der Eisbär (1998), where Schweiger made his debut as director.
Judas Kiss (1998) was Schweiger's first role in an international film. He then appeared in several internationally acclaimed movies including SLC Punk! (1998), The Replacement Killers (1998), Driven (2001), Intimate Affairs (2001), Lara Croft: Tomb Raider - The Cradle of Life (2003), King Arthur (2004), New Year's Eve (2011), and many more.
To this day, Schweiger has delivered a series of German-language hits and won numerous Awards as actor/writer/director/producer: Barefoot (2005) grossed about $7,7 million with 1,5 million admissions, Rabbit Without Ears (2007) was up to 2014 Schweiger's most successful film and earned some $74 million locally, followed by the sequel Rabbit Without Ears 2 (2009). In 2011, Schweiger wrote, produced and directed Kokowääh (2011), which grossed $43 million, starring alongside his youngest daughter Emma. A sequel hit theaters in 2013.
As an actor, he received widespread critical acclaim and further recognition for his portrayal as the legendary Hugo Stieglitz in Quentin Tarantino's Inglourious Basterds (2009).
In December 2014, Til Schweiger released the family-friendly dramedy Head Full of Honey (2014) , which he co-wrote, directed, produced and starred in. It is his most successful film to date breaking the 6, 3 million admissions barrier of his 2007 hit Rabbit Without Ears (2007).
Schweiger, who started his career in German TV, plays the lead role on hit local crimes series Tatort (1970)(Hamburg) (Scene of the Crime). His debut generated the best ratings for the long-running procedural in 20 years.- Actor
- Writer
- Producer
Martin Fitzgerald Lawrence is an African-American comedian, producer, writer, director and actor. He is known for his roles in the Bad Boys trilogy, Martin, Def Comedy Jam, Big Momma's House, Open Season, House Party, Boomerang, Wild Hogs, What's Happening Now!!, Nothing to Lose, Life and Blue Streak. He has three daughters.- Director
- Writer
- Producer
Director. Writer. Producer. Actor. Poet. He studied history, literature and theatre for some time, but didn't finish it and founded instead his own film production company in 1963. Later in his life, Herzog also staged several operas in Bayreuth, Germany, and at the Milan Scala in Italy. Herzog has won numerous national and international awards for his poetic feature and documentary films.- Actress
- Director
- Writer
Franka Potente was born on 22 July 1974 in the German city of Münster, to Hildegard, a medical assistant, and Dieter Potente, a teacher, and raised in the nearby town of Dülmen. After her graduation in 1994, she went to the Otto-Falckenberg-Schule, a drama school in Munich, but soon broke off to study at the Lee Strasberg Theatre Institute in New York. After a notable debut in Nach Fünf im Urwald (1995), the role of the heroine in Run Lola Run (1998), directed by her then longtime companion Tom Tykwer was her national breakthrough. After some other successful movies in Germany, she starred in several Hollywood productions, most prominently The Bourne Identity (2002) and The Bourne Supremacy (2004) and lived one year in Los Angeles. After her return to Berlin, she continues working with German and international directors.- Actress
- Producer
- Soundtrack
Nastassja Kinski was born Nastassja Aglaia Nakszynski on January 24, 1961 in Berlin, Germany, the daughter of German actor Klaus Kinski. In 1976, she met director Roman Polanski, who urged her to study method acting with Lee Strasberg in the United States. Kinski starred in the Italian romantic drama Stay as You Are (1978) with Marcello Mastroianni, gaining her recognition in the United States after the film's release on December 21, 1979. She played the title character in Polanski's romantic drama Tess (1979), an adaptation of Thomas Hardy's novel "Tess of the d'Urbervilles" (1891).
Kinski starred in Francis Ford Coppola's romantic musical One from the Heart (1981), her first film made in the United States. The film became a box office bomb and was a major loss for Coppola's production company Zoetrope Studios. She also starred in the erotic horror movie Cat People (1982) with Malcolm McDowell, a remake of the 1942 classic of the same name. She appeared in Wim Wenders' drama movie Paris, Texas (1984) with Harry Dean Stanton and Dean Stockwell. One of her most acclaimed films, the film won the Palme d'Or (Golden Palm) at the Cannes Film Festival.
During the 1990s, Kinski appeared in a number of American films, including the action movie Terminal Velocity (1994) opposite Charlie Sheen, One Night Stand (1997), Your Friends and Neighbors (1998), John Landis' Susan's Plan (1998), and The Lost Son (1999). She has appeared in more than 60 films in Europe and the United States.- Actress
- Director
- Producer
Elisabeth Rohm will next be seen in the Roger Ailes biopic FAIR AND BALANCED for Lionsgate and director Jay Roach, portraying Fox News host Martha MacCallum, as well as Ted Melfi's THE STARLING opposite Melissa McCarthy.
Elisabeth recently wrapped production on the Lifetime feature FAMILY PICTURES opposite Justina Machado and previously co-starred in David O. Russell's JOY opposite Jennifer Lawrence and Robert De Niro. This was her second collaboration with David following the huge success of AMERICAN HUSTLE in which she had a pivotal role opposite Bradley Cooper, Christian Bale and Amy Adams (the film won numerous accolades for its ensemble cast including the coveted SAG Award and both films were nominated for Oscars.)
Elisabeth also had a key role in TRIBES OF PALOS VERDES opposite Jennifer Garner for IFC Films and Relativity Media. Other notable film credits include TRAFFICKED with Ashley Judd and GOING UNDER opposite Bruce Willis and Jason Momoa.
Elisabeth also has a rich body of work in the television space notably starring as "Serena Southerlyn" on LAW & ORDER for five seasons and "Kate Lockley" on The WB series ANGEL. More recently, Elisabeth co-starred with Dylan McDermott and Maggie Q on STALKER for CBS and starred opposite Eric Dance on THE LAST SHIP for TNT and Michael Bay. She also had memorable arcs on Will Arnett's Netflix series FLAKED and The CW hit show JANE THE VIRGIN.- Actor
- Producer
- Director
Grimme-Preis award winner, Matthias Schweighöfer, is one of Germany's most successful actors and is quickly becoming an international phenomenon.
Schweighöfer was most recently seen in Christopher Nolan's film, "Oppenheimer," Netflix's "Heart of Stone" opposite Gal Gadot and Jamie Dornan and "The Swimmers" for director Sally El Hosaini. Upcoming, Schweighöfer will be seen in Netflix's "Family Switch" opposite Jennifer Garner and "Girl You Know It's True," a film based on the incredible story of the R&B duo Milli Vanilli.
A talented multi-hyphenate, Schweighöfer also discovered his love for being behind the camera and has gone on to direct multiple projects. In addition, he founded his production company, Pantaleon Film, with his producing partner Dan Maag which continues to be one of Germany's preeminent production companies.
Born behind the Berlin wall, Schweighöfer's last 10 films have all reached #1 at the German Box office. He is best known for his films "Der Geilste Tag," "Der Nanny," "100 Dinge" and "Vaterfreuden," and his first English speaking role and international film, "Valkyrie" alongside Tom Cruise and Kenneth Branagh.
Schweighöfer has continued working on international projects and produced, directed and stared in the first German-language Amazon Original Series "You Are Wanted." The series launched in over 200 countries and in 6 different languages. He also starred in and produced "Resistance" for IFC Films which also stars Jessie Eisenberg, Ed Harris and Edgar Ramirez.
Most recently, Schweighöfer Directed, Produced, and Starred in "Army of Thieves," the prequel Zack Snyder's "Army of the Dead," in which he also starred in. "Army of the Dead" was viewed in over 72 million households and quickly became one of Netflix's most viewed film of all time, and "Army of Thieves" became the Number 1 film on Netflix in 90-plus countries during its first week.- Amélie Hoeferle was born on 5 June 2002 in Germany. She is an actress, known for The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes (2023), Night Swim (2024) and The Roadside Inn.
- With a strong body of work in her native Germany, Antje broke out into the international marketplace in Zack Snyder's Superman retelling, "Man of Steel" as the villainess, "Faora". Other credits include Renny Harlin's "5 Days of August", Warner Brothers' "The Seventh Son", Simon Curtis's "The Woman in Gold" with Helen Mirren and Ryan Reynolds and Ariel Vroman's "Criminal" with Kevin Costner, Gary Oldman and Tommy Lee Jones. Antje has most recently been seen in Stephen Poliakoff's "Close to the Enemy" for the BBC, the Sky/Amazon pilot, "Oasis" and the hit Netflix series "Dark" which has just shot it's second series which will air in summer 2019. Antje can next be seen playing the lead role in the limited series "Dead End" and in the feature "Blame Game" which opened the Max Ophuls Film Festival.
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Christian Friedel was born on 9 March 1979 in Magdeburg, East Germany [now Saxony-Anhalt, Germany]. He is an actor and music artist, known for The Zone of Interest (2023), 13 Minutes (2015) and Babylon Berlin (2017).- Actor
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Frederick Lau is a German actor. He was born and raised in Steglitz, Berlin, Germany, and still lives there. He played in over 50 roles since 2000. In 2008 he won the Deutscher Filmpreis award (Lola) for best male role for being Tim Stoltefuss in "Die Welle". He is also known for portraying Wurstjunge in "Die Snobs".- Actress
- Soundtrack
Pam Ferris was born on 11 May 1948 in Hannover, Lower Saxony, Germany. She is an actress, known for Matilda (1996), Children of Men (2006) and Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (2004). She has been married to Roger Frost since August 1986.- Actor
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Damien C. Haas was born on 23 November 1990 in Fulda, Hesse, Germany. He is an actor and writer, known for Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes (2022), Clarence (2013) and Halo: The Fall of Reach (2015).- Writer
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Roland Emmerich is a German film director and producer of blockbuster films like The Day After Tomorrow (2004), Godzilla (1998), Independence Day (1996) and The Patriot (2000). Before fame, he originally wanted to be a production designer, but decided to be a director, after watching the original Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope (1977). Emmerich began his career in his native Germany. In his youth, he pursued painting and sculpting. While enrolled in the director's program at film school in Munich, his student film The Noah's Ark Principle (1984) went on to open the 1984 Berlin Film Festival. The feature became a huge success and was sold to more than 20 countries. In an amazing trivia, he directed his first feature, The Noah's Ark Principle (1984), in 1984. He is openly gay and a campaigner for the LGBT community.
A director/writer/producer with a flair for special effects-driven action, German Roland Emmerich made himself at home in blockbuster-hungry 1990s Hollywood. Born and educated in West Germany, Emmerich studied production design as well as direction at the Munich Film and Television School. After his student film, The Noah's Ark Principle, debuted at the 1984 Berlin Film Festival, Emmerich formed his production company Centropolis and directed supernatural fantasies Making Contact (1986) and Ghost Chase (1987), and the straight-to-video action film Moon 44 (1990). On the latter, he met actor Dean Devlin who subsequently switched jobs to become Emmerich's writing and producing partner once Emmerich set up shop in Hollywood.
After making his solo Hollywood debut directing Jean-Claude Van Damme in the cyborg action fest Universal Soldier (1992), Emmerich and Devlin revealed a talent for conjuring A-level action spectacles out of B-movie scenarios with their first film together, Stargate (1994). A space odyssey mixing ancient Egyptiana and high-tech wizardry, Stargate became an unexpected hit. Emmerich hit his blockbuster stride with his next film, Independence Day (1996). With its eye-popping destruction of major cities and climactic annihilation of a spacecraft via portable computer, Independence Day blew away its summer movie competition on the strength of its visual flash. Geared to repeat with the endlessly- and creatively-hyped version of Godzilla (1998), Emmerich instead faced the conundrum of directing a $100 million grossing film that did not live up to box office expectations. Emmerich and Devlin next turned their epic visions to the decidedly lower-tech (but still CGI-enhanced) action of the American Revolution in the Mel Gibson summer vehicle The Patriot (2000).- Actor
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Dominic Monaghan is best known for his role in the movie adaptations of "Lord of the Rings". Before that, he became known in England for his role in the British television drama Hetty Wainthropp Investigates (1996).
Monaghan was born in Berlin, West Germany, to British parents Maureen, a nurse, and Austin Monaghan, a science teacher. His family moved back to England when he was eleven. He was studying English Literature, Drama and Geography at Sixth Form College when he was offered the co-starring role in the series, which ran for four seasons. His other television credits include This Is Personal: The Hunt for the Yorkshire Ripper (2000) and a leading role in Monsignor Renard (2000), a series starring John Thaw.
On the stage Monaghan has performed in the world premiere UK production of The Resurrectionists, Whale and Annie and Fanny from Bolton to Rome. Since watching Star Wars when he was six years old, Dominic has been consumed by films. His other obsessions include writing, music, fashion, playing/watching soccer and surfing. Utilizing his writing skills, he and LOTR co-star Billy Boyd are collaborating on a script.
Born and raised in Berlin, Monaghan and his family moved to England when he was twelve. In addition to speaking fluent German, he has a knack at impersonations and accents. He frequently returns to his hometown of Manchester, England.- Actress
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Mack was born in Germany but moved with her family to Long Beach, California, when she was 2. She began acting at 4 with print work and commercials, and began studying at The Young Actors Space in Los Angeles when she was 7. Before joining the cast of Smallville (2001), Allison starred in the short-lived and sorely under-rated Fox television comedy Opposite Sex (2000). Prior to that, she was a regular on Hiller and Diller (1997), working alongside great talents such as Richard Lewis, Kevin Nealon, and Eugene Levy. Allison has also guest-starred in the WB family drama 7th Heaven (1996) as a teenager caught up in the "cutting" trend.
Mack has starred in many movies for television, including the cable film My Horrible Year! (2001), which was directed by Eric Stoltz and starring Karen Allen, Mimi Rogers, and Stoltz himself. She was also in A Private Matter (1992) with Sissy Spacek and Aidan Quinn, Living a Lie (1991) with Peter Coyote and Jill Eikenberry, Unlikely Angel (1996) with Dolly Parton and Roddy McDowall, and Stolen Memories: Secrets from the Rose Garden (1996) starring Mary Tyler Moore and Linda Lavin. Allison is also an accomplished dancer and singer and she currently living in Los Angeles. She enjoys reading, going to movies and plays and spending time with her friends and family.- Stunningly beautiful and charismatic blonde Barbara Bouchet was born Barbel Goutscherola on August 15th, 1943 in Liberec, Czechoslovakia, known as Reichenberg, during the German occupation. Her father, Fritz, was a war photographer.
Her family was forced to leave the country when Barbara was a little girl and her name was changed to Barbara Gutscher. They got separated, but ended up getting together again. They migrated in December 1956 and settled in San Francisco, California, where Barbara attended the prestigious Galileo High School, a polytechnic school with commercial and industrial branches. Bouchet speaks English, German and Italian with equal fluency. In an interview to Shock Cinema (Number 44), Barbara Bouchet says her name had been changed again to Bouchet at the start of her career, because it sounded like her German name.
Barbara was inspired to be a screen actress after seeing the work of German actress Christine Kaufmann in Der schweigende Engel (1954) ("The Silent Angel").
In 1959, her father submitted a photo of her to the "Miss Gidget" beauty contest, and she won. The contest was held by the local television station KPIX-TV, based on the character of what has been considered the first "beach party movie" in Hollywood history, Gidget (1959). The prize included a date with James Darren the famous star of that movie, and a screen test. The screen test never materialized.
Barbara was featured as a dancer on the teen-targeted rock'n'roll TV show, The KPIX Dance Party, from 1959 to 1962.
Bouchet began a career of teen model that led to her extensive magazine cover model (35 covers). In October 1983, at age 40, Bouchet did a nude pictorial for the Italian edition of "Penthouse" magazine.
Barbara acted in TV commercials. She made her film debut with an uncredited bit part in the comedy What a Way to Go! (1964). Bouchet soon became known for openly flaunting her spectacularly curvaceous figure in several pictures: clad in alluring silk harem robes in John Goldfarb, Please Come Home! (1965), cavorting nude on the beaches of Pearl Harbor in the World War II epic In Harm's Way (1965), and wearing a bikini for the bulk of her screen time in Agent for H.A.R.M. (1966). She also portrayed "Ursula" in Bob Fosse's outstanding musical Sweet Charity (1969), made for a nicely sultry "Miss Moneypenny" in the tongue-in-cheek 007 outing Casino Royale (1967), and had guest spots on such TV series as The Virginian (1962), Star Trek (1966), Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea (1964), and The Man from U.N.C.L.E. (1964).
In 1970, fed-up with being typecast as a mindless sexpot in Hollywood fare, she moved to Italy. She soon became one of Italy's top actresses, carving out a fruitful niche for herself in sex comedies, giallo murder mysteries and gritty crime thrillers. Among her most memorable roles in these Italian features are the brazen spoiled rich lady "Patrizia" in Lucio Fulci's disturbing Don't Torture a Duckling (1972) ("Don't Torture A Duckling"), prostitute "Francine" in The French Sex Murders (1972) ("The French Sex Murders"), modeling agency choreographer "Kitty" in The Red Queen Kills Seven Times (1972) ("Red Queen Kills 7 Times"), saucy love interest "Scilla" in the splendidly sleazy The Mean Machine (1973), and enticing stripper "Anny" in Death Rage (1976) ("Death Rage"). Bouchet had an unforgettably steamy lesbian love scene with Rosalba Neri in Amuck! (1972) ("Amuck"). Barbara Bouchet appeared alongside fellow Bond girls Barbara Bach and Claudine Auger in Black Belly of the Tarantula (1971) ("The Black Belly of the Tarantula"). Barbara Bouchet continues to act in both films and TV shows, alike, made in Italy. Barbara popped up in a small role (as the wife of giallo star David Hemmings) in Martin Scorsese's Gangs of New York (2002).
Barbara married producer Luigi Borghese in 1976. They had two sons: Alessandro Borgese (b. 1974), a chef hosting a show on the Italian cable TV; and Massimiliano Borghese (b. 1989), a bartender. During the shooting of Diamond Connection (1984) in Istanbul, there was mention of a separation in the Turkish language "New World Video & Magazine" of September 1984, but the divorce happened much later.
In 1985, Bouchet started her own production company, opened her own health club in Rome, and launched her own line of fitness books and videos.
[based on woodyanders] - Actress
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Lisa Vicari is a German actress. She is known for Luna (2017), Hell (2017) and the Netflix series Dark.
Her acting debut was in the short film Tunnelblicke (2009) and her first film on the big screen was Hanni & Nanni (2010).
Vicari also had other small roles in Einer wie Bruno (2011) and Exit Marrakech (2013).
Her first major role in a film was in Doktorspiele (2014).- Sibel Kekilli is a German actress of Turkish origin. With her debut in Fatih Akin's movie "Head On" she gained major public attention. The film won the Golden Bear at the Berlin Film Festival 2004 and her acting performance received several national and international prizes, among them the highly prestigious German film award Lola for Best Actress.
Since then Kekilli played in several national and international productions like "Eve Dönüs" ("Home coming"), awarded Best Actress at the Antalya Film Festival, aside with Josef Bierbichler and Hanna Schygulla in "Winter Journey" ("Winterreise) or the leading role Umay in Feo Aladags "When We Leave" ("Die Fremde") in 2010 which lead to Best Actress Award at the Tribeca Film Festival and once again the Lola award among others.
Apart from other movie roles, as the very successful comedy "What a man" (2011) directed by Matthias Schweighöfer, she has been investigating in the highly regarded German series "Tatort" since 2010.
She has also become widely known as part of the main cast for her role as Shae in the HBO award-winning series "Game of Thrones" (Season 1 until Season 4). - Actress
Lilly Krug is a German actress born in Munich. She grew up bilingual, attended Bavarian International School, and moved to Los Angeles in 2019 to study theater and psychology at the University of Southern California. Additionally, Lilly takes classes at Anthony Meindl Acting School and the American Academy of Dramatic Arts. She debuted at the age of 18 with her role as Milena in the drama short film Malou (2019), a finalist at the Oscar-qualifying 22nd Manhattan Short Film Festival in 2019.
Lilly is best known for her shining performance as the lead actress alongside John Malkovich in the action thriller Shattered (2021). Variety celebrated her performance as "A Memorable Femme Fatal. " Other notable credits include the drama Heart of Champions (2021) with Oscar-nominated actor Michael Shannon, the thriller Zero Contact (2022) with Anthony Hopkins, and the drama, mystery, thriller Every Breath You Take (2021) including Academy Award winner Casey Affleck, Michelle Monaghan, and Sam Claflin.
In 2023 Lilly is seen as Brie alongside Gerald Butler in the action thriller Plane.
Lilly also loves to push her limits. She proved that, among other things, when she climbed Kilimanjaro in 2020 and took a trip to rural India to help build a school near Mumbai. She loves physical challenges and is always discovering new sports for herself. Lilly plays the piano and showed her singing abilities in various musicals such as "Into the Woods" by James Lapine and "Romeo and Juliet" by Shakespeare.
Lilly Krug lives in Los Angeles and Munich.- Actress
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Necar Zadegan is a versatile actress known for a career on stage and screen. She made her Broadway debut when she originated the role of the Leper in Rajiv Joseph's Pulitzer Prize nominated and multi Tony award accoladed play " The Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo" opposite Robin Williams. She stars as Special Agent Hannah Khoury in the CBS global franchise series, "NCIS: New Orleans" and has joined the cast of the much anticipated and newest installation of the Star Trek franchise, "Picard".
Ms. Zadegan first garnered critical acclaim for her portrayal of First Lady turned president Dalia Hassan on Fox's hit series "24", and most recently for her hilarious leading role in the absurdist docu-spoof film for IFC on Netflix called "Documentary: Now" written by Seth Meyers and alongside an all-star cast. The show has been nominated for multiple Emmys and has begun streaming in the UK. For HBO in the drama "Here and Now" from Oscar winning screenwriter, creator Alan Ball, she takes the lead in the delicate portrayal of Layla Shokrani.
In the much beloved Bravo comedy streaming on Netflix, "Girlfriends Guide to Divorce", Ms. Zadegan plays the character written for her by show creator Marti Noxon, of fashionable, high powered attorney and fan favorite, Delia Banai. The show recently began streaming its fifth and final season. The year also saw Ms. Zadegan join the cast of the ABC hit "The Good Doctor". Other series regular roles include her portrayal of Dr. Gina Bandari on "Emily Owens MD" and in the lead opposite Greg Kinnear in the FOX comedy "Rake".
Some highlights from her many other credits include roles for Steven Spielberg company produced series "Extant", opposite Sean Bean in spy series "Legends" and a very memorable turn as the Queen of Iran in Showtime's critical success "Masters of Sex" opposite Michael Sheen, with whom she also starred opposite in the Columbia Tri Star film, psychological thriller "Unthinkable" alongside Samuel L. Jackson. She appeared with Adam Sandler in Judd Apatow's "You Don't Mess With the Zohan" and played the title role in "Elena Undone" which enjoyed success at independent festivals worldwide.
Ms. Zadegan has worked at some of the world's most prestigious theaters including The Mark Taper Forum, the Royal Dramatic Theater of Stockholm, the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, The Palace of Fine Arts in San Francisco and many more, and toured internationally in the Persian language production of "Satellite with Love".
Necar Zadegan was born in Heidelberg, Germany and raised in Northern California. She studied theater and dance on a performance scholarship at the University of California, Santa Barbara and graduated with honors and a BA degree in English Literature. She also studied at the Sorbonne University in Paris. She speaks Persian, French and German and has learned Spanish, Arabic and Hebrew while working in those languages. She works with USAID in supporting opportunities for education across the globe and is an ambassador for BuildOn.org and travels with them around the world building schools for children.- Actor
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Flula Borg was born and raised in Erlangen, Germany, where he started his performance career as a traditional Bavarian Schuhplattler dancer. He transitioned quickly into becoming a techno DJ, and after being voted the 3rd Sexiest North Bavarian Male, he worked up the nerve to submit for the Scion National Hypeman Contest, which he unintentionally won. Encouraged by his unexpected good fortune, he relocated to Los Angeles, California, to continue growing his music and acting career. To grab Hollywood's attention, Flula turned to YouTube to share his original songs, creative remixes, and late night vlogs about American culture and language, quickly amassing over 750k subscribers, 100 million views, and earning recognition as one of Variety's "Ten Comics to Watch." Several of his videos went viral -- including "Jennifer Is A Party Pooper" -- which led to a series of TV appearances on programs like The Today Show and ESPN's SportsCenter, giving him the springboard he needed to launch his acting career. Borg's breakout role came in Universal Pictures' "Pitch Perfect 2" opposite Rebel Wilson and Anna Kendrick as the male lead of Das Sound Machine. Flula reprised this role for Peacock's "Pitch Perfect: Bumper in Berlin," which has been renewed for a second season. Soon after, Flula transitioned into true bad guy territory with his role as Javelin in James Gunn's "The Suicide Squad," eating 6,000 calories a day and getting yelled at by celebrity trainer Paolo Mascitti for months in order to achieve a supervillain body. To support the film Borg released "SuperVillain," a techno-dance EP with music inspired by The Suicide Squad featuring vocals from Reggie Watts, Sean Gunn (aka Weasel), and Steve Agee (aka John Economos). Flula's unique vocal stylings have also allowed him to break into the voice acting space with memorable roles in features such as Fox Pictures' "Ferdinand," Disney's "Ralph Breaks the Internet," and Apple's "Luck," as well as dozens of appearances in shows like "Archer," "Rugrats," and as Comfortable Doug in Netflix's "Centaurworld." His ever-growing list of small screen credits includes HBO's "Curb Your Enthusiasm" and "Silicon Valley," Comedy Central's "Workaholics" and "@Midnight," Conan O'Brien's frequently excitable guest on TBS's "Conan," CBS's "Ghosts," and the recurring role of Skip Tracer Randy in ABC's "The Rookie." Flula has started producing projects, including Orion Pictures' "Buddymoon," which he starred in and executive produced. It went on to win Slamdance Film Festival, Las Vegas Film Festival, and several others. Borg's upcoming projects include playing the historical figure Hans von Dohnanyi in the WWII feature "God's Spy" directed by Todd Komarnicki, a German baddie in Amazon's "My Spy: The Eternal City" starring Dave Bautista and Anna Faris, Pieter Kramer in season two of "Pitch Perfect: Bumper in Berlin," and roles in several animated projects. Flula lives (mostly) in Los Angeles and is deathly afraid of toy poodles.- Nicole Brown Simpson was born on 19 May 1959 in Frankfurt, Hesse, Germany. She was an actress, known for Infamous Crime Scenes: OJ. She was married to O.J. Simpson. She died on 12 June 1994 in Brentwood, California, USA.
- Actress
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- Casting Department
"Dead, wrapped in plastic" is how Sheryl Lee entered onto the scene as Laura Palmer, the doomed homecoming queen on the cult TV series Twin Peaks (1990).
Lee was born April 27, 1967 in Germany. She grew up in Boulder, Colorado, spending much of her youth studying dance before knee injuries ended her hope of becoming a dancer. She began acting in school plays, graduated from Fairview High School, and attended the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in Pasadena, California. Lee also spent time at the North Carolina School of Arts, the National Conservatory Theater in Denver, and Colorado University before pursuing stage work in Seattle, Washington.
Here Lee landed the role of Laura Palmer, and she later appeared on Twin Peaks (1990) as Laura's cousin, Madeleine Ferguson. Madeleine was a brunette and wore glasses, but of course bore a striking resemblance to her late relative. Lee worked with Twin Peaks (1990) mastermind David Lynch again on the film, Wild at Heart (1990), and resurrected Laura Palmer one last time for Lynch's Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me (1992).
Lee has gone on to have a long and adventurous career since then. Appearances have included the Stuart Sutcliffe biopic Backbeat (1994), the John Carpenter film Vampires (1998), and the TV series L.A. Doctors (1998).- Thomas Kretschmann was born in East Germany. Before becoming an actor, he was a swimmer. He has acted in several popular American movies, such as Resident Evil: Apocalypse (2004), The Pianist (2002), U-571 (2000), In Enemy Hands (2004), etc. He has three children, Nicolas, Stella and Sascha with his ex-girlfriend Lena.
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Lead icon of the influential New German Cinema of the 70's & 80's, Schygulla's natural blonde beauty and amazing versatility keep her among the world's top actresses. She won best actress at Cannes in 1983 for The Story of Piera (1983) (aka "The Story of Piera"), an Italian/German co-production. The Turkish/German co-production, The Edge of Heaven (2007) (aka "The Edge of Heaven"), won the 2007 Cannes award for best screenplay. The now silver-haired actress appears to have shunned plastic surgery.
One of many protégés of Rainer Werner Fassbinder, who gave Schygulla especially tender treatment and nurturing, while he terrorized, manipulated, and slept with many of the other actors and filmmakers Fassbinder developed in his incestuous family-like theatrical and film troupes.
Over 12 years, Hanna Schygulla appeared in 23 Fassbinder movies (including his first feature film), the most-acclaimed being The Marriage of Maria Braun (1979) (aka "The Marriage of Maria Braun") (for which she won the Silver Bear), Lili Marleen (1981) and Berlin Alexanderplatz (1980). After a disagreement with Fassbinder, she did not appear in his final 4 movies. Their mentor/muse relationship is often favorably compared with that of Josef von Sternberg and Marlene Dietrich. Schygulla met Fassbinder while she was studying romance languages and taking acting lessons in Munich, then became a member of his collective theatre troupe, "Munich Action Theatre", which eventually evolved into his film group.
After Fassbinder's 1982 death, she appeared in a few commercial films, and when she does act now, concentrates on complex roles in films with unique, international social messages. Her better known non-Fassbinder movies include Kenneth Branagh's Dead Again (1991), Casanova (1987) (with Faye Dunaway), Andrzej Wajda's A Love in Germany (1983) (aka "A Love in Germany") and Margarethe von Trotta's Sheer Madness (1983) (aka "Sheer Madness"). She's renowned for portraying strong, sensual women, and her language ability enables her to appear in films produced by many countries. Her singing was featured in Lili Marleen (1981) and Sheer Madness (1983) (aka "Sheer Madness"). Since 1997, she has turned away from movie acting, primarily to chanson singing, recording CDs, appearing in the movie, Hanna Schygulla Sings (1999) and, in 2007, a one-woman autobiographical musical (including songs of Janis Joplin, Édith Piaf, Billie Holiday, Brecht). She was the lead and sang in a live Vanessa Beecroft conceptual art piece in a German castle, with Fassbinder's long-time associate, Irm Hermann, plus 23 other women. Schygulla has worked on producing films about Berlin's Holocaust memorial, and about her work with Fassbinder.
Many of Fassbinder's film plots reflect his bizarre working relations with cast and crew, and he often reserved the most glamorous costumes and dramatic roles for Hanna Schygulla, intentionally pressuring his other talented actresses, such as his feisty ex-wife Ingrid Caven, and the abused Irm Hermann. The extremely tense relationships in the all-female The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant (1972) (aka "Bitter Tears of Petra Von Kant") somewhat reflect real-life interactions of Hermann, Schygulla (both are in the movie), Fassbinder, and his mother.
Hann Schygulla's childhood family situation somewhat parallels her role, typifying Germany's moral dilemmas at the end of World War II, in The Marriage of Maria Braun (1979) (aka "The Marriage of Maria Braun"). Schygulla was born on Christmas Day 1943, in Kattowice, Upper Silesia (then a section of Poland annexed by the Third Reich). Her German father was an infantryman in Italy, who was in a POW camp until she was 5. After the war, the German population was expelled from the Kattowice area.- She continues to stand out in a crowd with her wholesome beauty, knock-out figure and dazzling smile. Ever-radiant TV and film resident Susan Blakely found success on several paths she chose for herself over the years -- first as a model, then as an award-winning actress, and as a jewelry designer. The trim and trendy blonde is best known for enhancing a mild stream of popular films during the 1970s and 1980s.
Born on September 7, 1948, in Frankfurt, Germany, Susan is the daughter of U.S. Army Colonel Lawrence Blakely. While growing up, she traveled extensively throughout the world with her family including Korea, Hawaii and, finally, Texas. Following a year of study at the University of Texas, Susan moved to New York and managed to secure a place for herself as a high-priced magazine and TV ad model for the Ford Modeling Agency.
At the same time, Susan was encouraged to try her hand at acting and studied at the Neighborhood Playhouse. Married in 1969 to lawyer and screenwriting hopeful Todd Merer, they chanced a move to Hollywood to seek their fame and fortune.
Billed initially as Susie Blakely, she was cast in small, capricious, deb-like turns in such films as Savages (1972) (her debut) and The Way We Were (1973). Her first popular movie role came about surrounded by a high-and-mighty all-star cast in Irwin Allen's epic disaster The Towering Inferno (1974), as the spoiled princess-like daughter of unscrupulous skyscraper builder William Holden and wife of callous, pretty-boy opportunist Richard Chamberlain. Lightweight as the role was, Susan willingly accepted the challenge of proving herself in Hollywood as more than just another starlet with a gorgeous face.
She did .. .and became a prominent name in Hollywood to boot ... by earning a Golden Globe and Emmy nomination for her exceptional work as "Julie Prescott" in the acclaimed TV mini-series epic Rich Man, Poor Man (1976) with both Peter Strauss and Nick Nolte vying for her attention. It was star-making turns for all three leads.
This monumental acting opportunity kicked off a highly rewarding career in TV mini-movies, playing an array of flawed but fascinating and newsworthy ladies, including Hitler mistress Eva Braun opposite Anthony Hopkins in The Bunker (1981); tormented actress Frances Farmer in Will There Really Be a Morning? (1983); political wife Joan Bennett Kennedy in The Ted Kennedy Jr. Story (1986); and crime attorney Leslie Abramson in Honor Thy Father and Mother: The True Story of the Menendez Murders (1994). A few other interesting roles came in as well that belied Susan's glossy, pretty-girl image -- ranging from an amphetamine addict in the TV movie A Cry for Love (1980) to a housewife who changes into a werewolf in the movie My Mom's a Werewolf (1989).
Into the millennium, Susan accomplished a prime, award-winning turn in the low-profile film Hungry Hearts (2002). Other films have included co-star/featured roles in The Cherokee Strip (1937), Crash Point Zero (2001), Mating Dance (2008), The Genesis Code (2010), and Displacement (2016), as well as several gay-themed short films of director Marc Saltarelli -- To Comfort You (2009), Pride (2011) Remember to Breathe (2013) and Speak (2016).
Having starred on stage in the 2006 world premiere of "Diva!" at the La Jolla Playhouse in San Diego, Susan has guested on several popular TV programs including "Diagnosis Murder," "Baywatch," "Strong Medicine," "Cold Case," "Nip/Tuck," "Murder 101," "Two and a Half Men," "Brothers and Sisters," "NCIS" and "This Is Us."
In recent years, Susan has broadened her horizons once again as a semi-precious jewelry designer...and once again she has met this challenge with great success. Divorced from her first husband in the 1970s, Susan remarried in 1982. Her present husband, media consultant, litigation and political adviser Steve Jaffe, has also reaped rewards as a film and television producer. Many of his projects have included Susan -- the afore-mentioned Frances Farmer TV biography, the TV-movie A Cry for Love (1980), and the film Russian Holiday (1993) [aka Russian Roulette]. They reside in the Beverly Hills area. - Eric Braeden is a German actor in America who began his career playing Nazis and eventually became a star of daytime soap operas. Born Hans Gudegast in Kiel, Germany, during the Second World War, he was a superb athlete who excelled in track-and-field events. As a teenager, he immigrated to the United States and worked in Texas and Montana as a translator, a cowhand, and a lumber millhand. His athleticism won him a scholarship to Montana State University. While attending college, he and friend Bob McKinnon made a film, The Riverbusters, about their successful attempt to be the first men to take a boat from the source to the mouth of the Salmon river and back again. He traveled to Los Angeles in hopes of finding a distributor for the documentary, but instead found that his handsome visage and accented English made him a valuable commodity as an actor. He appeared in small parts under his real name before landing the leading role of the antagonist, Captain Hans Dietrich, on the World War II television series The Rat Patrol (1966).
The series was a hit, and Gudegast's sympathetic German officer was very popular. He appeared in a few movies and television films thereafter in supporting roles, then was given the lead in Universal's science-fiction computer thriller Colossus: The Forbin Project (1970). His delight at this huge career boost was muted by the studio's insistence that he change his name. With extreme reluctance, he agreed and became known subsequently as Eric Braeden. Braeden worked continuously in television movies for the next decade. He also worked on Broadway and in Los Angeles area theatre. In 1980, he reluctantly accepted a role in a daytime drama, The Young and the Restless (1973), and gained a stardom in this medium that had just eluded him in film and prime time television. As lead Victor Newman, Braeden brought a gravity and a strong center to the program. Amazingly handsome and athletic into his sixties, Braeden maintained the charisma that first brought him notice in "The Rat Patrol".
His infrequent film work during his nearly quarter century on "The Young and the Restless" included a prominent role as John Jacob Astor in Titanic (1997). A five-time Emmy nominee for his "The Young and the Restless" role (he won in 1998), he was also nominated eleven times for the Soap Opera Digest Outstanding Leading Actor Award, winning three times. In 1987, he was appointed, along with Henry Kissinger, Paul Volker, Steffi Graf, Alexander Haig, and Katherine Graham, to the German-American Advisory Board, and in 1991 received the Federal Medal of Honor from the president of his native land, Germany. He married his college sweetheart Dale Russell in 1966. Their son, Christian Gudegast is a screenwriter. - Actor
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Saul Rubinek was born in a refugee camp in Germany, where his father ran a Yiddish Repertory Theatre company. Saul started his professional career as a child actor in theater and radio in Canada. By the time he was 20, he was a member of the Stratford Shakespearean Festival company in Stratford, Ontario and, later, was a co-founder, actor and director of Theatre Le Hibou, Theatre Passe-Muraille and Toronto Free Theatre. He got his early training in film and television as an actor for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. Saul started working in the United States as an actor at the Public Theater in New York. Rubinek's work on U.S. and Canadian television, film and theater spans four decades. In 1997, Rubinek directed his first feature for Lionsgate, based on the play he previously directed, Jerry and Tom (1998). He also was producer on the film in partnership with his wife, Elinor Reid. The film was an official entry in competition at Sundance in 1998. He also directed the features _Club Land (2001) (TV)_ and _Bleacher Bums (2001) (TV)_ for Showtime/Paramount. Rubinek directed, and his wife and partner Elinor Reid produced the award-winning indie film Cruel But Necessary (2005). Penguin Books published (1987) Rubinek's non-fiction book, "So Many Miracles", an account of his parents' survival growing up in Poland during World War II. He wrote and produced an award-winning documentary (1988) of the same title, So Many Miracles (1987), for CBC and PBS which chronicles his parents' reunion with the people who saved their lives during the Holocaust. The DVD of the documentary is available from The National Center for Jewish Film at Brandeis University. Rubinek wrote the play "Terrible Advice", which was produced in 2011 in London by The Chocolate Factory, starring Scott Bakula, Andy Nyman, Caroline Quentin, Sharon Horgan, and directed by Frank Oz.- Actor
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Jürgen Prochnow is the son of a telecommunications engineer. He has an older brother, Dieter Prochnow, who is also in the acting profession. Jürgen's parents encouraged him initially to study the banking trade. However, their son had other ideas and began working on the side as an extra and a gaffer at a theater in Düsseldorf. He eventually commenced acting studies at the Folkwang University of the Arts in Essen in 1963. His graduation three years later was followed by a first theatrical engagement in Osnabrück. Between 1971 and 1975, Prochnow was a member of the ensemble of the Schauspielhaus Bochum under the direction of Peter Zadek.
On screen from 1971, he made his debut on the big screen in (what was also Wolfgang Petersen's first film) the thriller One or the Other (1974). Prochnow commanded the lead as a struggling student who blackmails his sociology professor (Klaus Schwarzkopf) after discovering that the academic had attained his credentials by means of a plagiarised doctoral thesis. Dire consequences ensue. That same year, Petersen also directed Prochnow in an episode of the hit police series Tatort (1970). In the New German Cinema of the 1970s, the charismatic Prochnow was given ample opportunities to shine, as he did in the title role of the prison drama The Brutalization of Franz Blum (1974) and in Volker Schlöndorffs political drama The Lost Honor of Katharina Blum (1975) as a deserter wanted by the police and whose flight sparks a series of fateful events. During this period, the actor's stock-in-trade screen personae were laconic, taciturn types, often loners, yet men of integrity and strong emotional centres.
Prochnow's breakthrough to international stardom came via Wolfgang Petersen's brilliant maritime war drama Das Boot (1981). Prochnow took the nominal lead and was top-billed as the cool-headed, sympathetic veteran U-boat commander Heinrich Lehmann-Willenbrock, a kind of father figure to his crew and affectionately known as 'the old man'. A contemporary New York Times reviewer commented "The captain of the U-boat is played by Jurgen Prochnow, a remarkable actor who has also worked with Mr. Petersen on four other films. Mr. Prochnow's sad, solemn face rarely changes, but his pale eyes are extraordinarily alive. As the captain, he becomes a source of spiritual strength for his crewmen, even though his own cynicism is readily apparent". While the story of Das Boot was fictionalized, it was in part based on the exploits of a real Lehmann-Willenbrock, who did, in fact, captain U-96 (as one of four commands). He was decorated with the Knight's Cross with Oak Leaves (one of the highest honours bestowed) and survived the war to become captain of Germany's nuclear freighter Otto Hahn.
In the wake of Das Boot, Prochnow received many offers from Hollywood, his craggy features and military bearing getting him frequently typecast as callous villains in action films: he was Eddie Murphy's nemesis Maxwell Dent in Beverly Hills Cop II (1987), a brutal Norman knight in Robin Hood (1991), vicious gangster Charlie Dowd in Hurricane Smith (1992), the unhinged author of horror novels Sutter Cane in John Carpenter 's supernatural thriller In the Mouth of Madness (1994) and Judge Griffin, the chief villain of the piece who frames Sylvester Stallone for murder in Judge Dredd (1995). Prochnow also reunited with Wolfgang Petersen who directed him again in the box-office blockbuster Air Force One (1997) in the role of a rogue eastern European dictator bent on reigniting the Cold War. In season eight of the TV series 24 (2001), Prochnow featured as Jack Bauer's elusive antagonist Sergei Bazhaev, leader of a secret Russian crime syndicate.
On the side of the white hats, Prochnow has portrayed the ambitious banker André Vernet in The Da Vinci Code (2006) and Arnold Schwarzenegger in the poorly received biographical drama See Arnold Run (2005) (Prochnow had once even been under consideration to play Arnie's iconic Terminator role). He has also been active in German films and television, including a role as an unscrupulous businessman attempting to market a pharmaceutical product with known harmful side-effects in The Dark Side of the Moon (2015). On stage, he has essayed Etzel, king of the Huns in Siegfried's Erben at the 2018 Nibelungen Festival in Worms.
As a voice-over actor, Prochnow has been the German voice for Sylvester Stallone in several films (including Rocky (1976) and Rocky II (1979). He has also dubbed most of his own English-language roles into German. His awards include a Bambi in 1988 for his messianic role in The Seventh Sign (1988), a Golden Kamera as Best German Actor for Das Boot and a Jupiter Lifetime Achievement Award in 2013.
Prochnow adopted American citizenship in 2004, regularly commuting between Los Angeles and Munich. The actor's first wife was Isabel Goslar (daughter of Jürgen Goslar) who worked on Das Boot as a script supervisor and continuity manager. His second wife was the actress Birgit Stein who died in a motorcycle crash in Utah four years after her divorce from Prochnow in 2018. Since March 2015, Prochnow has been married to the Austrian actress Verena Wengler.- Writer
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- Actor
A true master of his craft, Michael Haneke is one of the greatest film artists working today and one who challenges his viewers each year and work goes by, with films that reflect real portions of life in realistic, disturbing and unforgettable ways. One of the most genuine filmmakers of the world cinema, Haneke wrote and directed films in several languages: French, German and English, working with a great variety of actors, such as Juliette Binoche, Isabelle Huppert, Jean-Louis Trintignant, Toby Jones, Ülrich Muhe, Arno Frisch and the list goes on.
This grand figure from Austrian cinema was born in Germany on 23 March 1942, from a German father and an Austrian mother, with both parents being from the artistic world working as actors, a career that Michael also tried but without much success. At the University of Vienna he studied drama, philosophy and psychology, and after graduation he went on to become a film critic and TV editor. His career behind camera started with After Liverpool (1974), which he wrote and directed. He went on to direct five more TV films and two episodes from the miniseries "Lemminge" (1979)_.
The years spent on television works prompted him to finally direct his first cinema feature, during his early 40's, which is somewhat unusual for film directors. But it was worth waiting. In The Seventh Continent (1989), Haneke establishes the foundation of what his future cinema would be about: a cinema that doesn't provides answers but one that dares to throw more and more questions, a cinema that reflects and analyses the human condition in its darkest and unexpected ways outside of any Hollywood formula. Films that exist to confront audiences and not comfort them. In it, Haneke deals with the duality of social values vs. internal values while exposing an apparent perfect family that runs into physical and material disintegration for reasons unknown. It was the first time a film of his was sent to the Cannes Film Festival (out of competition lineup) but he managed to cause some commotion in the audience with polemic scenes that were meant to extract all possible reactions from the crowd.
His next ventures at the decade's turn was in dealing with disturbed youth and the alienation they have in separating reality from fiction, trying to intersect both to drastic results. In Benny's Video (1992), it's the disturbing story of a teen boy who experiences killing for the first time capturing the murder on tape, impressed by the power of detachment that films and videos can cause to people; and later on the highly controversial Funny Games (1997), where two teens hold a family hostage to play sadistic games just for their own sick amusement. The film cemented Haneke's name as one of the greatest authors of his generation but sparkled a great debate with its themes of violence, sadism and the influence those things have in audiences. At the 1997's Cannes Film Festival, it was the film that had the most walk-out's by the audience. In between both films, he released 71 Fragments of a Chronology of Chance (1994) and Kafka's The Castle (1997), the latter being one of the rare times when Haneke developed an adapted work.
In the 2000's, he strongly continued in producing more outstanding works prone to debate and reflection in what would become his most prolific decade with the following films: Code Unknown (2000), The Piano Teacher (2001), Time of the Wolf (2003), Caché (2005), an American remake shot-by shot of Funny Games (2007) and The White Ribbon (2009). His study about romance versus masochism in The Piano Teacher (2001) was an intense work, with powerful performances by Isabelle Huppert and Benoit Magimel, that the Cannes jury in the year were so impressed that Haneke managed to actually reverse their award rules where it was decided that film entries at the festival couldn't win more than one main award (the two lead actors won awards and Haneke got the Grand Prize of the Jury, just lost the Palme d'Or). With The White Ribbon (2009), an enigmatic black-and-white masterpiece following the inception of Nazism in this pre WWI and WWII story focusing on repressed children living in this small village where strange events happen all the time and without any possible reasoning, Haneke conquered the world and audiences with an artistic and daring work that won his first Palme d'Or a Golden Globe as Best Foreign Language Film and received an Oscar nomination for the same category plus the cinematography work of Christian Berger.
2012 was the year that marked his supremacy in the film world with the release of the bold and beautiful Amour (2012), a love story with powerful real drama and one where Haneke removed most of his usual dark characteristics to present more quiet and calm elements without losing input in creating controversy. The touching story of George and Anne provided one the greatest moments of that year and earned Haneke his second and consecutive Palme d'Or at Cannes and his first Oscar nominations for Best Direction and Best Original Screenplay - and it was one of the several nominees for Best Picture Oscar, winning as Best Foreign Language Film.
After abandoning a flash-mob film project, he returned to the screen with Happy End (2017), a film dealing with the refugee crisis in Europe and again he debuted his film at Cannes, receiving mildly positive reviews.
Besides his film work, Haneke also directs theatre productions, from drama to opera, from Così fan tutte to Don Giovanni.- Composer
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- Actor
Ramin Djawadi is an Iranian-German film score composer known for composing the hit HBO series Game of Thrones and the Marvel films Blade: Trinity, Iron Man and Eternals. He also composed Clash of the Titans, A Wrinkle in Time, Pacific Rim, Westworld, Gears of War 4 and 5, Medal of Honor, Open Season 1 and 2, Jack Ryan and Warcraft. He won two Emmy Awards for Game of Thrones.- Actress
- Soundtrack
This gorgeous Teutonic temptress was one of Hollywood's most captivating imports of the 1960s. Blonde and beautiful, Berlin-born Elke Sommer, with her trademark pouty lips, high cheekbones and sky-high bouffant hairdos, proved irresistible to American audiences, whether adorned in lace or leather, or donning lingerie or lederhosen . She was born in Berlin-Spandau on November 5, 1940 with the unlikely name of Else Schletz-Ho to a Lutheran minister and his wife. The family was forced to evacuate to Erlangen, during World War II in 1942, a small university town in the southern region of Germany. It was here that her parents first introduced her to water colors and her lifelong passion for painting was ignited. Her father's death in 1955, when she was only 14, interrupted her education and she relocated to Great Britain, where she learned English and made ends meet as an au pair. She eventually attended college back in Germany and entertained plans to become a diplomatic translator but, instead, decided to try modeling.
After winning a beauty title ("Miss Viareggio Turistica") while on vacation in Italy, she caught the attention of renowned film actor/director Vittorio De Sica and began performing on screen. Her debut film was in the Italian feature, Uomini e nobiluomini (1959), which starred DeSica and was directed by Giorgio Bianchi. Following a few more Italian pictures, which included her first starring role in Love, the Italian Way (1960), also directed by Bianchi, Elke began making a name for herself in German films, as well, and gradually upgraded her status to European sex symbol. A pin-up favorite, she appeared fetchingly in both dramas and comedies, with such continental features as Daniella by Night (1961), Sweet Violence (1962) and her first English-speaking picture, Why Bother to Knock (1961), to her credit.
Hollywood naturally became intrigued and she moved there in the early 1960s to try and tap into the American market. Her sexy innocence made a vivid impression in the all-star, war-themed drama, The Victors (1963), the Hitchcock-like thriller, The Prize (1963), for which she won a "Best Newcomer" Golden Globe Award, and, especially, A Shot in the Dark (1964), the classic bumbling comedy where she proved a shady and sexy foil to Peter Sellers' Inspector Clousseau. She grew in celebrity, which was certainly helped after showing off her physical assets, posing for spreads in Playboy Magazine. In the meantime, she was appearing opposite the hunkiest of Hollywood actors including Paul Newman, James Garner, Glenn Ford and Stephen Boyd.
Always a diverting attraction in spy intrigue or breezy comedy, she was too often misused and setbacks began to occur when the quality of her films began to deteriorate. The tacky Hollywood entry, The Oscar (1966), the Bob Hope misfire, Boy, Did I Get a Wrong Number! (1966), the tired Dean Martin "Matt Helm" spy spoof, The Wrecking Crew (1968), and her title role in the tasteless Cold War comedy, The Wicked Dreams of Paula Schultz (1968), starring Hogan's Heroes (1965) alumnus, Bob Crane, Werner Klemperer and Leon Askin, proved her undoing.
The multilingual actress, whose career took her to scores of different countries over time and benefited from speaking seven languages fluently, resorted to a number of low-budget features in Europe, including two Italian horror movies directed by Mario Bava that have now gone on to become cult classics: Baron Blood (1972) and The Exorcist (1973) rip-off, Lisa and the Devil (1973). The latter movie actually was a guilty pleasure. "Lisa" was re-released in 1975 as "The House of Exorcism" and added more footage of a demonic Elke, Linda Blair style, spewing frogs, insects, green pea soup and a slew of cuss words! In England, she good-naturedly appeared in the "comedy" films, Percy (1971), and its equally cheeky sequel, It's Not the Size That Counts (1974), which starred Hywel Bennett (later Leigh Lawson) as the first man to have a penis transplant(!). She also showed up in one of the later "Carry On" farces, entitled Carry on Behind (1975).
Elke fared better on television, where she appeared in the television pilot, Probe (1972), opposite Hugh O'Brian, as well as the well-made 1980s miniseries, Inside the Third Reich (1982), Jenny's War (1985), Anastasia: The Mystery of Anna (1986) and Peter the Great (1986). In addition, she made a few TV guest appearances on such popular shows as "Fantasy Island," "The Love Boat" and "St. Elsewhere."
A delightful personality on the talk show circuit, the lovely Elke also made appearances as a cabaret singer and, in time, put out several albums. She found a creative outlet on stage too with such vehicles as "Irma la Douce", "Born Yesterday", "Cactus Flower", "Woman of the Year" and "Same Time, Next Year".
Dividing her time between here and in Germany in later years, she added her usual charm to films both here (Lily in Love (1984), Severed Ties (1992)), and in Germany (Himmelsheim (1988), Flashback (2000), Life Is Too Long (2010)).
The veteran actress has since focused more time on book writing and painting than she has on acting. Holding her first one-woman art show at the McKenzie Galleries in Beverly Hills in 1965, her artwork bears an exceptionally strong influence to Marc Chagall and she, at one point, hosted a mid-1980s PBS series ("Painting with Elke"), that centered on her artwork, which has now exhibited and sold for more than 40 years. Nevertheless, on occasion, she tackles an acting role, often in her native Germany. Divorced from writer and journalist Joe Hyams, whom she met when he interviewed her for a Hollywood article (he recently died in November 2008), she has been married since 1993 to hotelier Wolf Walther.- Actress
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Her father was a police lieutenant and imbued in her a military attitude to life. Marlene was known in school for her "bedroom eyes" and her first affairs were at this stage in her life - a professor at the school was terminated. She entered the cabaret scene in 1920s Germany, first as a spectator then as a cabaret singer. In 1923, she married and, although she and Rudolf Sieber lived together only 5 years, they remained married until his death. She was in over a dozen silent films in increasingly important roles. In 1929, she was seen in a Berlin cabaret by Josef von Sternberg and, after a screen test, captured the role of the cabaret singer in The Blue Angel (1930) (and became von Sternberg's lover). With the success of this film, von Sternberg immediately took her to Hollywood, introducing her to the world in Morocco (1930), and signing an agreement to produce all her films. A series of successes followed, and Marlene became the highest paid actress of her time, but her later films in the mid-part of the decade were critical and popular failures. She returned to Europe at the end of the decade, with a series of affairs with former leading men (she had a reputation of romancing her co-stars), as well as other prominent artistic figures. In 1939, an offer came to star with James Stewart in a western and, after initial hesitation, she accepted. The film was Destry Rides Again (1939) - the siren of film could also be a comedienne and a remarkable comeback was reality. She toured extensively for the allied effort in WW II (she had become a United States citizen) and, after the war, limited her cinematic life. But a new career as a singer and performer appeared, with reviews and shows in Las Vegas, touring theatricals, and even Broadway. New success was accompanied by a too close acquaintance with alcohol, until falls in her performance eventually resulted in a compound fracture of the leg. Although the last 13 years of her life were spent in seclusion in her apartment in Paris, with the last 12 years in bed, she had withdrawn only from public life and maintained active telephone and correspondence contact with friends and associates.- Nadia Hilker is a German actress, known for her roles in Spring (2014), The 100 (2014) and The Walking Dead (2010).
Nadia Hilker is a renowned German film and television actress who has been in the movie industry since 2010. Best known for her role in Spring and The 100, Hilker's love for acting dates back to her childhood days. Her nationality is German. Her father worked in IT while her mother worked at Lufthansa airline. The two only spent thirty-five years as husband and wife and had Nadia and her brother as children. Growing up with her only brother was fun for Hilker as both had adventurous spirits. On several occasions, they visited Paris from Munich just to have coffee on the Champs-Élysées avenue in Paris and also built tree houses in the forest near their home.
Before joining the movie industry, Hilker worked as a model. She was discovered by a model agent at a ballet school. She lost interest in modeling after a couple of years to give chase to her acting ambition.
The German star began her journey to stardom by taking on the famous role of Marie-Luise Seelig in the television movie Zimmer mit Tante (2010). In the same year, she scored the role of Xenia in the television movie The Route (2010), a drama movie written by Tobias Stille and directed by Florian Froschmayer.
Over the course of her acting career, she has made more than eighteen appearances on television movies and films. Her notable films include Spring (2014), In the Gallery (2014), The Divergent Series: Allegiant (2016), and Collide (2016). In 2015, she was decorated with the Fright Meter award for roles in her debut movie, Spring.
In addition to acting, Nadia is also good at writing. She once said that writing is the only creativity that helps her grow and explore the world. Her other hobbies are cooking and music. As for her musical influences, she named King of Pop Michael Jackson as one of her musical heroes. - Actor
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Beginning his life with the same flair for the dramatic that would come to define his career, Udo Kier was born in Köln, Germany near the end of the 2nd world war. The hospital was bombed and buried Kier and his mother in the rubble. Both survived, and Kier would later move to London as a young adult to study English. Kier was discovered in London by Michael Sarne, who cast him in his first role as a gigolo in "Road To Saint Tropez". Kier then starred in Michael Armstrong's extremely controversial "Mark Of The Devil". He would go on to work with Paul Morrissey in Andy Warhol's "Flesh For Frankenstein" and "Blood For Dracula", Dario Argento in "Suspiria", and Rainer Werner Fassbinder in "The Third Generation", "Lili Marllen", and "Lola".
Kier entered the American independent cinema scene many years later after meeting Gus Van Sant at the Berlin Film Festival. Van Sant offered Kier the role of Hans, the lamp-singing john in "My Own Private Idaho" with Keanu Reeves and River Phoenix. He would later have roles in Gus Van Sant's "Even Cowgirls Get The Blues" and "Don't Worry He Won't Get Far On Foot" as well as such 90s Hollywood hits as "Ace Ventura: Pet Detective", "Johnny Mnemonic", "Barb Wire", "End Of Violence", "For Love Or Money", "Armagedden", "Blade", and "End Of Days". Kier is probably best known for his collaboration with Lars von Trier, appearing in most of his films including "Medea", "Europa", "Breaking The Waves", "Dancer In TheE Dark", "Dogville", "Manderlay", "Melancholia", "Nymphomaniac (Vol. II)" and "The Kingdom" (Danish TV). Kier's recent renaissance has seen him play memorable roles in the Activision game "Call Of Duty", numerous television roles in North America and Europe, and in the films "Iron Sky", "Brawl In Cell Block 99", "Downsizing", "American Animals", "Bacurau", "The Painted Bird", "The Blazing World" and "Swan Song", among many others.- Actress
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A strikingly beautiful German lead actress, Barbara Sukowa broke into TV and films as the protégée of famed director Rainer Werner Fassbinder with his masterpiece mini-series Berlin Alexanderplatz (1980) and the moody film drama Lola (1981) in the title role. In the latter, Barbara won critical kudos portraying a cynical, manipulative singer/hooker who sets her sights on an unsuspecting town politician played by Armin Mueller-Stahl. Following Fassbinder's sudden death in 1982, Barbara was gloriously displayed in a couple of stark, brilliant, politically-motivated films by director Margarethe von Trotta. In Marianne & Juliane (1981), Barbara won both the Venice Film Festival and German Film awards and as _Rosa Luxemburg (1986)_ , she copped the Cannes Film Festival award. A number of international productions, notably Lars von Trier's Europa (1991), brought Barbara to the attention of Hollywood. Although not well known here by name, this fascinating figure has added her exotic allure to a number of American films including The Sicilian (1987), M. Butterfly (1993), Johnny Mnemonic (1995), Cradle Will Rock (1999) and the just-completed Romance & Cigarettes (2005), which was written and directed by John Turturro. Barbara started up a second career as a concert vocalist in recent years, performing works by such classical composers as Arnold Schönberg, among others.- Peri Baumeister was born in 1986 in Berlin, Germany. She is an actress, known for Blood Red Sky (2021), Neuland (2022) and Irre sind männlich (2014).