The Best "Foreign Language" Actors/Actresses

1. Mads Mikkelsen

Mads Mikkelsen's great successes parallel those achieved by the Danish film industry since the mid-1990s. He was born in Østerbro, Copenhagen, to Bente Christiansen, a nurse, and Henning Mikkelsen, a banker.

Starting out as a low-life pusher/junkie in the 1996 success Pusher (1996), he slowly grew ...

2. Moritz Bleibtreu

Actor | Knockin' on Heaven's Door

Moritz Bleibtreu is a German actor born on August 13, 1971 in Munich growing up in Hamburg. He first appears in children's television series Neues aus Uhlenbusch (1977) at the age of six. His breakthrough was the role called "Abdul" in the movie Knockin' on Heaven's Door (1997). He also became ...

3. Armin Mueller-Stahl

Actor | Eastern Promises

Armin Mueller-Stahl is a German actor with a relatively long film career. He was once nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, for his role as an abusive father in the biographical drama "Shine" (1996).

In 1930, Mueller-Stahl was born in Tilsit, East Prussia. The town developed ...

4. Gérard Depardieu

Actor | Cyrano de Bergerac

Gérard Depardieu was born in Châteauroux, Indre, France, to Anne Jeanne Josèphe (Marillier) and René Maxime Lionel Depardieu, who was a metal worker and fireman. Young delinquent and wanderer in the past, Depardieu started his acting career at the small traveling theatre "Café de la Gare", along ...

5. Ken Watanabe

Actor | The Last Samurai

Ken Watanabe was born on October 21, 1959 in Uonuma, Japan. Both of his parents were teachers: his mother taught general education and his dad taught calligraphy. He became interested in acting at the age of 24, when a director of England's National Theater Company, where he was studying, told him ...

6. Jean Reno

Actor | Léon

Jean Reno was born Juan Moreno y Herrera-Jiménez in Casablanca, Morocco, to Spanish parents (from Andalucía) who moved to North Africa to seek work. His father was a linotypist. Reno settled in France at 17. He began studying drama and has credits in French television and theater as well as films. ...

7. Vincent Cassel

Actor | Black Swan

Blue-eyed Vincent Cassel was born in Paris to a leading actor father, Jean-Pierre Cassel, and a journalist mother, Sabine Litique. Often labeled as a tough guy because of his roles, eclectic choices and talent have made of him a star of European cinema. First in La haine (1995), the young actor, ...

8. Yôsuke Kubozuka

Actor | Silence

Debut as an actor in Japanese TV series "The Kindaichi Case Files" (1995). Gained success with the performance in "Ikebukuro West Gate Park" (2000). Awarded Japan Academy Prize for both Best Newcomer and Best Actor in 2001, youngest ever at the time. First Hollywood film appearance in Martin ...

9. Choi Min-sik

Actor | Oldeuboi

Choi Min-shik first made a name for himself in theater before breaking into the film world with a role in Park Chong-won's acclaimed film 'Our Twisted Hero' (1992). In the mid-nineties he continued to act in theater productions as well as in several TV dramas, including Moon Over Seoul with Han ...

10. Christoph Waltz

Actor | Django Unchained

Christoph Waltz is an Austrian-German actor. He is known for his work with American filmmaker Quentin Tarantino, receiving acclaim for portraying SS-Standartenführer Hans Landa in Inglourious Basterds (2009) and bounty hunter Dr. King Schultz in Django Unchained (2012). For each performance, he won...

11. Stipe Erceg

Actor | Die fetten Jahre sind vorbei

Stipe Erceg was born on October 30, 1974 in Split, Croatia, Yugoslavia [now Croatia]. He is an actor and producer, known for The Edukators (2004), Unknown (2011) and The Baader Meinhof Complex (2008).

12. Wagner Moura

Actor | Tropa de Elite

Moura was born in Salvador, a city located in Northeast Region of Brazil, but grew up in the small town of Rodelas, Bahia. His mother, Alderiva, was a housewife, and his father, José Moura, was a Sergeant in the Brazilian Air Force. At the age of 13, he moved with his family to Salvador, Bahia.

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13. Takeshi Kitano

Actor | Zatôichi

Takeshi Kitano originally studied to become an engineer, but was thrown out of school for rebellious behavior. He learned comedy, singing and dancing from famed comedian Senzaburô Fukami. Working as a lift boy on a nightclub with such features as comic sketches and striptease dancing, Kitano saw ...

14. Tadanobu Asano

Actor | Mongol

Tadanobu Asano's a Japanese film actor. His father suggested he take on what became his first role in the TV show Kimpachi Sensei at 16. His film debut was Swimming Upstream (1990) though his first major critical success was in Shunji Iwai's La cuisine: Fried Dragon Fish (1993). His first critical ...

15. Hiroyuki Sanada

Actor | Tasogare Seibei

Hiroyuki Sanada was born on October 12, 1960 in Tokyo. He made his film debut when he was 5 in Rokyoku komori-uta (1965) (Shin'ichi Chiba played the lead role.) His father died when he was 11. He joined Japan Action Club, organized & run by Sonny Chiba, when he was 12. He 1st became famous as an ...

16. Naoto Takenaka

Actor | Munô no hito

Naoto Takenaka was born on March 20, 1956 in Yokohama, Japan. He is an actor and director, known for Nowhere Man (1991), 119 (1994) and Shall We Dance? (1996).

17. Wah Yuen

Actor | Kung fu

Wah Yuen was born on September 2, 1950 in Hong Kong, China. He is an actor, known for Kung Fu Hustle (2004), Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings (2021) and The Way of the Dragon (1972).

18. Hilmi Sözer

Actor | Blackout - Die Erinnerung ist tödlich

Hilmi Sözer was born on March 9, 1970 in Çubuk, Ankara, Turkey. He is an actor, known for Blackout - Die Erinnerung ist tödlich (2006), Germanikus (2004) and Was nicht passt, wird passend gemacht (2002).

19. Sky du Mont

Actor | Eyes Wide Shut

Sky du Mont's parents left Germany and moved to Argentina. Sky Du Mont attended school in Great Britain. He completed his high school diploma in Switzerland. From 1969 he trained as an actor in Munich, which he completed in 1971 with the examination before the State Theater Cooperative. Afterwards,...

20. Armin Rohde

Actor | Lola rennt

After school, he completed his training at the Folkwang School in Essen from 1980 to 1984 and clown training with Pierre Byland. Rohde then worked at various theaters in Bielefeld and Bochum and played in the ensemble of the Schauspielhaus Bochum from 1987 to 1995. His brother Uwe Rohde, who was ...

21. Ralf Richter

Actor | Das Boot

Ralf Richter was born on August 17, 1957 in Essen, Germany. He is an actor and producer, known for Das Boot (1981), Was nicht passt wird passend gemacht (2003) and Es wäre gut, daß ein Mensch würde umbracht für das Volk (1991).

22. Song Kang-ho

Actor | Salinui chueok

Song Kang-ho never professionally trained as an actor, beginning his career in social theater groups after graduating from Kimhae High School. Later, he joined Kee Kuk-seo's influential theater company with its emphasis on instinctive acting and improvisation, which proved to be Song's training ...

23. Konstantin Khabenskiy

Actor | Wanted

Konstantin Khabenskiy is a Russian actor known in the West for his working the horror flicks Night Watch (2004) and Day Watch (2006). He is also co-starring opposite Angelina Jolie in Wanted (2008).

He was born Konstantin Yurevich Khabenskiy on January 11, 1972, in Leningrad, USSR (now St. ...

24. Saïd Taghmaoui

Actor | Wonder Woman

Saïd Taghmaoui was born July 19th 1973 in Villepinte, Seine-Saint-Denis, France, to Moroccan immigrant parents. He has 9 siblings. He dropped out of school at a young age and became a boxer; at one point ranking number 2 in France in his category. He met Mathieu Kassovitz with whom he co-wrote the ...

25. Emilio Echevarría

Actor | Amores perros

Emilio Echevarría was born in Mexico. He is known for Amores Perros (2000), Die Another Day (2002) and And Your Mother Too (2001).

26. Chow Yun-Fat

Actor | Wo hu cang long

Chow Yun Fat is a charismatic, athletically built and energetic Asian-born film star who first came to the attention of western audiences via his roles in the high-octane/blazing guns action films of maverick HK director John Woo.

Chow was born in 1955 on the quiet island of Lamma, part of the ...

27. Tsutomu Yamazaki

Actor | Kagemusha

Tsutomu Yamazaki was born on December 2, 1936 in Chiba, Japan. He is an actor, known for Kagemusha: The Shadow Warrior (1980), Departures (2008) and High and Low (1963).

28. Ulrich Tukur

Actor | Das Leben der Anderen

He spent his childhood and youth in Hesse, Westphalia and Lower Saxony. As a teenager he lived in the Wedemark region of Lower Saxony near Hanover. He spent his school years there, completing his high school diploma as an exchange student for the American Field Service AFS in Boston (USA). In 1977 ...

29. Christian Berkel

Actor | The Man from U.N.C.L.E.

Christian Berkel was born on October 28, 1957 in West Berlin, West Germany. He is an actor, known for The Man from U.N.C.L.E. (2015), Downfall (2004) and Valkyrie (2008). He has been married to Andrea Sawatzki since December 17, 2011. They have two children.

30. Thomas Kretschmann

Actor | King Kong

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 ...

31. Bruno Ganz

Actor | Der Untergang

Bruno Ganz was an acclaimed Swiss actor who was a prominent figure in German language film and television for over fifty years. He is internationally renowned for portraying Adolf Hitler in the Academy Award-nominated film Downfall (2004).

Ganz was born in Zürich, to a Swiss mechanic father and a ...

32. Gerardo Taracena

Actor | Apocalypto

Gerardo Taracena was born in 1970 in Mexico City, Mexico. He is an actor and producer, known for Apocalypto (2006), Sin Nombre (2009) and Man on Fire (2004).

33. Kad Merad

Actor | Bienvenue chez les Ch'tis

Kad Merad was born on March 27, 1964 in Sidi Bel Abbes, Algeria. He is an actor and writer, known for Welcome to the Sticks (2008), The Chorus (2004) and Baron noir (2016).

34. Jean-Claude Van Damme

Actor | Double Impact

Van Damme was born Jean-Claude Camille François Van Varenberg in Berchem-Sainte-Agathe, Brussels, Belgium, to Eliana and Eugène Van Varenberg, an accountant. "The Muscles from Brussels" started martial arts at the age of eleven. His father introduced him to martial arts when he saw his son was ...

35. Takahiro Nishijima

Actor | Ai no mukidashi

Takahiro Nishijima was born on September 30, 1986 in Hokkaido, Japan. He is a music artist and actor, known for Love Exposure (2008), Nissy: OK? ~ Kimi ni okuru 24-jikan (2017) and Taira no Kiyomori (2012).

36. Tahar Rahim

Actor | Un prophète

Tahar Rahim was born on July 4, 1981 in Belfort, Territoire de Belfort, France. He is an actor, known for A Prophet (2009), The Past (2013) and The Mauritanian (2021). He has been married to Leïla Bekhti since 2010.

37. Niels Arestrup

Actor | Un prophète

Niels Arestrup was born on February 8, 1949 in Montreuil, Seine [now Seine-Saint-Denis], France. He is an actor and writer, known for A Prophet (2009), War Horse (2011) and Diplomacy (2014). He has been married to Isabelle Le Nouvel since September 15, 2012. They have two children.

38. Ricardo Darín

Actor | Nueve reinas

Ricardo Darín was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, on January 16, 1957. He works since he was a little boy, and has obtained with the years a remarkable evolution from soap opera gallant and tv comedies to an excellent leading figure of the most importants Argentinian movies. At the age of 10 he ...

39. Filip Peeters

Actor | De hel van Tanger

Filip Peeters was born on December 2, 1962 in Anderlecht, Belgium. Filip has been working in the theatre since 1987, but his roles in film and television have really brought him into the spotlight. Being fluent in German, he has been expanding his career in Germany since 2000, where his popularity ...

40. Matthias Schoenaerts

Actor | De rouille et d'os

Matthias Schoenaerts was born on December 8, 1977 in Antwerp, Belgium. His mother, Dominique Wiche, was a costume designer, translator, and French teacher, and his father was actor Julien Schoenaerts. He made his film debut at the age of 13 alongside his father in the Belgian film Daens (1992), ...

41. Koen De Bouw

Actor | Professor T.

Award-winning Koen De Bouw (1964) is one of the leading actors in Belgium. He studied theatre at the prestigious Antwerp Studio Herman Teirlinck, and made his film debut in 1988 upon graduation. Since then he played leading parts in more than 30 Belgian and international films as well as a similar ...

42. François Cluzet

Actor | Intouchables

François Cluzet was born on September 21, 1955 in Paris, France. He is an actor, known for The Intouchables (2011), Tell No One (2006) and French Kiss (1995). He has been married to Narjiss Slaoui-Falcoz since 2011. He was previously married to Chantal Perrin.

43. Ulrich Thomsen

Actor | Festen

Ulrich Thomsen graduated from The Danish National School of Theatre and Contemporary Dance in 1993, after which playing on several theaters in Copenhagen, i.e. Dr. Dantes Aveny, Mungo Park and Østre Gasværks Teater. His debut on film was in Ole Bornedal's Nightwatch (1994). Since then a number of ...

44. Rolf Lassgård

Actor | En man som heter Ove

He started acting school in Malmö and went from there to the Skånska Teatern in Landskrona, performing in plays by Shakespeare or Brecht. He made a breakthrough as Puck in William Shakespeare's 'A Midsummer's Night Dream'. He also met his wife Birgitta there. The 1990s meant a lot of work in front ...

45. Lubna Azabal

Actress | Incendies

Lubna Azabal was born on August 15, 1973 in Brussels, Belgium. She is an actress, known for Incendies (2010), Coriolanus (2011) and Body of Lies (2008).

46. Barnaby Metschurat

Actor | L'auberge espagnole

Barnaby Metschurat was born on September 22, 1974 in West Berlin, West Germany. He is an actor and producer, known for The Spanish Apartment (2002), Hey Bunny (2016) and Race (2016).

47. Omar Sy

Actor | Intouchables

Omar Sy was born on January 20, 1978 in Trappes, Yvelines, France. He is an actor and producer, known for The Intouchables (2011), Jurassic World (2015) and X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014). He has been married to Hélène Sy since July 6, 2007. They have four children.

48. Mario Adorf

Actor | Die Blechtrommel

Mario Adorf, a tell-tale name indeed. Mario calls to mind the actor's Italian roots (his father was a Calabrian surgeon) whereas Adorf reveals his German origins (his mother was a radiologist from the German region Eifel). As for the full name Mario Adorf it echoes to perfection the international ...

49. Juraj Kukura

Actor | Hotel Paradies

Juraj Kukura was born on March 15, 1947 in Presov, Czechoslovakia [now Slovak Republic]. He is an actor, known for Hotel Paradies (1990), Glückliche Reise (1992) and Split Homicide (2016).

50. Günther Kaufmann

Actor | Wickie und die starken Männer

Günther Kaufmann was born on June 16, 1947 in Munich, Bavaria, Germany. He was an actor, known for Wickie und die starken Männer (2009), Querelle (1982) and Ludwig - Requiem for a Virgin King (1972). He was married to Patrizia, Alexandra von Herrendorf and Gabriele. He died on May 10, 2012 in ...

51. Til Schweiger

Actor | Inglourious Basterds

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.

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52. Audrey Tautou

Actress | Le fabuleux destin d'Amélie Poulain

Audrey Justine Tautou was born on August 9, 1976 in Beaumont, France, to Evelyne Marie Laure (Nuret), a teacher, and Bernard Tautou, a dental surgeon. Audrey showed an interest for comedy at an early age and started her acting lessons at 'Cours Florent'. In 1998 she won the best young actress award...

53. Charlotte Gainsbourg

Actress | Nymphomaniac: Vol. II

Charlotte Gainsbourg was born in London, England in 1971. She is an Anglo-French actress and singer. The daughter of English singer and actress Jane Birkin and French songwriter, singer and actor Serge Gainsbourg, she was raised in Paris. Charlotte made her motion picture debut in 1984. In 1986, ...

54. Monica Bellucci

Actress | Malèna

Monica Anna Maria Bellucci was born on September 30, 1964 in the Italian village of Città di Castello, Umbria, the only child of Brunella Briganti and Pasquale Bellucci. She originally pursued a career in the legal profession. While attending the University of Perugia, she modeled on the side to ...