Great German Stars
by nigel49 | created - 20 Dec 2017 | updated - 3 months ago | PublicThese have made a great impression
1. 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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2. Marlene Dietrich
Soundtrack | Witness for the Prosecution
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 ...
3. Hardy Krüger
Actor | A Bridge Too Far
Hardy Kruger was born Eberhard August Franz Ewald Krüger in Wedding, Berlin, thee son of Auguste (Meier) and Max Krüger. At thirteen years, he became a member of the "Hitler Jugend" (Hitler Youth), as did all 13-year-old boys in Germany then. The purpose of the organization was to prepare the boys ...
4. Romy Schneider
Actress | L'important c'est d'aimer
Romy Schneider was born on 23 September 1938 in Vienna, Austria into a family of actors. Making her film debut at the age of 15, her breakthrough came two years later in the very popular trilogy Sissi (1955). Her mother, supervising her daughter's career, immediately approved Romy's participation ...
5. Maximilian Schell
Actor | Judgment at Nuremberg
Maximilian Schell was the most successful German-speaking actor in English-language films since Emil Jannings, the winner of the first Best Actor Academy Award. Like Jannings, Schell won the Oscar, but unlike him, he was a dedicated anti-Nazi. Indeed, with the exception of Maurice Chevalier and ...
6. 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 ...
7. Elke Sommer
Actress | A Shot in the Dark
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, ...
8. Matthias Schweighöfer
Actor | Army of the Dead
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 ...
9. Sebastian Koch
Actor | Das Leben der Anderen
Sebastian Koch is one of the most internationally sought-after German actors of his generation. After stage engagements in Berlin, Bochum and Darmstadt, the Karlsruhe native was twice awarded the "Grimme Prize" in 2002 for the title role in Peter Keglevic's "Der Tanz mit dem Teufel - Die Entführung...
10. Diane Kruger
Actress | Inglourious Basterds
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 ...
11. Michael Fassbender
Actor | Shame
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 ...
12. Karin Dor
Actress | You Only Live Twice
Born Kätherose Derr in Wiesbaden, Karin Dor studied acting and ballet at school and began in films as an extra. The attractive redhead made an indelible impression on Austrian director Harald Reinl (who became her first husband in 1954) and this paved the way to higher profile roles. Her first ...
13. Lilli Palmer
Actress | Anastasia - Die letzte Zarentochter
A charming, elegant, and exceedingly popular international film star with a gentle, understated beauty, actress Lilli Palmer was born as Lilli Marie Peiser on May 24, 1914, in Posen, Prussia. She was the daughter of Rose Lissman, an Austrian Jewish actress, and Alfred Peiser, a German Jewish ...
14. Jürgen Prochnow
Actor | Das Boot
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 ...
15. Anton Diffring
Actor | Where Eagles Dare
Anton Diffring was a character actor who worked continuously in motion pictures due to his aristocratic face and cool, clipped diction, making him ideal for typecasting in British and later American motion pictures as Nazis and other vile, despicable characters. What was ironic about his ...
16. Hildegard Knef
Actress | Jeder stirbt für sich allein
Hildegard Frieda Albertine Knef was born on December 28, 1925 in Ulm, Germany. In 1940, she began to study acting. Even before the fall of the Third Reich, she appeared in several films, but most of them were only released after the war. To avoid being raped by Soviet soldiers, she dressed like a ...
17. August Diehl
Actor | Inglourious Basterds
August Diehl was born on January 4, 1976 in Berlin, Germany. He is an actor and writer, known for Inglourious Basterds (2009), A Hidden Life (2019) and The King's Man (2021). He has been married to Julia Malik since 1999. They have two children.
18. Max Riemelt
Actor | Napola - Elite für den Führer
Max Riemelt was born on January 7, 1984 in Berlin, Germany. He is an actor, known for Before the Fall (2004), Free Fall (2013) and Berlin Syndrome (2017).
19. Marianne Stewart
Actress | Valley of Hunted Men
Marianne Stewart was born on January 16, 1922 in Berlin, Germany. She was an actress, known for Valley of Hunted Men (1942), Ben Casey (1961) and Hush...Hush, Sweet Charlotte (1964). She was married to Wilbur George Dirksing and Louis Calhern. She died on November 1, 1992 in Los Angeles, California...
20. Lars Eidinger
Actor | Clouds of Sils Maria
Lars Eidinger, born in Berlin, studied at the prestigious Ernst Busch Academy of Dramatic Art in Berlin.
Since 1999 he has been an ensemble member at the Berliner Schaubühne. His portrayals of Hamlet and Richard III. in the productions of Thomas Ostermeier were internationally acclaimed and made him...
21. Conrad Veidt
Actor | Casablanca
Conrad Veidt attended the Sophiengymnasium (secondary school) in the Schoeneberg district of Berlin, and graduated without a diploma in 1912, last in his class of 13. Conrad liked animals, theater, cinema, fast cars, pastries, thunderstorms, gardening, swimming and golfing. He disliked heights, ...
22. August Wittgenstein
Actor | The Crown
August Wittgenstein was born on January 22, 1981 in Siegen, North Rhine-Westphalia, West Germany. He is an actor, known for The Crown (2016), Das Boot (2018) and Ku'damm 56 (2016).
23. Louis Hofmann
Actor | Dark
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 ...
24. Alexander Dreymon
Actor | Christopher and His Kind
Alexander Dreymon was born February 7, 1983 in Germany and grew up in France, Switzerland and the United States. He studied in Paris and trained three years at Drama Centre London. Dreymon worked on stage in London and Paris and made his screen debut alongside Doctor Who star Matt Smith in the ...
25. Tom Schilling
Actor | Oh Boy
Tom Schilling was born on February 10, 1982 in Berlin, Germany. He is an actor and producer, known for A Coffee in Berlin (2012), Before the Fall (2004) and Who Am I (2014).
26. Matthias Hues
Actor | Puppet Master: The Littlest Reich
Matthias Hues was born on Valentine's Day in Waltrop, Germany, to the late Dr. Josef Hues and Maria Humperdinck Hues who still resides in Germany. Maria is the niece of Engelbert Humperdinck, composer of the opera Hansel and Gretel.
Matthias was very involved in sports from an early age on. By the ...
27. Clemens Schick
Actor | Dogman
Clemens Schick was born on February 15, 1972 in Tübingen, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. He is an actor, known for DogMan (2023), Andor (2022) and Futuro Beach (2014).
28. Gert Fröbe
Actor | Goldfinger
Tall, portly built German born actor (and talented violinist) who notched up over 100 film appearances, predominantly in German-language productions. He will forever be remembered by Western audiences as the bombastic megalomaniac "Auric Goldfinger" trying to kill Sean Connery and irradiate the ...
29. Christian Oliver
Actor | Speed Racer
German actor Christian Oliver worked in the entertainment industry for more than 15 years, with, among others, Steven Soderbergh in The Good German; with Brian Singer and Tom Cruise in Valkyrie; and with the Wachowski sisters in Speed Racer. He also starred in Europe's Number One action series ...
30. Volker Bruch
Actor | Der Baader Meinhof Komplex
Volker Bruch was born on March 9, 1980 in Munich, Germany. He is an actor, known for The Baader Meinhof Complex (2008), The Reader (2008) and Babylon Berlin (2017).
31. Florian Lukas
Actor | Good Bye Lenin!
Florian Lukas was born on March 16, 1973 in East Berlin, East Germany. He is an actor and producer, known for Good Bye Lenin! (2003), The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014) and The Weissensee Saga (2010).
32. Andreas Pietschmann
Actor | Dark
Andreas Pietschmann was born on March 22, 1969 in Würzburg, Bavaria, Germany. He is an actor, known for Dark (2017), 1899 (2022) and Belle & Sebastian (2013).
33. Florian David Fitz
Actor | Jesus liebt mich
Florian David Fitz was born on November 20, 1974 in Munich, Bavaria, West Germany. He is an actor and writer, known for Jesus Loves Me (2012), The Most Beautiful Day (2016) and Oskars Kleid (2022).
34. Alexander Fehling
Actor | Inglourious Basterds
Alexander Fehling was born on March 29, 1981 in Berlin, Germany. He is an actor and director, known for Inglourious Basterds (2009), Labyrinth of Lies (2014) and Homeland (2011).
35. Jannis Niewöhner
Actor | Munich: The Edge of War
Jannis Niewöhner was born on March 30, 1992 in Krefeld, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. He is an actor, known for Munich: The Edge of War (2021), Ruby Red (2013) and Godless Youth (2017).
36. Wolf Kahler
Actor | Raiders of the Lost Ark
Wolf Kahler is a German born character actor who, thanks to his height (6'2") and blue eyes was often cast as a Nazi or unsympathetic German characters in his career. He has appeared in several successful franchises (Indiana Jones, The Dirty Dozen), both playing a Nazi officer named Dietrich, and ...
37. Ken Duken
Actor | Max Manus
Ken Duken was born on the 17th of April 1979 as a son of an actress and a doctor in Heidelberg / Germany. He started to learn acting from his stage actress mother Christina Loeb. Later he took courses by James Reynolds and Bruce McDonald but he never attended drama school.
Before starting his career...
38. Max Befort
Actor | Sulphur and White
Max Befort was born on May 15, 1989 in Berlin, Germany. He is an actor, known for Sulphur and White (2020), Denial (2016) and Romeos (2011).
39. Ursula Thiess
Actress | Bengal Brigade
Gorgeous was too tame a word for this foreigner stunner. Glamorous brunette beauty Ursula Thiess was born Ursula Schmidt in Hamburg, Germany on May 15, 1924, the daughter of Hans Schmidt, who managed a printing company, and Wilhelmine Lange, her turbulent childhood including working as compulsory ...
40. Dana Wynter
Actress | Invasion of the Body Snatchers
The daughter of a noted surgeon, Dana Wynter was born Dagmar Winter in Berlin, Germany, and grew up in England. When she was 16 her father went to Morocco, reportedly to operate on a woman who wouldn't allow anyone else to attend her; he visited friends in Southern Rhodesia, fell in love with it ...
41. Max Mauff
Actor | The Reader
Max Mauff was born on July 3, 1987 in Berlin, Germany. He is an actor, known for The Reader (2008), The Wave (2008) and Sense8 (2015).
42. David Kross
Actor | The Reader
David Kross was born on July 4, 1990 in Bargteheide, Schleswig-Holstein, Germany next to Hamburg. He attended Eckhorst High School in Bargteheide till 2007. In this period, he first appears in the German movie Verzauberte Emma oder Hilfe, ich bin ein Junge... ! (2002). He also receives his first ...
43. Sönke Möhring
Actor | Inglourious Basterds
Sönke Möhring was born on October 12, 1972 in Unna, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. He is an actor, known for Inglourious Basterds (2009), The Impossible (2012) and Alles Klara (2012).
44. Torben Liebrecht
Actor | Altered Carbon
Torben Liebrecht is best known for his performance as Colonel Ivan Carrera in Netflix's International hit series, Altered Carbon Season 2.
Most recently, he had a standout role in MGM's thriller Operation Finale opposite Sir Ben Kingsley, Oscar Isaac and Melanie Laurent, directed by Chris Weitz.
...
45. Curd Jürgens
Actor | The Spy Who Loved Me
Curd Jürgens (commonly billed as "Curt Jurgens" in anglophone countries) was one of the most successful European film actors of the 20th Century. He was born Curd Gustav Andreas Gottlieb Franz Jürgens on December 13, 1915, in Solln, Bavaria, in Hohenzollern Imperial Germany, a subject of Kaiser ...
46. Franka Potente
Actress | Lola rennt
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 ...
47. Albrecht Schuch
Actor | Im Westen nichts Neues
Albrecht Schuch was born on August 21, 1985 in Jena, German Democratic Republic. He is an actor, known for All Quiet on the Western Front (2022), Mitten in Deutschland: NSU (2016) and Berlin Alexanderplatz (2020).
48. Udo Kier
Actor | Hunters
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 ...
49. Jannik Schümann
Actor | Monster Hunter
Jannik Schümann was born on July 23, 1992 in Hamburg, Germany. He is an actor and producer, known for Monster Hunter (2020), Center of My World (2016) and Barbara (2012).
50. Louis Hofmann
Actor | Dark
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 ...
51. Jake Picking
Actor | Hollywood
Jake Picking was born on March 2, 1991 in Erlangen, Bavaria, Germany. He is an actor, known for Hollywood (2020), Top Gun: Maverick (2022) and Patriots Day (2016).
52. Franz Rogowski
Actor | Transit
Franz Rogowski is an actor. He was born on 2nd February 1986 in Freiburg, Germany. The actor is known for Victoria (2015) and Love Steaks (2013). Victoria (2015) is one of the few feature films shot in a single continuous take and won amongst other things the Silver Bear for Outstanding Artistic ...
53. Damian Hardung
Actor | Club der roten Bänder
Damian Hardung was born on September 7, 1998. He is an actor, known for Club der roten Bänder (2015), Red Bracelets: The Beginning (2019) and Die Könige der Straße (2011).
54. Sandra Hüller
Actress | Anatomie d'une chute
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...
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