The 50 best and most important german actors as of public ratings
by john-hurt-836-514730 | created - 30 Apr 2014 | updated - 06 Apr 2018 | PublicThis list is based on public tv-ratings, critics and journalists of major national and international journals which mentioned these actresses and actors in the last twelve months regularly.
1. 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 ...
2. 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 ...
3. 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.
...
4. 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...
5. Devid Striesow
Actor | Im Westen nichts Neues
Devid Striesow was born on October 1, 1973 in Bergen auf Rügen, East Germany [now Germany]. He is an actor, known for All Quiet on the Western Front (2022), The Counterfeiters (2007) and Before the Fall (2004). He has been married to Francine since 2008. They have two children.
6. Joachim Król
Actor | Der bewegte Mann
Joachim Król was born on June 17, 1957 in Herne, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. He is an actor, known for Maybe... Maybe Not (1994), Tatort (1970) and Run Lola Run (1998).
7. 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 ...
8. Axel Milberg
Actor | Tatort
Axel Milberg was born on August 1, 1956 in Kiel, Germany. He is an actor, known for Tatort (1970), Doktor Martin (2007) and Hannah Arendt (2012). He has been married to Judith Betzler since January 2004. They have one child.
9. August Zirner
Actor | A Sound of Thunder
Born in the USA. His father, a Jewish immigrant, was head of the Opera Department of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in Illinois. The Zirners lived on Burlison Drive in Urbana, Illinois. Back in Europe Zirner studied at the "Max-Reinhardt-Seminar". Lives with his spouse, actress ...
10. 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 23 (1998). He has been married to Julia Malik since 1999. They have two children.
11. 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 ...
12. Alexandra Maria Lara
Actress | Der Untergang
Born on 12 November 1978 in Bucharest, Romania, Alexandra Maria Lara fled to Germany with her parents when she was four and half years old. After graduating at the French High School, she studied acting at the Theaterwerkstatt Charlottenburg from 1997 and 2000, but had already played leading ...
13. Edgar Selge
Actor | Polizeiruf 110
Edgar Selge was born on March 27, 1948 in Brilon, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. He is an actor, known for Police Call 110 (1971), The Experiment (2001) and The Poll Diaries (2010). He has been married to Franziska Walser since 1985. They have two children.
14. 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 ...
15. 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 ...
16. Jürgen Prochnow
Actor | Dune
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 ...
17. 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...
18. Jochen Horst
Actor | Jaguar
Jochen Horst finished the university of Graz/Austria in Perfoming Arts, Literature & Theatre Studies with "summa cum laud" in 1986. Because of his bilingual upbringing (his grandfather is from Chicago) he went to London for further training at the Lee Strasberg Institute to deepen his studies in ...
19. Martina Gedeck
Actress | Das Leben der Anderen
Martina Gedeck was born in Munich. After spending a year in the US, she studied drama at the Berlin University of the Arts. Martina's film career began while she was still at drama school. Her filmography covers practically all genres of film.
Gedeck has won a total of 23 major cinema and TV awards....
20. 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), Valkyrie (2008) and Downfall (2004). He has been married to Andrea Sawatzki since December 17, 2011. They have two children.
21. 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 ...
22. Jürgen Vogel
Actor | Die Welle
Jürgen Vogel was born on April 29, 1968 in Hamburg, West Germany. He is an actor and producer, known for The Wave (2008), Der freie Wille (2006) and Life is All You Get (1997).
23. Juliane Köhler
Actress | Der Untergang
Juliane Köhler was born on August 6, 1965 in Göttingen, Lower Saxony, Germany. She is an actress, known for Downfall (2004), Aimee & Jaguar (1999) and Nowhere in Africa (2001). She has been married to Michael Rösch since 1996. They have two children.
24. Julia Jentsch
Actress | Sophie Scholl - Die letzten Tage
After school, Jentsch turned to acting. She attended the Ernst Busch Academy of Dramatic Arts in Berlin. Jentsch then began her acting career in the theater. In 2001 she joined the ensemble of the Munich Kammerspiele, where she masterfully interpreted Desdemona in Shakespeare's "Othello", Sophocles...
25. Nadja Uhl
Actress | Der Baader Meinhof Komplex
Nadja Uhl was born on May 23, 1972 in Stralsund, German Democratic Republic. She is an actress, known for The Baader Meinhof Complex (2008), Operation Sugar (2012) and Divided We Stand (2022).
26. Robert Stadlober
Actor | Sommersturm
Robert Stadlober was born on August 3, 1982 in Friesach, Carinthia, Austria. He is an actor and producer, known for Summer Storm (2004), Enemy at the Gates (2001) and Engel & Joe (2001).
27. Elmar Wepper
Actor | Kirschblüten - Hanami
Elmar Wepper was born on April 16, 1944 in Augsburg, Germany. He was an actor, known for Cherry Blossoms (2008), Zwei Münchner in Hamburg (1989) and Unsere schönsten Jahre (1983). He was married to Anita Schlierf. He died on October 31, 2023 in Planegg, Bavaria, Germany.
28. 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 ...
29. Sibel Kekilli
Actress | Gegen die Wand
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 ...
30. Karoline Herfurth
Actress | Perfume: The Story of a Murderer
Karoline Herfurth was born on May 22, 1984 in Berlin, Germany. She is an actress and director, known for Perfume: The Story of a Murderer (2006), Text for You (2016) and Einfach mal was Schönes (2022).
31. 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...
32. Corinna Harfouch
Actress | Der Untergang
Growing up as the daughter of the teacher Wolfgang Meffert and his wife Marianne née Kleber, she attended school in Großenhain from 1961 to 1973. She completed her Abitur at the extended high school. After training as a nurse, she began studying textile engineering at the TU Dresden in 1976. From ...
33. Hannelore Elsner
Actress | Die Kommissarin
One of the pre-eminent divas of post-war German cinema, Hannelore Elsner (born 'Elstner') was the consummate actress: a gifted and versatile performer with a penchant for intense roles, often as emancipated, strong-willed women. A Bavarian engineer's daughter (her father died of tuberculosis when ...
34. Katja Riemann
Actress | Fack ju Göhte
Katja Riemann was born on November 1, 1963 in Kirchweyhe, Weyhe, Lower Saxony, Germany. She is an actress and director, known for Suck Me Shakespeer (2013), Rosenstrasse (2003) and Bandits (1997).
35. 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).
36. 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).
37. Veronica Ferres
Actress | Crisis
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 ...
38. Ulrich Matthes
Actor | Der Untergang
Ulrich Matthes was born on May 9, 1959 in West Berlin, West Germany. He is an actor, known for Downfall (2004), A Hidden Life (2019) and Feuerreiter (1998).
39. Ulrich Noethen
Actor | Der Untergang
Ulrich Noethen was born on November 18, 1959 in Munich, Germany. He is an actor, known for Downfall (2004), Das Sams (2001) and Das fliegende Klassenzimmer (2003). He was previously married to Friederike Wagner.
40. Jan Josef Liefers
Actor | Tatort
Jan Josef Liefers was born on August 8, 1964 in Dresden, East Germany [now Saxony, Federal Republic of Germany]. He is an actor and director, known for Tatort (1970), The Baader Meinhof Complex (2008) and The Tower (2012). He has been married to Anna Loos since August 5, 2004. They have two ...
41. Richy Müller
Actor | xXx
Richy Müller was born on September 26, 1955 in Mannheim, Baden-Württemberg, West Germany. He is an actor, known for xXx (2002), Tatort (1970) and The Poll Diaries (2010).
42. Sophie von Kessel
Actress | Die Konferenz
Sophie von Kessel was born on October 12, 1968 in Mexico City, Distrito Federal, Mexico. She is an actress, known for Die Konferenz (2004), Herr Bello (2007) and Frank Riva (2003).
43. Horst Günter Marx
Actor | Die Venusfalle
Born in Potsdam in 1955, Horst-Günter Marx starts acting in his school's mime troupe at 10, where he makes his first efforts in acting and directing. By then he feels the strong wish to become an actor. In 1978 Marx takes acting classes at the Schauspielschule Ernst Busch in East Berlin. After ...
44. Michael Roll
Actor | M.E.T.R.O. - Ein Team auf Leben und Tod
Michael Roll was born on April 29, 1961 in Munich, Bavaria, West Germany. He is an actor, known for M.E.T.R.O. - Ein Team auf Leben und Tod (2006), Der König (1994) and Kommissarin Lucas (2003). He has been married to Claudia Heiss since July 23, 2016. He was previously married to Antje Roll.
45. 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 ...
46. Günther Maria Halmer
Actor | Sophie's Choice
Günther Maria Halmer was born on January 5, 1943 in Rosenheim, Bavaria, Germany. He is an actor, known for Sophie's Choice (1982), Gandhi (1982) and Anwalt Abel (1988). He has been married to Claudia Halmer since 1976. They have two children.
47. Barbara Auer
Actress | Nachtschicht
Barbara Auer was born on February 1, 1959 in Konstanz, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. She is an actress, known for Nachtschicht (2003), The Book Thief (2013) and Das Ende einer Nacht (2012).
48. Alexander Radszun
Actor | A Hidden Life
Alexander Radszun was born on May 6, 1952 in West Berlin, West Germany. He is an actor, known for A Hidden Life (2019), Der Bastard (1989) and Goldene Zeiten - Bittere Zeiten (1981).
49. Rolf Hoppe
Actor | Sardsch
Rolf Hoppe was born on December 6, 1930 in Ellrich, Thuringia, Germany. He was an actor, known for Sardsch (1997), La piovra (1984) and Mephisto (1981). He was married to Friederike. He died on November 14, 2018 in Dresden, Saxony, Germany.
50. Götz George
Actor | Der Totmacher
Götz George, born in Berlin in 1938, is the son of the famous actor Heinrich George and his wife, the actress Berta Drews. After first appearances on the stage of Berlin's Hebbel Theater during his childhood, Götz George was trained as an actor by the recognized teacher Else Bongers. At the age of ...
Tell Your Friends