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1-50 of 528
- Actress
- Director
- Writer
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.- Actor
- Additional Crew
- Writer
Helmut Bakaitis is attached to the world of acting in both performing, directing and screen-writing. He was born in Lauban, Silesia, Germany (later became Luban, Poland). He moved to Australia, where he was educated in Sydney at the Fort Street High School. On the steps of the Sydney War Memorial, Helmut participated in a school production of Hamlet as the title character and as such made an incredibly strong impression with his shockingly mature portrayal. Among the numerous television series appearances, films and shorts to his credit, Helmut Bakaitis is best known to most audiences (especially western) for his portrayal as the character known as The Architect in the cult science fiction films The Matrix Reloaded and The Matrix Revolutions (2003). In both these sequels to the 1999 predecessor The Matrix, Helmut artfully portrays The Architect as an analytical and perhaps emotionless genius who created the virtual world of The Matrix, whose memorable and informative speech in the film at last shed light to the truth behind the Matrix's creation and the purpose of The One, (played by Keanu Reeves as Neo) who must make a choice to save the human race from systematic extinction. In addition to his famed Matrix role, Helmut has appeared also in the movie Happy Feet (2006) before again contributing his talents to several film shorts.- Gila von Weitershausen was born on 21 March 1944 in Trebnitz, Silesia, Germany [now Trzebnica, Dolnoslaskie, Poland]. She is an actress, known for Engelchen - oder die Jungfrau von Bamberg (1968), Murmur of the Heart (1971) and Itinerary of a Spoiled Child (1988). She was previously married to Dr. Hartmut Wahle and Martin Lüttge.
- Writer
- Director
- Producer
Robert Wiene was born on 24 April 1873 in Breslau, Silesia, Germany [now Wroclaw, Dolnoslaskie, Poland]. He was a writer and director, known for The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920), Das wandernde Licht (1916) and The Knight of the Rose (1925). He died on 17 July 1938 in Paris, France.- Music Department
Anita Lasker-Wallfisch was born on 17 July 1925 in Breslau, Silesia, Germany. She is known for Auschwitz (2015), We Shall Not Die Now (2019) and The Commandant's Shadow (2024). She was previously married to Peter Wallfisch.- Christiane Rücker was born on 12 June 1944 in Schertendorf, Lower Silesia, Germany [now Przylep, Lubuskie, Poland]. She is an actress, known for Bonditis (1967), Das Paradies der flotten Sünder (1968) and Carmen, Baby (1967).
- Music Department
- Composer
- Actor
Franz Waxman (Wachsmann) pursued his dream of a career in music despite his family's misgivings. He worked for several years as a bank teller and paid for piano, harmony and composition lessons with his salary. He later moved to Berlin, where he continued his study and progress as a musician. He was able to support himself by playing and arranging for a popular German jazz band, Weintraub Syncopaters, in the late 1920s. Friedrich Hollaender, who had written some music for the Weintraubs, gave Waxman his first chance to move into movie scoring by hiring him to orchestrate and conduct Hollander's score (an arrangement of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart) for the film that launched Marlene Dietrich, The Blue Angel (1930), directed by Josef von Sternberg. During 1932 Waxman, a Jew, joined many other Jews leaving Germany as the Nazi vise closed irrevocably on free society. He continued working with Germanfilm makers in France. Waxman did musical arranging and co-scoring, usually with Allan Gray, for approximately 15 European movies (his first independent score was in 1932). "The Blue Angel" producer Erich Pommer liked Waxman's work and offered him the composing job for Liliom (1934), directed by Fritz Lang in France.
Pommer decided to do Music in the Air (1934), a Jerome Kern musical, which meant going to Hollywood. Waxman was asked to come along to do the arranging. Needing no further reason to remain in Europe as the Nazi clouds darkened over it, Waxman began a new chapter in Hollywood film music history. He fortunately had some spare time to study with 'Arnold Schoenberg' after coming to Los Angeles, but he was soon talking to another new arrival, English director James Whale, about scoring Bride of Frankenstein (1935) for Universal. Waxman gave Whale what he wanted--an unusual score to fit the quirky, somewhat over-the-top content of the film (in fact, some of this score was later used in other films). As Waxman worked for Universal through the 1930s, he found himself in assembly-line mode, sometimes sharing scoring credit, and doing a lot of arranging stock music, which was usually used for the studio's many serials. This cranked up Waxman's yearly film output to around 20 or so through 1940.
By 1940, however, he was composing original music scores for other studios, beginning with the romantic music for Selznick Studios' Rebecca (1940)--the first Hollywood film for Alfred Hitchcock--and whimsical fare for MGM's The Philadelphia Story (1940). In 1941 he was doing more work for MGM with Honky Tonk (1941) and his second Hitchcock score, Suspicion (1941) from RKO. By 1943 and for the rest of the decade Waxman was usually scoring for Warner Bros., starting with Destination Tokyo (1943) and including music for some of that studio's classics of the period, such as To Have and Have Not (1944) with Humphrey Bogart. Through the decade he was nominated for an Oscar seven times for Best Film Score.
Waxman moved on to Paramount through the first half of the 1950s and garnered his two Oscars in back--to-back wins for Sunset Boulevard (1950) and A Place in the Sun (1951). This recognition finally underscored what was at the heart of all of Waxman's music: seriously focused attention on relaying a film's story through the content of the music. He would continue his scoring work for several studios into the 1960s, with three more nominations. Some of his music in the 1950s was recycled from his previous scores, as in the case of his third assignment for Hitchcock, Rear Window (1954) which contained used music. Waxman was also active in contemporary classical music. In 1947 he founded the Los Angeles International Music Festival and, as Music Director and Conductor, brought the premieres of works by world renowned contemporary composers to the Los Angeles cultural scene. Among his own output of such music was his popular "Carmen Fantasy" for violin and orchestra. Waxman also composed for TV's Gunsmoke (1955), The Fugitive (1963), Peyton Place (1964) (he had composed the music for the film the series was based on, Peyton Place (1957)) and others. Waxman died relatively young, but because of his steady output, only fellow emigrant Max Steiner (who was nearly 20 years older and whose output entailed more than 200 arrangements of stock music, rather than original scores) was a more prolific early Hollywood composer.- Tatja Seibt was born on 3 March 1944 in Breslau, Silesia, Germany [now Wroclaw, Dolnoslaskie, Poland]. She is an actress, known for Wahnfried (1986), Homesick (2015) and Dark (2017).
- Amadeus August was born on 6 May 1942 in Breslau, Silesia, Germany [now Wroclaw, Dolnoslaskie, Poland]. He was an actor, known for Quentin Durward (1971), Bloody Friday (1972) and La conquête du ciel (1980). He died on 6 July 1992 in Munich, Bavaria, Germany.
- Actress
- Soundtrack
Judy Winter was born on 4 January 1944 in Friedland in Oberschlesien, Upper Silesia, Germany [now Korfantów, Opolskie, Poland]. She is an actress, known for Woman Doctors (1984), Liebe ist nur ein Wort (1971) and Und Jimmy ging zum Regenbogen (1971).- Actor
- Soundtrack
Willy Fritsch was born on 27 January 1901 in Kattowitz, Upper Silesia, Germany [now Katowice, Slaskie, Poland]. He was an actor, known for Woman in the Moon (1929), Inglourious Basterds (2009) and Amphitryon (1935). He was married to Dinah Grace. He died on 13 July 1973 in Hamburg, Germany.- Actor
- Additional Crew
The immensely prolific actor Reinhard Glemnitz was trained at the Otto-Falckenberg-School in Munich and launched his career on Cologne's cabaret scene. He worked for Bavarian radio, then went on the stage in Wuppertal and in 1961 joined the Bavarian State Theatre in Munich as an ensemble member. Some twenty years later, he was able to celebrate his greatest theatrical success in Vienna, Berlin and Munich as Colonel Juan Peron in the musical Evita. In 1996 he scored another hit as the idiosyncratic, parsimonious Horace Vandergelder (the role played by Walter Matthau in the film) in Hello Dolly at the Komödie im Bayerischen Hof .
In films from 1954, Glemnitz began by playing soldiers, public officials and attorneys. By the mid-60s, he had segued into episodic television, making repeat appearances in the cold war espionage series Die fünfte Kolonne (1963) and in Germany's first entry into the science fiction genre on TV, Raumpatrouille - Die phantastischen Abenteuer des Raumschiffes Orion (1966). However, Glemnitz was to become most famous for his crime dramas, first as narrator of the intro for Das Kriminalmuseum (1963), and, secondly, from 1968 to 1975, as Erik Ode's logical thinking offsider Inspektor Robert Heines in Der Kommissar (1969). This role garnered Glemnitz, along with three other cast members, an impressive 5 Bambi Awards (1970, 1971, 1972, 1973 and 1975). Prior to his retirement from the screen in 2006, he made guest appearances on other diverse TV shows like Der Millionenbauer (1979), Forsthaus Falkenau (1989), Derrick (1974) and Tatort (1970). He has also occasionally portrayed historical characters like Johann Reichsgraf von Aldringen (1588-1634) in the 4-part period drama Wallenstein (1978) and General Hans Speidel (1897-1984) in the American miniseries War and Remembrance (1988) .
Few others have made a more substantial contribution to the art of voice acting. Reinhard Glemnitz has been the German dubbing voice for a multitude of stars, including Patrick Stewart, Robert Duvall, Christopher Plummer, Michael Caine, Bruce Dern and Anthony Perkins. He narrated the classic Franco-German adventure series Der Seewolf (1971) from the perspective of its protagonist (Edward Meeks). He provided the German voice for Murray Hamilton in Jaws (1975), Edward Fox in A Bridge Too Far (1977), Richard Harris in Camelot (1967), Mitch Pileggi in Stargate: Atlantis (2004) and Patrick Malahide (as Walsingham, in Elizabeth I (2005)) - these, and many, many more.- Actress
- Producer
- Director
Monica Teuber was born on 12 July 1942 in Breslau, Silesia, Germany [now Wroclaw, Dolnoslaskie, Poland]. She is an actress and producer, known for Magdalene (1988), Jamila (1995) and Red Heat (1985). She is married to Hans-Christoph von Goetz.- Director
- Actor
- Writer
Wolfgang Liebeneiner was a German-Austrian film director, stage and film actor. He was born as Wolfgang Georg Louis Liebeneiner in Liebau, Lower Silesia, Kingdom of Prussia, German Empire (now Lubawka, Poland). His father was in the textile business. Wolfgang was sent to the cadet schools in Wahlstatt (now Legnickie Pole) and Berlin-Lichterfelde, and went for further schooling to Berlin-Zehlendorf. After graduating, he studied philosophy, German studies and international history in Innsbruck (Austria), Berlin and Munich. He became a professor of the Economy Spielschar. From 1930 till 1934 he played at the capital's "Deutsches Theater". In 1935 he married actress Ruth Hellberg, but the marriage went on the rocks. From 1936 till 1944 he was a member of the "Preußisches Staatstheater" in Berlin. From 1938 to 1943 he was an art director at the Film Academy in Babelsberg (now district of Potsdam). In 1942 to 1945 he was leader of the UFA Studio. He usually played young lovers in about 20 films. He also had bit parts in films that he directed. Afterwards he also worked for TV films and series.
In 1944 he married Yugoslavian actress Hilde Krahl, whom he met during the filming of Yvette (1938). They have had two daughters, of which Johanna also became an actress. Wolfgang Liebeneiner died in Mödling near Vienna, Austria.- Gisela Büttner was born on 15 July 1941 in Beuthen, Upper Silesia, Germany. She was an actress, known for Hatifa (1960), Drei Kapitel Glück (1961) and Nebelnacht (1969). She died on 1 May 2024 in Berlin, Germany.
- Alexander Lockwood was born on 5 May 1902 in Polish Ostrava, Silesia, Austria-Hungary [now Ostrava, Czech Republic]. He was an actor, known for Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977), The Man from U.N.C.L.E. (1964) and Matinee Theatre (1955). He died on 25 January 1990 in Los Angeles, California, USA.
- Günter Spörrle was born on 2 February 1936 in Birkowitz, Oppeln, Silesia, Germany [now Bierkowice, Opole, Opolskie, Poland]. He is an actor, known for Lindenstraße (1985), Tatort (1970) and Hamburg Transit (1970).
- Thekla Carola Wied was born on 5 February 1944 in Breslau, Silesia, Germany [now Wroclaw, Dolnoslaskie, Poland]. She is an actress, known for Ich heirate eine Familie... (1983), Spur eines Mädchens (1967) and Wie gut, daß es Maria gibt (1990). She has been married to Hannes Rieckhoff since 1992.
- Composer
- Music Department
- Actor
Peter Thomas was born on 1 December 1925 in Breslau, Silesia, Germany [now Wroclaw, Dolnoslaskie, Poland]. He was a composer and actor, known for Confessions of a Dangerous Mind (2002), The Big Boss (1971) and Escape to Berlin (1961). He was married to Cordy Thomas. He died on 17 May 2020 in Lugano, Cantone Ticino, Switzerland.- Actor
- Director
Wolfgang Reichmann was born on 7 January 1932 in Beuthen, Upper Silesia, Germany [now Bytom, Slaskie, Poland]. He was an actor and director, known for Othello (1968), Von Mäusen und Menschen (1968) and Der seidene Schuh (1965). He died on 7 May 1991 in Waltalingen, Zurich, Switzerland.- Actor
- Additional Crew
- Director
One of the most popular and prolific character comedians of post-war German cinema, Georg Thomalla began his working life as an apprentice cook. In 1932, he joined a theatrical troupe and, before long, acted on stage in Berlin. After the war, he became a celebrated star of cabaret, an ensemble member of the 'Kabarett der Komiker'. In films from 1939, it took several years before his comic talent came to the fore. Stardom eventually arrived in the wake of Helmut Käutner's farce Fanfaren der Liebe (1951), in which the diminutive Thomalla appeared in drag as a member of a female orchestra. Thereafter, he remained consistently in demand for lightweight entertainments, which benefited from his considerable improvisational skills, quick wit and staccato delivery. His stock-in-trade screen personae were eccentric, befuddled and generally accident-prone bachelors, or out-of-their-depths fathers or husbands, who usually tended to fall victim to their own ineptitude.
In addition to numerous 'Paukerfilme' and 'Klamotten' (bawdy comedies, which may, or may not, be 'old hat'), Thomalla also played his fair share of comic sidekicks or friends of the hero, a noteworthy example being Kara Ben Nemsi's loquacious, but intensely loyal manservant and companion Hadschi Halef Omar in Karl May's Die Sklavenkarawane (1958). From 1961, Thomalla devoted more and more time to appearing in television and to voice-over work. He starred in his own half-hourly TV show, Komische Geschichten mit Georg Thomalla (1961), in which he played an average Joe afflicted by middle-age angst and confronted by a variety of everyday problems. This was essentially a German derivation from the British series Hancock (1961).
Though rarely seen in 'serious' roles, Thomalla did give at least one sensitive dramatic performance as a helpful truck driver in Käutner's East-West romance Sky Without Stars (1955).- Actor
- Writer
- Sound Department
Peter Lustig was born on 27 October 1937 in Breslau, Silesia, Germany [now Wroclaw, Dolnoslaskie, Poland]. He was an actor and writer, known for Löwenzahn (1981), Pusteblume (1979) and Mittendrin (1989). He was married to Astrid Berge, Elfie Donnelly and ???. He died on 23 February 2016 in Husum, Schleswig-Holstein, Germany.- Actor
- Additional Crew
- Sound Department
Christian Brückner was born on 17 October 1943 in Waldenburg, Silesia, Germany [now Walbrzych, Dolnoslaskie, Poland]. He is an actor, known for Inglourious Basterds (2009), Tatort (1970) and Liebling Kreuzberg (1986). He has been married to Waltraut Brückner since 1966. They have two children.- Music Department
- Soundtrack
Otto Klemperer was born on 14 May 1885 in Breslau, Silesia, Germany [now Wroclaw, Dolnoslaskie, Poland]. He is known for The Darjeeling Limited (2007), Jude (1996) and Shadows and Fog (1991). He was married to Johanna Klemperer. He died on 6 July 1973 in Zurich, Switzerland.- Cinematographer
- Visual Effects
- Additional Crew
Eugen Schüfftan moved from his motherland, Germany, to France in 1933 to escape the rising Nazi movement. He moved to the US in 1940 and became a member of Local 644, the East Coast cinematographers chapter of the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE). He invented the Schüfftan Process for optical special effects that was used until it was replaced by the simpler matte method. He received the Academy Award for black and white cinematography in 1962 for The Hustler (1961).
For a variety of reasons, Schufftan did not receive proper screen credit for many films he photographed. Director Edgar G. Ulmer, who worked with Schufftan on several films, said it was because he wasn't in the ASC (American Society of Cinematographers) and therefore wasn't allowed to take screen credit. Ulmer said that on one or two of the films he made with Schufftan he was forced to credit Jockey Arthur Feindel, the camera operator, as the cinematographer because of that.