Best German Actors past & present
by comm-12 | created - 14 Aug 2011 | updated - 07 Mar 2013 | PublicIn no specific order! Frequently updated. Make a suggestion! This list is my point of view and my measurement is acting quality and not success or level of fame. If you haven't heard of some names, it is because they are probably totally unknown outside Germany.
1. 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 ...
Is Austrian.
2. Hans Albers
Soundtrack | Soul Kitchen
Life companion was the actress Hansi Burg. Their relationship started in 1925. They separated in 1935 due to the pressure of the German Nazi government. In 1938 she went into exile in Switzerland (later London). Shortly after this she married the Norwegian Erich Blydt. Burg returned to Germany and ...
3. Horst Buchholz
Actor | La vita è bella
On the cast list of The Magnificent Seven (1960), you will find several names that doubtless you know well: Charles Bronson, Steve McQueen, and Yul Brynner. But there is one name that you will have difficulty pronouncing, let alone identifying as an actor you have seen before. That man is Horst ...
4. Jörg Schüttauf
Actor | Tatort
Jörg Schüttauf was born on December 26, 1961 in Karl-Marx-Stadt, German Democratic Republic [now Chemnitz, Federal Republic of Germany]. He is an actor, known for Tatort (1970), Forwards Ever! (2017) and Ete und Ali (1985). He is married to Martina. They have one child.
5. 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...
Is Austrian.
6. Manfred Krug
Actor | Liebling Kreuzberg
In 1950, Krug moved to East Germany where he worked in heavy industry before he started his career as an actor and, later on, as a singer and entertainer in the communist GDR. In 1968, he got the national prize and was only at the beginning of his career. He starred in many successful East German ...
7. 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 ...
8. Daniel Brühl
Actor | Rush
Daniel Brühl was born in Barcelona, Spain. His father was German TV director Hanno Brühl (1937-2010), who was born in São Paulo, Brazil. His Spanish mother was a teacher. He also has a brother and a sister, Oliver and Miriam. Shortly after his birth, his family moved to Cologne, Germany, where he ...
9. 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 ...
10. Senta Berger
Actress | Kir Royal
Senta Berger was born in 1941 in Vienna, Austria to her father Josef Berger who was a musician and her mother Therese Berger, a school teacher. Senta and her father performed together when she was just four years old. She sang and her dad played the piano. At five years old, she took ballet lessons...
11. Günter Lamprecht
Actor | Das Boot
Günter Lamprecht was born on January 21, 1930 in Berlin-Wilmersdorf, Germany. He was an actor and writer, known for Das Boot (1981), Berlin Alexanderplatz (1980) and Das Brot des Bäckers (1976). He was married to Gisela Zülch and Claudia Amm. He died on October 4, 2022 in Bad Godesberg, Bonn, ...
12. 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 ...
13. 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 ...
14. Jörg Schüttauf
Actor | Tatort
Jörg Schüttauf was born on December 26, 1961 in Karl-Marx-Stadt, German Democratic Republic [now Chemnitz, Federal Republic of Germany]. He is an actor, known for Tatort (1970), Forwards Ever! (2017) and Ete und Ali (1985). He is married to Martina. They have one child.
15. Angelica Domröse
Actress | Unterm Birnbaum
Angelica Domröse was born on April 4, 1941 in Berlin, Germany. She is an actress, known for Unterm Birnbaum (1973), Emilia Galotti (1967) and Já, spravedlnost (1968). She was previously married to Hilmar Thate and Jirí Vrstála.
16. Ulrich Mühe
Actor | Das Leben der Anderen
Ulrich Mühe was born on June 20, 1953 in Grimma, East Germany. He was an actor and director, known for The Lives of Others (2006), Funny Games (1997) and Der letzte Zeuge (1998). He was married to Susanne Lothar, Jenny Gröllmann and Annegret Hahn. He died on July 22, 2007 in Walbeck, Saxony-Anhalt,...
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. Hannah Herzsprung
Actress | The Reader
Hannah Herzsprung was born on September 7, 1981 in Hamburg, West Germany. She is an actress, known for The Reader (2008), Who Am I (2014) and Four Minutes (2006).
19. Hilmar Thate
Actor | Die Sehnsucht der Veronika Voss
Hilmar Thate was born on April 17, 1931 in Dölau, Saalkreis, Province of Saxony, Prussia [now Halle/Saale, Saxony-Anhalt], Germany. He was an actor, known for Veronika Voss (1982), Wege in die Nacht (1999) and Professor Mamlock (1961). He was married to Angelica Domröse and Lore. He died on ...
20. Walter Plathe
Actor | Märkische Chronik
Walter Plathe was born on November 5, 1950 in East Berlin, East Germany. He is an actor, known for Märkische Chronik (1983), Spuk aus der Gruft (1998) and Die lange Straße (1979). He was previously married to Victoria Sturm.
21. Hanna Schygulla
Actress | Die Ehe der Maria Braun
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...
22. 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 ...
23. Heinz Rühmann
Actor | Ein Mann geht durch die Wand
First he should take over his father's inheritance. When his parents divorced, Rühmann was just 14 years old. His father then committed suicide. In 1919, after completing his schooling and completing his secondary school leaving certificate, Rühmann took acting lessons. He got his first theater ...
24. Nastassja Kinski
Actress | Tess
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 ...
25. 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 ...
26. Heinz Hoenig
Actor | Das Boot
Heinz Hoenig was born on September 24, 1951 in Landsberg am Lech, Bavaria, Germany. He is an actor, known for Das Boot (1981), Der Schattenmann (1996) and Der König von St. Pauli (1998). He has been married to Annika Kärsten-Hoenig since March 30, 2019. They have two children. He was ...
27. 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 ...
28. Gottfried John
Actor | Astérix & Obélix contre César
Gottfried John was born on August 29, 1942 in Berlin, Germany. He was an actor, known for Asterix and Obelix vs. Caesar (1999), GoldenEye (1995) and The Marriage of Maria Braun (1979). He was married to Brigitte. He died on September 1, 2014 in Utting am Ammersee, Bavaria, Germany.
29. 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.
30. Klaus Kinski
Actor | Nosferatu - Phantom der Nacht
Klaus Kinski was born as Klaus Günter Karl Nakszynski in Zoppot, Free City of Danzig (now Sopot, Poland), to Susanne (Lutze), a nurse, and Bruno Nakszynski, a pharmacist. He grew up in Berlin, was drafted into the German army in 1944 and captured by British forces in Holland. After the war he began...
31. 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.
32. 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 ...
33. 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 ...
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