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- Actor
- Writer
- Producer
Martin Fitzgerald Lawrence is an African-American comedian, producer, writer, director and actor. He is known for his roles in the Bad Boys trilogy, Martin, Def Comedy Jam, Big Momma's House, Open Season, House Party, Boomerang, Wild Hogs, What's Happening Now!!, Nothing to Lose, Life and Blue Streak. He has three daughters.- Director
- Writer
- Visual Effects
Moritz Mohr was born in 1981 in Frankfurt am Main, Hesse, Germany. He is a director and writer, known for Akumi (2005), Boy Kills World (2023) and Ronin 2035.- Music Department
- Composer
- Actor
German-born composer Hans Zimmer is recognized as one of Hollywood's most innovative musical talents. He featured in the music video for The Buggles' single "Video Killed the Radio Star", which became a worldwide hit and helped usher in a new era of global entertainment as the first music video to be aired on MTV (August 1, 1981).
Hans Florian Zimmer was born in Frankfurt am Main, then in West Germany, the son of Brigitte (Weil) and Hans Joachim Zimmer. He entered the world of film music in London during a long collaboration with famed composer and mentor Stanley Myers, which included the film My Beautiful Laundrette (1985). He soon began work on several successful solo projects, including the critically acclaimed A World Apart, and during these years Zimmer pioneered the use of combining old and new musical technologies. Today, this work has earned him the reputation of being the father of integrating the electronic musical world with traditional orchestral arrangements.
A turning point in Zimmer's career came in 1988 when he was asked to score Rain Man for director Barry Levinson. The film went on to win the Oscar for Best Picture of the Year and earned Zimmer his first Academy Award Nomination for Best Original Score. The next year, Zimmer composed the score for another Best Picture Oscar recipient, Driving Miss Daisy (1989), starring Jessica Tandy, and Morgan Freeman.
Having already scored two Best Picture winners, in the early 1990s, Zimmer cemented his position as a preeminent talent with the award-winning score for The Lion King (1994). The soundtrack has sold over 15 million copies to date and earned him an Academy Award for Best Original Score, a Golden Globe, an American Music Award, a Tony, and two Grammy Awards. In total, Zimmer's work has been nominated for 7 Golden Globes, 7 Grammys and seven Oscars for Rain Man (1988), Gladiator (2000), The Lion King (1994), As Good as It Gets (1997), The The Preacher's Wife (1996), The Thin Red Line (1998), The Prince of Egypt (1998), and The Last Samurai (2003).
With his career in full swing, Zimmer was anxious to replicate the mentoring experience he had benefited from under Stanley Myers' guidance. With state-of-the-art technology and a supportive creative environment, Zimmer was able to offer film-scoring opportunities to young composers at his Santa Monica-based musical "think tank." This approach helped launch the careers of such notable composers as Mark Mancina, John Powell, Harry Gregson-Williams, Nick Glennie-Smith, and Klaus Badelt.
In 2000, Zimmer scored the music for Gladiator (2000), for which he received an Oscar nomination, in addition to Golden Globe and Broadcast Film Critics Awards for his epic score. It sold more than three million copies worldwide and spawned a second album Gladiator: More Music From The Motion Picture, released on the Universal Classics/Decca label. Zimmer's other scores that year included Mission: Impossible II (2000), The Road to El Dorado (2000), and An Everlasting Piece (2000), directed by Barry Levinson.
Some of his other impressive scores include Pearl Harbor (2001), The Ring (2002), four films directed by Ridley Scott; Matchstick Men (2003), Hannibal (2001), Black Hawk Down (2001), and Thelma & Louise (1991), Penny Marshall's Riding in Cars with Boys (2001), and A League of Their Own (1992), Tony Scott's True Romance (1993), Tears of the Sun (2003), Ron Howard's Backdraft (1991), Days of Thunder (1990), Smilla's Sense of Snow (1997), and the animated Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron (2002) for which he also co-wrote four of the songs with Bryan Adams, including the Golden Globe nominated Here I Am.
At the 27th annual Flanders International Film Festival, Zimmer performed live for the first time in concert with a 100-piece orchestra and a 100-voice choir. Choosing selections from his impressive body of work, Zimmer performed newly orchestrated concert versions of Gladiator, Mission: Impossible II (2000), Rain Man (1988), The Lion King (1994), and The Thin Red Line (1998). The concert was recorded by Decca and released as a concert album entitled "The Wings Of A Film: The Music Of Hans Zimmer."
In 2003, Zimmer completed his 100th film score for the film The Last Samurai, starring Tom Cruise, for which he received both a Golden Globe and a Broadcast Film Critics nomination. Zimmer then scored Nancy Meyers' comedy Something's Gotta Give (2003), the animated Dreamworks film, Shark Tale (2004) (featuring voices of Will Smith, Renée Zellweger, Robert De Niro, Jack Black, and Martin Scorsese), and Jim Brooks' Spanglish (2004) starring Adam Sandler and Téa Leoni (for which he also received a Golden Globe nomination). His 2005 projects include Paramount's The Weather Man (2005) starring Nicolas Cage, Dreamworks' Madagascar (2005), and the Warner Bros. summer release, Batman Begins (2005).
Zimmer's additional honors and awards include the prestigious Lifetime Achievement Award in Film Composition from the National Board of Review, and the Frederick Loewe Award in 2003 at the Palm Springs International Film Festival. He has also received ASCAP's Henry Mancini Award for Lifetime Achievement. Hans and his wife live in Los Angeles and he is the father of four children.- Actor
- Writer
- Director
Damien C. Haas was born on 23 November 1990 in Fulda, Hesse, Germany. He is an actor and writer, known for Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes (2022), Clarence (2013) and Halo: The Fall of Reach (2015).- Actress
- Producer
- Camera and Electrical Department
P.J. (Pamela Jayne) Soles was born on July 17, 1950 in Frankfurt, Germany. Her father came from Holland and her mother from New Jersey. Because her father was working for an international insurance company, the family moved all over the world. P.J. lived in Casablanca, Morocco, and Maracaibo, Venezuela, where she learned to speak fluent Spanish, and then Brussels, Belgium, where she went to high school at the International School of Brussels. When she was at Briarcliff College, she wanted to become the first woman ambassador to the Soviet Union. This career goal changed when she visited the Actors Studio in New York City. She moved to Manhattan and began acting in commercials and modeling for fashion magazines. She was married to J. Stephen Soles during her years in New York, but then made the move to Los Angeles to work in television and movies. At this time, she and Soles' got divorced, but she decided to keep her name as P.J. Soles. She was among the hundreds of actors auditioning for Brian De Palma and George Lucas in their joint casting session for Carrie (1976) and Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope (1977). After Carrie, she went to Georgia to film Our Winning Season (1978) and met actor Dennis Quaid. They were married in 1978 in Texas on a dude ranch.
P.J. starred in Rock 'n' Roll High School (1979) with Ramones. Next she filmed Private Benjamin (1980) and then Stripes (1981). She and Quaid were divorced in 1983. P.J. continued doing numerous television and film roles, and then married Skip Holm, who was the stunt pilot on The Right Stuff (1983). They have two children and were divorced in 1998. Still active in television and film, P.J. manages not to let her fans down, but keeps them interested in her work, which keeps on getting better, making her one of the most versatile actresses of her time.- She continues to stand out in a crowd with her wholesome beauty, knock-out figure and dazzling smile. Ever-radiant TV and film resident Susan Blakely found success on several paths she chose for herself over the years -- first as a model, then as an award-winning actress, and as a jewelry designer. The trim and trendy blonde is best known for enhancing a mild stream of popular films during the 1970s and 1980s.
Born on September 7, 1948, in Frankfurt, Germany, Susan is the daughter of U.S. Army Colonel Lawrence Blakely. While growing up, she traveled extensively throughout the world with her family including Korea, Hawaii and, finally, Texas. Following a year of study at the University of Texas, Susan moved to New York and managed to secure a place for herself as a high-priced magazine and TV ad model for the Ford Modeling Agency.
At the same time, Susan was encouraged to try her hand at acting and studied at the Neighborhood Playhouse. Married in 1969 to lawyer and screenwriting hopeful Todd Merer, they chanced a move to Hollywood to seek their fame and fortune.
Billed initially as Susie Blakely, she was cast in small, capricious, deb-like turns in such films as Savages (1972) (her debut) and The Way We Were (1973). Her first popular movie role came about surrounded by a high-and-mighty all-star cast in Irwin Allen's epic disaster The Towering Inferno (1974), as the spoiled princess-like daughter of unscrupulous skyscraper builder William Holden and wife of callous, pretty-boy opportunist Richard Chamberlain. Lightweight as the role was, Susan willingly accepted the challenge of proving herself in Hollywood as more than just another starlet with a gorgeous face.
She did .. .and became a prominent name in Hollywood to boot ... by earning a Golden Globe and Emmy nomination for her exceptional work as "Julie Prescott" in the acclaimed TV mini-series epic Rich Man, Poor Man (1976) with both Peter Strauss and Nick Nolte vying for her attention. It was star-making turns for all three leads.
This monumental acting opportunity kicked off a highly rewarding career in TV mini-movies, playing an array of flawed but fascinating and newsworthy ladies, including Hitler mistress Eva Braun opposite Anthony Hopkins in The Bunker (1981); tormented actress Frances Farmer in Will There Really Be a Morning? (1983); political wife Joan Bennett Kennedy in The Ted Kennedy Jr. Story (1986); and crime attorney Leslie Abramson in Honor Thy Father and Mother: The True Story of the Menendez Murders (1994). A few other interesting roles came in as well that belied Susan's glossy, pretty-girl image -- ranging from an amphetamine addict in the TV movie A Cry for Love (1980) to a housewife who changes into a werewolf in the movie My Mom's a Werewolf (1989).
Into the millennium, Susan accomplished a prime, award-winning turn in the low-profile film Hungry Hearts (2002). Other films have included co-star/featured roles in The Cherokee Strip (1937), Crash Point Zero (2001), Mating Dance (2008), The Genesis Code (2010), and Displacement (2016), as well as several gay-themed short films of director Marc Saltarelli -- To Comfort You (2009), Pride (2011) Remember to Breathe (2013) and Speak (2016).
Having starred on stage in the 2006 world premiere of "Diva!" at the La Jolla Playhouse in San Diego, Susan has guested on several popular TV programs including "Diagnosis Murder," "Baywatch," "Strong Medicine," "Cold Case," "Nip/Tuck," "Murder 101," "Two and a Half Men," "Brothers and Sisters," "NCIS" and "This Is Us."
In recent years, Susan has broadened her horizons once again as a semi-precious jewelry designer...and once again she has met this challenge with great success. Divorced from her first husband in the 1970s, Susan remarried in 1982. Her present husband, media consultant, litigation and political adviser Steve Jaffe, has also reaped rewards as a film and television producer. Many of his projects have included Susan -- the afore-mentioned Frances Farmer TV biography, the TV-movie A Cry for Love (1980), and the film Russian Holiday (1993) [aka Russian Roulette]. They reside in the Beverly Hills area. - Meryem Uzerli was born in Kassel, and has German-Turkish nationality. Her mother is German and her father is Turkish. Her great-grandmother is from Croatia. She embraces and unites both diverse cultures, demonstrated by her two residences - in Berlin and Istanbul. At just 17 years - and thus as the youngest student - she enrolled at the Acting Studio Frese and attended it until she was 20 years old. She settled in Hamburg's Schauspiel Studio Frese and studied acting and theater. The real breakthrough for Meryem came in 2010 with her role as Hürrem Sultan in one of the most successful Turkish series "Muhtesem Yüzyil" (The Magnificient Century).
She has also played in Germany in many TV series, and films, and knows English very well. In "The Magnificent Century" her portrayal of Hürrem Sultan had such an influence that she is remembered for that role. Meral Okay-Sahin-Yilmaz wrote a character of Hürrem and had to choose from all of the actresses in Turkey's agencies, and through process of elimination actresses were selected. Uzerli was the most suitable of them. She was called to Istanbul and took on the role of Hürrem. In 2011 Uzerli won two awards for a best actress for a role of Hürrem Sultan and a TV Stars Special Award. In 2012 she was awarded Best Actress in Drama category for the role of Hürrem Sultan. - Actress
- Producer
- Soundtrack
Tia Mowry was born on 6 July 1978 in Gelnhausen, Hesse, Germany. She is an actress and producer, known for Sister, Sister (1994), The Hot Chick (2002) and The Game (2006). She was previously married to Cory Hardrict.- Actress
- Producer
- Soundtrack
Tamera Darvette Mowry was born on July 6, 1978, two minutes before her twin sister, Tia Mowry, in Gelnhausen, Hesse, Germany, to Darlene Mowry and Tim Mowry, who was serving in the U.S. Army at the time of her birth and later became a custody officer/jailer with the City of Glendale Police Department, when the family moved to California. Her mother worked as a security guard and managed Tamera and Tia's acting careers. When the girls were 16, they discovered tremendous success with their hit TV series, Sister, Sister (1994), about twins who are separated at birth who learn of each other and come back together in their teen years which became a huge hit. After "Sister, Sister" ended in 1999, she was in many movies and shows such as Seventeen Again (2000), The Hot Chick (2002), Twitches (2005) and Double Wedding (2010). On May 15, 2011, she married her boyfriend of six years, Adam Housley, in Napa Valley, and the couple has two children.- The face of Simone Signoret on the Paris Metro movie posters in March 1982 looked even older than her 61 years. She was still a box-office draw, but the film L'étoile du Nord (1982) would be her last theatrical release; she played the landlady. Signoret had a long film apprenticeship during World War II, mostly as an extra and occasionally getting to speak a single line. She worked without an official permit during the Nazi occupation of France because her father, who had fled to England, was Jewish. Working almost all the time, she made enough as an extra to support her mother and three younger brothers. Her breakthrough to international stardom came when she was 38 with the British film Room at the Top (1958). Her Alice Aisgill, an unhappily-married woman who hopes she has found true love, radiated real warmth in all of her scenes--not just the bedroom scenes. She was the same woman as Dedee, a prostitute who finds true love in Dédée d'Anvers (1948), a film directed by Signoret's first husband, Yves Allégret, a decade earlier. Hollywood beckoned throughout the 1950s, but both Signoret and her second husband, Yves Montand, were refused visas to enter the United States; their progressive political activities did not sit well with the ultra-conservative McCarthy-era mentality that gripped the US at the time. They got visas in 1960 so Montand, a singer, could perform in New York and San Francisco. They were in Los Angeles in March 1960 when Signoret received the Oscar for best actress and stayed on so Montand could play opposite Marilyn Monroe in Let's Make Love (1960). The Signoret film that is shown most often on TV and got a theatrical re-release in 1995, four decades after it was made is the French thriller Diabolique (1955). The chilly character Signoret plays is proof of her acting ability. More typical of her person is the countess in Ship of Fools (1965), a film that also starred Vivien Leigh ,which more than doubled its chances of being in a video-store or library film collection.
- Actress
- Soundtrack
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 significant featured appearance was in Reinl's melodrama Der schweigende Engel (1954). Karin subsequently shared top billing in a classroom drama about wayward matriculation students, Ihre große Prüfung (1954). During the initial segment of her career she played nice girls, mainly wide-eyed ingénues, innocent victims and assorted naive juveniles in war and period dramas (As Long as You Live (1955)), Heimatfilms (Almenrausch und Edelweiß (1957)) and operettas (The White Horse Inn (1960)).
By 1960, a more glamorous, lithe and sensual Karin had graduated to juicer roles as heroines in Edgar Wallace potboilers (beginning with Der grüne Bogenschütze (1961)) and a series of Karl May European westerns, invariably directed by Reinl and co-starring Tarzan actor Lex Barker (a combination which proved equally successful for other crime/sci-fi franchises, including The Invisible Dr. Mabuse (1962)). Many of these pictures enjoyed only limited release and were rarely exhibited outside Germany.
Karin succeeded at last to break her stereotyping by playing a pathological serial killer wielding a cutthroat razor in another Wallace/Reinl outing, Room 13 (1964), and - for a total change of pace -- essayed Brunhilde in a two-part filming of the epic 'Die Nibelungen' (also directed by Reinl). With her international appeal now widening, she appeared in The Face of Fu Manchu (1965), a British-West German co-production, as a scientist's daughter menaced by the titular villain. To follow was arguably her best-known international role as an early 'Bond girl', Helga Brandt (alias Number Eleven), a SPECTRE operative whose failure to eliminate J.B. results in her being dropped into a piranha-infested pool by super villain Blofeld (Donald Pleasence) in You Only Live Twice (1967). She was then engaged by Alfred Hitchcock for the part of Cuban resistance leader Juanita de Cordoba in Topaz (1969) in which her character came to a similarly sticky end. Karin's career never quite recovered from this director's rare box-office aberration. British Times reviewer and Hitchcock specialist John Russell Taylor described the picture as "generally flat, undistinguished, and lacking in any sign of positive interest or involvement on his (Hitchcock's) part". In the wake of Topaz, Karin's screen appearances became infrequent, except for a couple of guest spots on American crime shows, followed by an of unsuccessful feature film comeback attempt in the incongruous thriller Warhead (1977). She was latterly seen on German television in several episodes of Rosamunde Pilcher (1993). Karin's third husband was actor and stuntman George Robotham who predeceased her in 2007.- Actor
- Writer
- Producer
Sandy Helberg was born in Frankfurt, Germany, and grew up in Toledo, Ohio. He moved to New York where he studied acting at the Lee Strasberg Theatre Institute with John and Lee Strasberg and the Neighborhood Playhouse with Sanford Meisner. Sandy then went on to co-create the improvisational group, The Downtown Express, that played the Bitter End, the Improv, and had a home theater in Greenwich Village, where they did performed almost every night. When arriving in Los Angeles, Sandy became one of the original member of the Groundlings.- Nicole Brown Simpson was born on 19 May 1959 in Frankfurt, Hesse, Germany. She was an actress, known for Infamous Crime Scenes: OJ. She was married to O.J. Simpson. She died on 12 June 1994 in Brentwood, California, USA.
- Actor
- Stunts
- Director
Damien Puckler was born in Frankfurt am Main, Hesse, Germany. He is an actor and director, known for Grimm (2011), Redwood Massacre: Annihilation (2020) and Chase (2019).- Actress
- Director
- Writer
Charlotte Kerr was born on 29 May 1927 in Frankfurt am Main, Hesse, Germany. She was an actress and director, known for Anna Weidacher - In Memoriam (1975), Heldinnen (1960) and Raumpatrouille - Die phantastischen Abenteuer des Raumschiffes Orion (1966). She was married to Friedrich Dürrenmatt and Harry R. Sokal. She died on 28 December 2011 in Bern, Switzerland.- Actor
- Producer
- Writer
Gary Weeks is currently best known as for his role as JJ's trouble-making father "Luke Maybank" on the hit Netflix series "Outer Banks."
His credited career spans over 20 years, with over 150 film, TV, and commercial roles. Gary has played alongside many of his heroes along the way. Gary has also written, produced, and directed award-winning films that won over 100 awards.
Gary was raised in rural Morris, GA, where he loved two things: Movies and Basketball (and won two state championships in high school). He started writing & filming short films at an early age, but didn't truly discover acting until late in his college tour. Gary studied at colleges including his beloved University of Georgia. As he tried to focus on school, he moved around to other colleges (Brevard College, Georgia Southwestern, and Georgia State) until he finally gave into his passion for the film industry and moved to Los Angeles.
He studied acting in L.A., but quickly found that his favorite training was on-set, studying the process of filmmaking, writing and producing films. Not only did it make a better actor, but his films won over 100 awards on the indie film circuit. That experience led to his love of film festivals and "The Hill Country Film Festival" was born in Fredericksburg, TX in 2010 along with co-founders Chad Mathews and Amie Miskovsky.- Actor
- Producer
- Soundtrack
John McEnroe is a former professional American tennis player, born in Wiesbaden, West Germany in 1959.
Breaking many records, McEnroe is regarded as one of the greatest tennis players of all time, though he is perhaps equally, if not more known, for his losses of temper on the court. His outbursts became so infamous that he titled his 2002 autobiography "You cannot be serious" after his most-known phrase, and observed in the book as he got older that: "There were times I felt like an old circus act, in a show that was attracting less and less interest. "
Since retiring from the sport, McEnroe has worked as a commentator, and often parodied his own public persona, playing fictional versions of himself in commercials, and movies including You Don't Mess with the Zohan (2008), Anger Management (2003) and Jack and Jill (2011).
McEnroe was formerly married to actress Tatum O'Neal from 1986 to 1994, and is presently married to singer Patty Smyth.- Actor
- Writer
Götz Otto was born on 15 October 1967 in Dietzenbach, Hesse, Germany. He is an actor and writer, known for Iron Sky (2012), Tomorrow Never Dies (1997) and Cloud Atlas (2012). He is married to Sabine. They have four children.- Melody Perkins was born on 28 January 1974 in Wiesbaden, Hesse, Germany. She is an actress, known for Planet of the Apes (2001), Power Rangers in Space (1998) and Power Rangers Lost Galaxy (1999).
- Director
- Producer
- Writer
Marcus Nispel was born on 26 May 1963 in Frankfurt am Main, Hesse, Germany. He is a director and producer, known for Friday the 13th (2009), The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2003) and Pathfinder (2007).- Actress
- Producer
- Writer
Hailing from Germany, Madeleine is known for playing both sexy and psychotic characters, exuding an unconventional vulnerability. She is also recognized for playing quirky and comedic characters with aplomb. From playing Reese Witherspoon's comedic sorority sister in "Legally Blonde 2", to playing Harley Quinn in the short film "Sweet Madness", to an exotic dancer opposite Christian Bale in Terrence Malick's "Knight of Cups", she has versatility, intensity and depth.
She wrote, produced and starred in the occult horror movie "Blood Craft". She is also an Executive Producer and stars in the much anticipated horror film "Stay at Home", in which she solidifies her scream queen status. Her latest endeavor is her directorial debut "Vegan", a found footage horror-thriller she also wrote, produced and stars in. She looks forward to writing, producing and acting in many more films in the future.
She is a dual German/U.S. citizen, a mother, and an animal rights activist.- Director
- Writer
- Producer
Has studied economy and political sciences as well as at the Institut des Hautes Etudes Cinematographique (IDHEC) in Paris, France. Worked as an assistant director with Louis Malle, Jean-Pierre Melville and Alain Resnais. Founded his own production company Bioskop Film together with Reinhard Hauff and Eberhard Junkersdorf in 1973. Has directed several operas in Frankfurt a/M, Berlin (Germany) and Paris, France. Since 1992 chief executive of the german production company Sudio Babelsberg GmbH (former UFA/DEFA).- Jessica Schwarz was born on 5 May 1977 in Erbach im Odenwald, Hesse, Germany. She is an actress, known for Romy (2009), Nichts bereuen (2001) and Buddenbrooks (2008).
- Actor
- Writer
- Soundtrack
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 he graduated from high school in Germany. He then did his military service. He then attended the University of Tübingen, where he studied German, English and history. During this time he also worked as a musician. It was at one of these performances that he was discovered for acting. In 1980, Ulrich Tukur started acting training at the Stuttgart State University of Music and Performing Arts. While he was still studying, he played the student and member of the resistance group against the Nazi dictatorship Willi Graf in the film "The White Rose" - directed by Michael Verhoeven.
He completed his training in 1983 and then initially played at the Heidelberg Municipal Theater. In Munich, Turkur had another engagement from this period, in which he took part in the play "Illness of Youth". The renowned theater maker Peter Zadek liked his acting skills and subsequently worked with him. It was also Zadek who brought Ulrich Tukur to success on stage in 1984. Tukur portrayed the SS soldier Kittel in the play "Ghetto" directed by Peter Zadek at the Freie Volksbühne Berlin. From 1985 to 1995 the actor was engaged at the Deutsches Schauspielhaus in Hamburg - under Peter Zadek as artistic director. During these ten years a fruitful collaboration developed between the two. Tukur played, among other things, in "As You Like It" by Shakespeare, Marc Anton in "Julius Caesar" based on Shakespeare, in Frank Wedekind's "Lulu" the role of Alwa Schön and in Shakespeare's "Hamlet".
Tukur's convincing stage performances were rewarded with the title "Actor of the Year" by German theater critics in 1986. From 1995, Tukur himself was director of the Hamburg Festival as director together with Ulrich Waller - until 2003. A year later, he appeared in a "Tatort" episode for the first time: in "Das Böse" he played Andrea Sawatzki's counterpart and appeared in He shot a mass murderer so brilliantly that he was awarded the German Television Prize for it. In 2009 he played the character of the same name in the film's lead role in the drama "John Rabe". Since 2010 he has been playing the Hessian LKA detective Felix Murot, who fights against crime around Wiesbaden, in the HR series of the international crime production "Tatort". Tukur plays a lonely character who suffers from a brain tumor. The sought-after artist expressed his musical inclination in 1995 by founding the dance band Ulrich Tukur & The Rhythm Boys.
Since then he has been touring with the band and releasing his own compositions and cover music. Ulrich Tukur is the front man as a singer, but also plays the piano and accordion keyboards himself. In 2007, the artist made his debut as the author of his collection of stories "The Water Lily in the Dining Room - Venetian Stories", in which he makes a declaration of love for Venice. Ulrich Tukur is a member of the Free Academy of Arts Hamburg. Tukur became the father of two daughters from his first marriage. His second wife Katharina John is a photographer. He lives with her on the island of Giudecca in Venice and in the mountain village of Montepiano, where he also works as a winemaker. Tukur has won numerous prizes and awards, including the 1985 O.E. Hasse Prize and the Boy Gobert Prize, the title of "Actor of the Year" in 1986, the Golden Bear at the Berlinale in 1986 for "Stammheim" and the Golden Camera in 1996 for the portrayal of the sex offender in "The Murderer and His Child".
He also received the Hamburg Island Art Prize in 1996, the Adolf Grimme Prize in 2000, the German Television Prize in 2004 - Best Actor for the role of a banker in Tatort "Das Böse", and the German Film Prize in 2006 - Best Actress - Male Supporting Role for " The Lives of Others", the 2009 Bavarian Film Prize in 2008 as Best Actor in "John Rabe", the German Film Prize as Best Actor for "John Rabe" and the German Film Peace Prize for "John Rabe", and the Lower Saxony State Prize in 2010 together with Wilhelm Krull and in 2011 the Golden Camera as Best German Actor for Tatort: "Like Lilly" and the Chevalier de l''Ordre National des Arts et des Lettres.- Writer
- Producer
- Director
Ariel "Rel" Schulman and Henry Joost are a directing team, best buds, and founders of the New York City production company Supermarché.
Their first feature documentary, Catfish, premiered at the Sundance film festival in 2010. It spawned a new word in Webster's dictionary, and a show on MTV, of which they are Executive Producers. Their second feature, Paranormal Activity 3, remains the highest grossing horror opening weekend of all time.
Henry and Rel have directed dozens of commercials and short films including A Brief History of John Baldessari, narrated by Tom Waits, which has been screened at over 100 film festivals worldwide. Their Google commercial "Dear Sophie" was named Time Magazine's Best Commercial of the Year. Their short films for Vogue Magazine starring Lena Dunham, Margot Robbie, and Elle Fanning, have accumulated over 50 million views.
In addition to several film and television projects in development, Henry & Rel wrote and are attached to direct an adaptation of Edward Abbey's novel The Monkey Wrench Gang, produced by Ed Pressman and Gary Burden.- Ulrike Butz, daughter of television presenter Hermann Butz, grew up in the Bavarian district of Miesbach. At the age of 17, she left her parents' home to go to Southern Europe, but only made it as far as Munich, where she was shooting nudes as a 17-year-old. It was during this time that she first came into contact with drugs.
In 1972 she started working as an actress in the German soft sex film industry, which was just flourishing. Between 1972 and 1974, Ulrike starred in 28 films, including film series such as The School Girls (1970) (parts four through seven), The Miner' Wife ... Takes Her Pick (1972) (parts one, three and four), Wide Open Marriage (1973) and other pseudo-documentary report films such as Nurses Report (1972), Sex-Träume-Report (1973), Swedish Lessons in Love (1973) and 14 and Under (1973). She played her most demanding role in The Devil's Plaything (1973), a horror film directed by Joseph W. Sarno.
With nearly 30 film roles, Ulrike was one of the busiest actresses of the genre. As one of the few actresses in the industry, her acting talent was witnessed. In February 1974, the chubby, busty actress was featured in a photo spread for Playboy magazine. During this time she came into contact with the wrong friends, who again associated her with drugs. Her father tried several times to get his daughter out of this milieu. He financed several rehabs, a luxury apartment and a mannequin apprenticeship, which she dropped out of. In 1976, she spent some time in prison for a theft offense.
After her father died in 1976, Butz slipped back into the drug milieu. In 1979, she had to serve another prison sentence in Aichach for drug possession. After successful rehab, she worked as a waitress, began a relationship and had a son. In 1981, Butz went into business for herself with money from her father's inheritance and opened a costume shop in Munich's Neuhausen district, but it went bankrupt after a few years. Franz Marischka cast her again in two productions of the sex film industry, which was by now coming to an end: Laß laufen, Kumpel (1981) and Die unglaublichen Abenteuer des Guru Jakob (1983) with Zachi Noy, Thomas Ohrner and Sibylle Rauch.
She died at the age of 46 in Munich, the urn grave is located at the Waldfriedhof. - Jo was born August 29, 1977 in Frankfurt, Germany. As soon as he realized that acting was his future, he enrolled in drama workshops and classes in order to prepare for his future in theatre and television.
Throughout 1998 through 2006, Jo studied in play workshops, Arturo Drama School and enrolled in private acting lessons for 2 years in Cologne.
While maintaining his drama studies, Jo was able to hone his craft with hands on experience. Beginning in 1998, Jo was able to support himself with his dream.
One of Jo's first television roles began on ARD's "Verbotene Liebe", a very popular German Soap Opera. Jo played the popular "Oliver Sabel", a role that he would portray throughout 2002, leave - only to return and reprise, five years later and continue to play until present day (2009).
From 2002 - 2004, Jo portrayed the character of Florian Lenz in the television series, "Medicopter 117". Jo's acting experience is also in the theatre, his latest being the role of "Enrico" in the 2008 production of "Ganze Kerle" held in Dusseldorf.
As of February 2009, as mentioned above, Jo can be seen daily, as Oliver Sabel, in "Verbotene Liebe" (Forbidden Love), on German television. It is on VL, that Jo has acquired a huge fan base for his portrayal of one-half of the beloved couple, "Christian and Oliver". - Vinzenz was born in 1979 in Weilburg/Lahn. He grew up in a small village between two farms. He loved chasing chickens as well as building cabins in the woods and playing with fire. His parents' video collection was also an early passion of his (later on he took care of it completely and since then, he has expanded it significantly). Movies like "King of Kings", "Zorro", "Three Musketeers", and "Robin Hood" were key experiences while he was a boy, as well as films about pirates. Later on titles like "Batman" and "Legend" would find his attention, and Vinzenz could be seen quite often in a Batman costume - or running around, painting big Zs on front doors. After trying to invent a time machine several times or to find diamonds in the forests or to dig a hole to the center of the earth (and failing each time, of course) he finally turned to every-day life and meeting people and finding friends. Learning by doing became to be one of his favorite principles, and he used it to get familiar with riding a motor scooter, smoking or finding his rank within the gang and impressing the girls. One day while visiting the Cologne film studios Vinzenz was crowded by a bunch of girls pleading for his autograph. Some people in a production studio watched this scene and invited him for an interview, after which he was offered a part in a TV series. Vinzenz declined because he did not feel ready to leave his home and his friends. But the production studio kept on asking him, and so, after finishing school, Vinzenz finally agreed to take this chance.
- Writer
- Actress
- Producer
Sarah Colonna was born in Wiesbaden, Hesse, Germany. She is a writer and actress, known for Insatiable (2018), Chelsea Lately (2007) and Shameless (2011). She has been married to Jon Ryan since 10 July 2016.- Actress
- Writer
- Additional Crew
Jasna Fritzi Bauer (born in 1989) is a Swiss actress. Since her debut on screen in Pia Marais "At Ellens Age" she has appeared in more than thirty film and TV productions.
In 2012 she graduated from the well known Highschool of Performing Arts "Ernst Busch" in Berlin where she studied acting for about 4 years.
During her time at "Ernst Busch" she was already played parts in various theaters in Berlin, f.e. at Schaubühne am Lehniner Platz in Leo Tolstoy's 'The Power of Darkness', directed by Michael Thalheimer. After her graduation in 2012 she became a permanent member of the ensemble at the famous Burgtheater in Vienna. In 2015 she decided to leave the ensemble but still maintained the status of guest.
She made her leading debut in Andi Rogenhagen's 2010 feature film 'Alive and Ticking', where she embodies the teenager Eva, who is suffering from Tourette's syndrome. For her performance, she was awarded with the Young Artist Award of the Filmkunstfest Mecklenburg-Vorpommern in 2011 and the New Faces Award in 2012. In 2011, Bauer received leading roles in two other feature films: In Christian Petzold's award-winning DDR drama Barbara, she starred opposite Nina Hoss and Ronald Zehrfeld. Under the direction of Bettina Blümner she played the main character in the film adaptation Scherbenpark after Alina Bronsky's novel of the same name.
She is one of the most well known actresses in Germany and has played in various movies and TV productions since. Such as the Netflix series 'Dogs of Berlin' by Christian Alvart, 'Axolotl Overkill' by Helene Hegemann which was awarded with the best camera award at Sundace Film Festival, 'Cut Off' where she played the female lead alongside Moritz Bleibtreu, Fahri Yardim and Lars Eidinger.
Since 2021 she is playing the role of detective Liv Moormann in the famous German TV series Tatort.- Luise Bähr was born on 23 June 1979 in Frankfurt am Main, Hesse, West Germany. She is an actress, known for The Red Baron (2008), Von wegen! (2005) and Drawn in Blood (2006).
- Actor
- Soundtrack
He grew up in Mannheim. As a ten-year-old, Uwe Ochsenknecht sang in the opera choir and later became interested in the theater. His school performance suffered because of his interests and Ochsenknecht had to leave high school shortly before graduating from high school. At the age of 17 he passed the entrance exam at the Bochum drama school. After training, he played at the National Theater Mannheim and the Schauspielhaus Bochum. In 1977 Ochsenknecht had his first TV role and a year later he appeared in a supporting role in the Hollywood film "Lawinenexpress". He made his breakthrough in the 1980s with the films "Das Boot" (1981), "Men" (1985) and "Schtonk" (1986). For his role in Doris Dörrie's "Men" he received the Federal Film Prize in Gold.
After "Men", Ochsenknecht also starred in other Doris Dörries films, including "Money" and "Am I Beautiful?". Ochsenknecht continued to devote himself to the theater, for example in Wuppertal, Bochum and Munich. In 1985 he received the Actor Award from the Association of Film and Television Directors. Meanwhile, he shot "Tatort" episodes for television, among other things. In 1997, Uwe Ochsenknecht appeared in front of the camera for Sherry Horman's "Widows" and played in Paul Harather's "Christmas Fever". For this role he was nominated again for the Federal Film Prize. He was not only nominated, but also awarded in 2000 for his role in Doris Dörrie's "Enlightenment Guaranteed". For this he received the "Bavarian Film Prize" as "Best Actor".
Ochsenknecht not only demonstrated his multi-talent as a TV, film and theater actor, but also had a second career as a musician and singer. The first album "Ochsenknecht" was released in 1992 and almost achieved gold status. In the same year he was awarded the "Bambi". In 1994 he released his second album "Blue Water", the third album "O-Ton" followed in 2000 and was his first German-language work. However, he soon distanced himself from German lyrics and performed his blues-rock songs in English again on his fourth album "Singer", released in 2001. In the same year, Ochsenknecht went on tour with his band for the first time. He was also awarded the German Television Prize (Best Supporting Actor) in 2001 for "Vera Brühne".
In 2003, Uwe Ochsenknecht took part in Eric Till's "Luther". In April 2005, the hit film "Blood Wedding" was released alongside Armin Rohde. In 2005 he played the main role of Bruno Klement in "Elementarparticles" alongside Christian Ulmen. The television film "The Best Teacher in the World" followed in 2006; 2010 "Gier" directed by Dieter Wedel and "Times Change You". Ochsenknecht was married to Natascha from 1993 to 2012. Together they became parents to children Jimi Blue, Wilson Gonzalez and Cheyenne Savannah. In 2011, Ochsenknecht and his son Wilson Gonzalez appeared in the music video for "House on Fire" by the Berlin band "Beatsteaks". In 2019 he was back in front of the camera alongside Heike Makatsch and Moritz Bleibtreu for the German-Austrian feature film "I've Never Been to New York".- Trystan Pütter was born on 11 December 1980 in Frankfurt am Main, Hesse, West Germany. He is an actor, known for Anonymous (2011), War Horse (2011) and Toni Erdmann (2016).
- Music Department
- Composer
- Producer
Composer Klaus Badelt started his musical career writing and producing music for dozens of highly successful movies and commercials in his native Germany. In 1998, Oscar-winning composer Hans Zimmer invited him to move his musical home to Media Ventures in Santa Monica, CA. Since then, Klaus has composed scores on his own film and television projects as well as collaborating with Zimmer and other composers.
Working with Zimmer, Badelt contributed music to the Oscar-nominated scores for Ridley Scott's Gladiator (2000), Terrence Malick's The Thin Red Line (1998) and Dreamworks' The Prince of Egypt (1998). Klaus collaborated with Zimmer on the music for Mission: Impossible II (2000) with producer Tom Cruise and director John Woo, Ridley Scott's Hannibal (2001) and Jerry Bruckheimer/Michael Bay's Pearl Harbor (2001). He also co-wrote the score to Sean Penn's The Pledge (2001) with Zimmer.
Klaus recently completed the scores for Werner Herzog's Invincible (2001) (Tim Roth). Dreamworks' The Time Machine (2002) (Guy Pearce and Jeremy Irons) and independent film Manfast (2003). Also in 2002, Badelt scored the independent feature Teknolust (2002) (Tilda Swinton and Jeremy Davies) followed by Miramax/Dimension Films' upcoming feature Equilibrium (2002) (Christian Bale, Sean Bean, Taye Diggs).
In summer of 2002, Badelt completed the music to Paramount's K-19: The Widowmaker (2002). The world-renowned Kirov Orchestra, under the baton of Valery Gergiev, was recorded in Washington, DC's Constitution Hall for the powerful score. Director Kathryn Bigelow's film tells the tale of nuclear calamity aboard a Russian sub, with Harrison Ford and Liam Neeson portraying two conflicted Russian naval captains under deadly circumstances.
Badelt recently finished the score for The Recruit (2003), directed by Roger Donaldson and starring Al Pacino, Colin Farrell, and Bridget Moynahan. It is scheduled for release in January 2003. In October 2002, Klaus is writing the score for Basic (2003), directed by John McTiernan and starring John Travolta and Samuel L. Jackson.- Actress
- Stunts
- Soundtrack
The daughter of a railroad official, Camilla Horn was educated in Germany and Switzerland. She initially trained as a dressmaker and received her first job experience in a fashion salon in Erfurt. This was merely a stepping stone for a performing career which began with dance lessons in Berlin and subsequent acting studies under Lucie Höflich. The lithe, blond and strikingly beautiful Camilla soon appeared in cabaret revues staged by Rudolf Nelson. By 1926, she was employed as an extra at Ufa, where she was spotted by the director F.W. Murnau, who found in her the ideal representation of Gretchen for his seminal production of Faust (1926) . The role catapulted Camilla to instant stardom. Within a year, she was signed by United Artists in Hollywood, befriending Charles Chaplin and, more importantly, studio chairman Joseph M. Schenck. The friendship with Schenck may, or may not, have led to an affair -- depending on which story one is to believe -- but it did result in two high profile starring roles opposite John Barrymore in the torrid melodramas Tempest (1928) and Eternal Love (1929), both produced by Schenck. Neither film was a commercial success.
With the coming of sound, Camilla returned to Europe, briefly appearing on stage in London and Paris, before resuming her screen career in Germany. As the 1930's went on, she rarely turned down a role, playing anything from baronesses and fashion models, to vamps and 'fallen women'. The quality of her films was variable, but there were several noteworthy standouts, such as Hans in allen Gassen (1930) (opposite Hans Albers), The Last Waltz (1934) and Fahrendes Volk (1938) (as a circus artiste, again with Albers).
During this tumultuous decade, Camilla conducted a lengthy affair with the singer Louis Graveure, fifteen years her senior. This came to an end in 1938, when Graveure was suspected of espionage by the Gestapo and fled to England, via the Cote d'Azure. After her luxury villa in Berlin was ransacked in search for non-existent clues, Camilla's outspoken criticism of the Nazi regime reached a point where it got her into serious trouble. She saw out the first half of her career with a trio of long forgotten films made in Italy. Having failed in an attempt to flee to Switzerland, she kept a low profile and even tried her hand at farming. After the war, she had a stint as an interpreter for the occupying U.S. forces in Germany. Camilla made a successful return to the stage in a 1948 Frankfurt production of Jean Cocteau's "L'Aigle a Deux Tetes" (aka 'The Eagle Has Two Heads'). She spent the latter half of her acting career playing grand dames, matriarchs and worldly ladies with colourful backgrounds, in both films and on television. In 1974, she was awarded the 'Filmband in Gold' (also known as 'Lola') for lifetime achievement in the German film industry. In her 1985 autobiography, "Verliebt in die Liebe" ('In Love with Love'), she happily recounted her marriages and liaisons.- Actor
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- Soundtrack
He grew up in Mainz, Bad Soden and Wiesbaden. He found his passion for theater while still at school. He gained his first experience as an actor in student performances. At the age of 16, Janson took an aptitude test as an actor at the Frankfurter Bühnengenossenschaft. He then took acting lessons at the Wiesbaden School for Acting run by Hertha Genzmer. During this time he earned his living as a taxi driver. Following his acting training, he made his stage debut at the Hessisches Staatstheater Wiesbaden in Alfred de Musset's dance drama "Lorenzaccio".
He completed his training in the UFA junior studios. In 1959 he made his screen debut in the first part of Alfred Weidenmann's Thomas Mann film adaptation "The Buddenbrooks". As the captain's son Morten Schwarzkopf, he achieved his breakthrough as an actor alongside Liselotte Pulver as "Tony Buddenbrook". In the same year, 1959, he received the main role in the production "And still cheeky", in which he played the jazz musician "Fred". With his contribution in the Helmut Käutner film "The Glass of Water" in 1960, Horst Janson became a star of German post-war cinema alongside Gustav Gründgens and Liselotte Pulver.
This was followed by numerous leading and supporting roles in German and international productions such as "Das Riesenrad" (1961), "Call of the Wild Gänse" (1961), "Escape from East Berlin" (1962, Tunnel 28), "A Woman Looking for Love" ( 1968) and 1970 "The McKenzie Break" (Wolfpack). From the mid-1960s onwards, Janson often appeared in front of the TV camera. He was seen in crime films such as "The Mystery of Foresthouse" or the romance "The Lovers of Florence" from 1966. In 1969, Jansen celebrated as a series actor with the circus series "Salto mortale" and his role as the trapeze artist Sascha great successes. Alongside Heinz Rühmann, Janson appeared in front of the camera for "The Captain" in 1971. One of his most popular TV roles was that of the student in the television series "Der Bastian" from 1973.
Despite his age of 37, he owed the main role of the student Bastian of the same name to his significantly younger appearance. The start of the series was accompanied by protests because Horst Janson wore his hair too long for the social zeitgeist of the early 1970s. In 1973, the magazine "BRAVO" honored Horst Janson with the "Golden Otto," and a year later, in 1974, he was awarded the "Bambi" media prize. He also produced "Zinc Coffins for the Golden Boys" in 1973, "The Twins from Immenhof" and "Spring on Immenhof" in 1974, in which he played the estate tenant Alexander Arkens. In 1974, Janson replaced the veteran Van Helsing alias Peter Cushing as a professional vampire hunter in the British horror film "Captain Kronos - Vampire Hunter".
In the 1970s he also appeared in films such as "Shout at the Devil" and "Steiner - The Iron Cross, Part 2" with Richard Burton and Robert Mitchum. From 1980 to 1983, Horst Janson directed the children's program "Sesame Street", in which he was repeatedly seen as "Horst" together with Liselotte Pulver. He was also in the 1980s with numerous guest appearances in series such as "Our Most Beautiful Years", "Northern Lights", "Forest Inspector Buchholz", "Forsthaus Falkenau", "Two Rascals in Antalya", "The Country Doctor", "All My Daughters" and "Sylvia - A class of its own". In 1998 he played "Old Shatterhand" in Bad Segeberg based on the novels by Karl May and in 2001 he played "Old Firehand".
He was also featured in crime films such as "Sonderdezernat K l", "A Case for Two", "Smuggler" and "Coast Guard". In 2004 he was seen in the television film "The Wittelsbachers". The passionate sailor found his second star role in 2005 in the character of Bernd Jensen in the ARD TV series "Under White Sails". As an authentic captain, he travels the world's oceans. The production took him to Egypt, Greece and Cuba for over a month each. At the end of 2005, Janson made headlines due to an impending private bankruptcy that was triggered by the purchase of East German real estate in 1995 and was averted shortly afterwards.
Horst Janson lives with his family in Munich. His first marriage was to the actress Monika Lundi, and his second marriage to Hella (née Helgardt Ruthardt) resulted in his daughters Sarah-Jane (born 1984) and Laura-Maria (born 1986), who themselves had a career as Actresses competed.- Jens Harzer was born on 14 March 1972 in Wiesbaden, Hesse, Germany. He is an actor, known for Der Lebensversicherer (2006), Tatort (1970) and Ruhe! Hier stirbt Lothar (2021).
- Sonsee Neu was born on 4 June 1973 in Frankfurt am Main, Hesse, West Germany. She is an actress, known for Pastewka (2005), Titanic (1996) and The Last Days of Disco (1998). She was previously married to ? Neu.
- Actor
- Director
- Casting Department
Darryl Robert Cox was born in a U.S. military hospital in Wiesbaden, Germany. His father was Wayne Windell Cox, an NCO in the U.S. Air Force who eventually achieved the rank of Senior Master Sargeant before his retirement from the Air Force in 1972. His mother was Marian Elizabeth Cox (Thomas). Darryl was the third of three boys (his older brothers were Dan and Frank), with another sister and brother (Nancy and Rick) born after him. As an "Air Force brat" he grew up on or around U.S. embassies and military bases from Yugoslavia to Texas to Spain to Wyoming to Louisiana to England for his entire childhood, before his family finally settled in his father's home state of Oklahoma when he was 14.
He first became seriously interested in acting at Del City High School in Oklahoma at age 15, but when he went to the University of Oklahoma he decided to become a naval officer through the OU NROTC program and was commissioned as an Ensign in May of 1977. He served most of his four years on a destroyer, the USS Forrest Sherman, before deciding to resign his commission in May of 1981 at the rank of Lieutenant and return to OU, determined to return to his first love, acting, at the OU School of Drama graduate acting program.
After two years of graduate work at OU he determined that it was time for him to seriously pursue a professional acting career, focusing on film and television. He began by moving to Dallas, Texas in July of 1983 after signing with an agent there. For the next four years he built his career from the ground up, doing mainly commercials and industrial video work before beginning to book principal roles in film and television and becoming eligible to join SAG and AFTRA. Crucial in developing his career was his training at Film Actor's Lab, run by Adam Roarke. In 1987 he married Carolyn Susanne Ingels and joined SAG/AFTRA, moving to Los Angeles.
After three years in Los Angeles, where he not only worked as an actor but as a writer/producer at a promo production company, Davis*Glick Productions, he returned with his wife to Dallas where he signed with the top regional agent at the time, Kim Dawson Agency. He had previously begun teaching Acting for the Camera, first at Film Actor's Lab and then at the American Film Institute in Los Angeles. This continued along with his acting until he received an offer to teach Acting for the Camera at Oklahoma City University, and then at the University of Oklahoma. He returned to Norman, Oklahoma while still retaining the Kim Dawson Agency in Dallas less than three hours away, and in Norman his wife gave birth to a daughter, Alexandria Camille Cox, in 1995.
He has had a career divided between acting and teaching Acting for the Camera (also at the University of Central Oklahoma and other locations, including the Actor Factory in Norman). He has been directed in his many film and television roles by, among others, Francis Ford Coppola, Wes Anderson, Clint Eastwood, Terrence Malick, Paul Verhoeven, Sterlin Harjo, Bille August, Mark Pellington, Lee Isaac Chung, Paul Dano, Tim Blake Nelson, Adam Arkin, and Oliver Stone. Actors he has worked opposite include Owen Wilson, Jeff Bridges, Jake Gyllenhaal, Tim Robbins, Helena Bonham Carter, Hal Holbrook, Mira Sorvino, Jack Warden, Liam Neeson, Steven Yeun, Joan Cusack, Jason Bateman, Patrick Swayze, Zahn McClarnon, Lou Diamond Phillips, Brandon Lee, Peter Coyote, Armand Assante, Michael Chiklis, Scott Bakula, Helen Hunt, Dennis Quaid, Jimmy Smits, Luke Wilson, Martha Plimpton, Aiden Quinn, Bill Paxton, Dennis Franz, Kelly Preston, Terry O'Quinn, Ron Perlman, Halle Bailey, Timothy Dalton, Chuck Norris, Miguel Ferrer, Peter Weller, Marina Sirtis, Sean Young, JoBeth Williams, Kevin Sorbo, Alan Ruck, and Howard Keel.- Actor
- Camera and Electrical Department
Daniel Roesner was born on 20 January 1984 in Wiesbaden, Hesse, Germany. He is an actor, known for Alarm für Cobra 11 - Die Autobahnpolizei (1996), A Case for Two (1981) and Verliebt in Berlin (2005).- Born in Germany in 1929 and raised and raised in Germany and Amsterdam. In 1942, shortly after receiving a diary for her 13th birthday, she and her family were forced to go into hiding to escape Hitler's persecution of the Jews. Hiding with another family and a dentist in an annex behind the building in which her father worked, Anne recorded their lives in her diary almost daily. In addition, she recorded her fights with her mother, her budding relationship with the other family's son, and her own maturation. In 1944, the eight people were discovered and arrested by the Gestapo. They were separated and put in concentration camps. At age 15, Anne died there in March, 1945. Her mother and sister, as well as the other people living with them, also died. Only her father survived; on his return home, he found her diary untouched and had it published in 1947. It was an immediate success, as millions of readers were touched by her indomitable spirit in the face of such chaos. The diary is famous even to this day and was the inspiration for the Broadway play "The Diary of Anne Frank" in 1955. The play was adapted by first time in The Diary of Anne Frank (1959), followed by Anne Frank's Diary (1999), The Diary of Anne Frank (1995) and The Diary of Anne Frank (2016). It inspired four TV movies, The Diary of Anne Frank (1962), The Diary of Anne Frank (1985), The Diary of Anne Frank (1967) and The Diary of Anne Frank (1980). The diary also inspired the mini series The Diary of Anne Frank (1987), The Attic: The Hiding of Anne Frank (1988), Anne Frank: The Whole Story (2001) and The Diary of Anne Frank (2009). In addition, her life inspired Forget Me Not: The Anne Frank Story (1996) (about a Neo Nazi who back in time to meet Anne), My Best Friend Anne Frank (2021) and Mi ricordo Anna Frank (2009) (about her relation with her close friend Hannah Goslar), My Daughter, Anne Frank (2015) (about the relation between Anne and her father Otto) and Where Is Anne Frank (2021), based on the eponymous graphic novel, as well as the biographic documentary Anne Frank Remembered (1995) and Anne Frank, Then and Now (2014).
- Ingeborg Schöner was born on 2 July 1935 in Wiesbaden, Hesse, Germany. She is an actress, known for It Happened in Rome (1957), King in Shadow (1957) and Der erste Frühlingstag (1956). She was previously married to Georg Marischka.
- Milton Welsh was born on 3 February 1969 in Kassel, Hesse, Germany. He is an actor, known for The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014), Conan the Barbarian (2011) and Æon Flux (2005).
- Actress
- Writer
- Producer
Katja Wagner is a trained actress born in Hesse, Germany. The former dancer is a martial arts enthusiast and fluent in English and German, with a basic knowledge of Spanish and French. She began screenwriting and producing in 2014, and her first short film, "Roughtown," won the award for "Best German Short Film" in the same year.- Actress
- Director
- Writer
Of German, Chilean, Polish and Scottish heritage, Pia Maria Patricia Mechler speaks four languages (German, English, French and Danish) and graduated "Gymnasium" as an honor student while also modeling as a teen. At age 19, she moved to Denmark after applying and being one of the very limited students accepted to attend the European Film College, focusing on performance and writing, but also Film History and editing intensives. Upon her return to Berlin after graduating, she was approached while literally walking down the street one day, to read for a highly rated German television series. She was offered and took, the large recurring guest role.
Pia decided to explore her performing nature even further and took up an invitation to join an all male, 5 member band who was gearing up in Portugal and subsequently got signed to Universal Music. The band toured and gained radio and MTV airplay. In 2006, returning to Germany, the ever-more-worldly Pia joined the (Special Coaching) Actor's Studio in Berlin.
In mid 2007, she landed her first English speaking role in a movie for television in London alongside Sean Astin and Jeremy Irons. A mere couple of months later she was then cast in the lead role of the British indie film "Invisible Eyes". Since 2010 she has been living in working in the USA where she also ventured out into writing, producing and directing.- Actress
- Additional Crew
Paula Paul was born on 1 January 1971 in Herborn, Hesse, Germany. She is an actress, known for A Little Chaos (2014), What to Do in Case of Fire (2001) and Barefoot (2005).- Actor
- Director
- Writer
Gustav von Wangenheim was a German actor, film director, and screenwriter from Wiesbaden. He is mostly remembered for playing the character Hutter in the classic horror film "Nosferatu" (1921). His character was based on the character of Jonathan Harker in the novel "Dracula" (1897) by Bram Stoker.
In 1895, Wangenheim was born in Wiesbaden. His father was the prolific actor Eduard von Winterstein (1871-1961, real name: Eduard Clemens Franz Anna Freiherr von Wangenheim), while his mother was theatrical actress Minna Mengers. His paternal ancestors were members of German nobility, the Freiherrs (Barons) of Wangenheim.
Wangenheim made his film debut in 1914, and went on to star in several silent films. Besides "Nosferatu", his best known film was "Woman in the Moon" (1929) by y Fritz Lang. It was among the earliest depictions of space travel in film, and is still considered one of the first "serious" science fiction films.
In 1921, Wangenheim joined the Communist Party of Germany (KPD, 1918-1956). At the time, the KPD was one of the major political parties of the Weimar Republic. During the 1920s, the party became Stalinist in ideology. In 1931, Wangenheim established "Die Truppe '31", a theatrical company consisting exclusively of communists. Wangenheim both wrote and produced three plays for this theatre company between 1931 and 1933.
In 1933, the then-new Nazi regime shut down Wangenheim's theatrical company. His ideology made Wangenheim a target for Nazi persecution, so he soon fled Germany. He settled in the Soviet Union, becoming a long-term resident of the "Hotel Lux" in Moscow. During the 1930s, this hotel housed exiles from about 50 different countries.
In 1933, Wangenheim became the new leader of Left Column, a Soviet theatrical company which consisted primarily of German exiles. He eventually secured enough funding to direct the film "Der Kampf" (1936), a film protesting against the oppressive policies of Nazi Germany.
In 1936, Wangenheim was implicated in the then-ongoing trials of the Great Purge, a repressive political purge within the Soviet Union. He reportedly denounced the actress Carola Neher (1900-1942) and her husband as Trotskyites. According to a testimony from Wangenheim's son, following a lengthy interrogation, his father was forced to sign papers which implicated Neher in an anti-Soviet conspiracy. The charges against her had been prepared, and the authorities needed to convince Wangenheim to serve as a false witness.
In 1943, Wangenheim became a founding member of the "National Committee for a Free Germany". It was an anti-Nazi and pro-Soviet organization formed within the Soviet Union, with most of its members being German exiles or German war prisoners that tried to gain support from the Soviet government.
Following the end of World War II, Wangenheim settled in East Germany. He joined the state-owned film studio DEFA (1946-1992), serving as one of its film directors and screenwriters for several years. In 1954, he had his long-term marriage to the writer and photographer Inge von Wangenheim (1912-1993) annulled.
In 1975, Wangenheim died in East Berlin, at the age of 80. He was buried in the Friedrichsfelde cemetery in Berlin. He remains among the best remembered actors of the German silent film period, in part due to collaborations with well-regarded film directors.- Director
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If Curtis Bernhardt is a relative unknown, it's because he didn't direct his first Hollywood feature until 1940 at the age of 41. Bernhardt worked for years in Germany until his Jewish heritage made living there impossible by 1933-- he was arrested by the Gestapo and made a harrowing underground escape to France. With Europe plunging into war, he left for America in 1939. Despite his limited grasp of the English language, he was offered seven-year contracts at both Warner Bros. and MGM, largely on the strength of Carrefour (1938)-- which proved so enduring that it was remade as Dead Man's Shoes (1940) in the UK and as Crossroads (1942) by MGM. Most émigrés would have jumped an offer to work at MGM-- considered the "Tiffany" of film studios-- but Berhardt went with Warners, favoring that studio's reputation for hard-boiled realism. His career in Hollywood began with a false start; after working on his first assignment he fell ill and was reassigned an Olivia de Havilland vehicle, My Love Came Back (1940), that gained him good notices. Bernhardt rapidly achieved a reputation as a woman's director with occasional forays into suspense with varied results. He directed one of Humphrey Bogart's least popular films, Conflict (1945), which was burdened by ludicrous plot contrivances, but he snapped back the next year with a winner: My Reputation (1946), a melodrama starring Barbara Stanwyck. He had another misfire, however, with the critically panned Devotion (1946) and would end his contract with the studio after three more films in 1947, after which he moved briefly to MGM. Ironically, he would later look back fondly upon Warners' assembly-line production methods compared to his days at MGM, where he felt compelled to bend to the whims of its stars and serve at the behest of studio chief Louis B. Mayer. Berhardt managed to make two above-average films during his short stay at Metro, however--the suspenseful High Wall (1947) starring 'Robert Taylor (I)_ in one of his best mid-career roles, and The Doctor and the Girl (1949), starring the likable Glenn Ford.
Bernhard soon moved to RKO, which was entering its final chaotic decade, directing The Blue Veil (1951), a remake of a French film. He did a one-shot gig at Columbia, directing Bogie once again in the hopelessly set-bound Sirocco (1951), and rounded out the remainder of the 1950s back at MGM, ending his Hollywood career with the middling comedy Kisses for My President (1964) at Warners.
He retired from directing due to illness in the mid-'60s and died in 1981, age 81, at his home in Pacific Palisades, California.- Actress
- Additional Crew
Gorgeous and voluptuous blonde bombshell Monique St. Pierre was born on November 25, 1953 in Wiesbaden, Germany. St. Pierre graduated from high school in Munich and came to the United States to attend college and nursing school. She speaks fluent French, English and German. Monique was the Playmate of the Month in the November, 1978 issue of "Playboy". She was working for the Wilhelmina modeling agency in New York City when she became a Playmate; the agency fired her after her "Playboy" pictorial was published. St. Pierre was named Playmate of the Year in 1979. Monique continued to work for "Playboy" as a model and as an executive with a top position at the Playboy Channel. She married actor Steve Parrish in 1979; the couple had one son, prior to divorcing in 1982. St. Pierre has acted in a handful of theatrical features and TV mini-series; she was especially memorable as "Debbie the hooker" in the outrageous horror black comedy cult favorite, Motel Hell (1980). Monique has a degree as a psychiatric technician. Monique St. Pierre eventually went on to become a costume designer.- Alix of Hess-Darmstadt was born on June 8, 1872 in Darmstadt, Germany. Her parents were the Grand Duke and Duchess of Darmstadt; her mother was also the daughter of Queen Victoria. When Alix was still very young, her sister Mary and then her mother died of diphtheria. Also, her brother Frederick (1870-1873) died from a fall from a window in his mother's room, complicated by hemophilia. She spent much of her time in England, staying with her grandmother and various aunts, uncles and cousins. When she was older she continued in the role of Landsmutter (Mother of the land) for her father.
At the wedding of her sister Elizabeth (Ella) to their cousin Seril of Russia, Alix met for the first time (and fell in love with) the Tsarivitch Nicholas. Even thought she was in love with him she did not want to marry him because she did not want to give up her Protestantism to be Russian Orthodox. About 4 or 5 years after they first met Alix's brother Ernest got married to their first cousin nicknamed Ducky. Since both were cousins of Nicholas as well he went to the wedding to see Alex. During the time that he was there he continually asked her to be his wife, and thanks to their love as well as their cousin Kaiser William II Alex finally consented to marry Nicholas.
Alix spent the first part of her engagement with her grandmother Queen Victoria in England telling her everything that had transpired leading to the engagement. The rest of the engagement did not go so smoothly though. Several months after the engagement Nicholas's father became ill at one of his palaces in Russia. Alix hearing this got there as soon as she could, but shortly after she got there Nicholas became Tsar Nicholas II. After this tragedy Alix did not want to wait to become a member of the family. Shortly after the death of her future father-in-law Alix became a member of the Russian Orthodox Faith taking the name Alexandra Fyodorovna. She and Nicholas wanted to marry where they were, but family told them that they should get married after the funeral of his father in Moscow. Thus the people of Russia got their first glimpse of their future Empress through death.
They were married on November 26, 1894, shortly after the death of his father, and before 1901 had four daughters named Olga (1895-1918) Tatiana (1897-1918), Maria (1899-1918) and Anastasia (1901-1918). In 1904 Alix gave birth to a son Alexis (known as Alexei) and sadly he had hemophilia, which was passed on to her a sister and brother from their mother Princess Alice and grandmother Queen Victoria.
In 1917 Nicholas was forced to abdicate the throne of Russia. The people who would have accepted it if he had abdicated in favor of his son, did not understand why he abdicated in favor of his brother. He only did this because he knew that his son's chances of survival were not good.
He and his family were then imprisoned in Siberia, and later moved to Ekaterinburg, where on the night of July 17, 1918 the Russian royal family was massacred. In the 1990s the burial sites were investigated, although the bodies of the Tsarivitch Alexei and one of his sisters (it is unclear which one) were missing. Using DNA from HRH Prince Phillip, Duke of Edinburgh (Alix was his great-aunt) proved that four of the bodies belonged to the Tsarina and three of her daughters.