Götz George

In 2007, he received the Founders' Honorary Award of the German Television Award for his career achievement as an actor.

In 2003 und 2004 Götz George starred in 'Blatt & Blüte' (director: Michael Kreindl), 'Alpenglühen I+II' (director: Hajo Gies), and in 'Einmal so, wie ich will' (Regie: Vivian Naefe) along with the suspense-packed feature 'Geheimnissvolle Freundinnnen', filmed by young director Oliver Elias.

), 'Vinzenz & Claire' followed in 2002.

In 2002 Götz George played one of the leads in the TV movie 'Mein Vater', which won the Emmy Award for best foreign feature film in 2003.

In 2000 he played the advertiser Eddie Kaminski in the feature film 'Commercial Man', directed by Lars Kraume, he was strange bird Heinrich in 'Gott ist tot' (2001, written and directed by Kadir Sözen) and designer Jost in 'Maria an Callas' (2004/5, written and directed by Petra K. Wagner). During the seventies, Götz George worked for television and theater. Among others, notable stage appearances were in 'Troilos und Cressida' (as Troilus), in 'Martin Luther und Thomas Münzer' (as Luther), in 'Endstation Sehnsucht' ('A Streetcar Named Desire' - as Kowalski), in 'Dantons Tod' (as Danton) and in 'Platonow' (as Platonow).

The year 2000 started with two further 'Schimanski' movies and was closed with shoots for the TV movie 'Liebe macht blind' in South Africa.

In 1999 Götz George was shooting for the TV feature film 'Die Spur meiner Tochter' in Marocco.

In summer of 1998, Götz George starred as Josef Mengele in Roland Suso Richter's film 'After the Truth / Nichts als die Wahrheit'.

In early 1997, George starred in the movie 'Das Trio', directed by Hermine Huntgeburth, and during the last two months he was filming the thriller 'Solo für Klarinette', directed by Nico Hofmann, a movie adaption of the successful novel by Elsa Lewin.

After a six-year-intermission, Schimanski returned to German TV-screens in the end of 1997 and has been continued since.

Perhaps his most prominent achievement, however, was the role of the serial killer Fritz Haarmann in Romuald Karmakar's movie 'Der Totmacher', for which he received the Coppa Volpi, the actor's award of the Venice Film Festival in 1995 and, once more, the Gold Ribbon (Bundesfilmpreis) in 1996. In the same year he again appeared in another highly successful film by Helmut Dietl, 'Rossini'.

In 1991 George played a lead role in Helmut Dietl's comedy 'Schtonk', a big success in Germany among audience and critics, and official German nomination for the Oscar. For this performance, George again received the Gold Ribbon (Bundesfilmpreis) as best actor.

His last theater tour was in 1990, performing in Tschechow's "Platonov". He later admitted in an interview he feared the glances of the audience on stage.

The location of his next film was Argentina, where he starred in the movie 'Blauäugig', produced in 1989 under the direction of Reinhard Hauff.

Other successful TV-appearances include 'Schulz & Schulz' (1989-93), 'Das Schwein' (1994), 'Der Sandmann' (1995), and 'Die Bubi Scholz Story' (1997).

After starring in 'Zabou' in 1987 (another 'Schimanski'-adaption for cinema) and the action thriller 'Die Katze' in 1988, Götz George appeared in 'Der Bruch', the first East-West-German co-production for cinema, directed by Frank Beyer in 1988.

In 1985, George received the German Cinema Award (Charlie-Chaplin-Schuh) and the Gold Ribbon (Bundesfilmpreis) as best German movie actor.

The movies 'Abwärts' in 1984 and 'Zahn um Zahn' in 1985 (the latter based on the TV-series 'Schimanski') were both successful at the box office and among critics.

Though Götz George has been a popular German movie actor for four decades, he gained his perhaps most unique popularity for the impersonation of the police detective Horst Schimanski in the 'Tatort' TV-series from 1981 to 1991. Aside from their success in Germany, the 'Schimanski' films have introduced George to TV-audiences worldwide: 427 million people have watched so far. Moreover, George's appearances in numerous other successful TV features have made him the most well-known and mostly decorated German actor of our time.

George's next movie production was 'Aus einem Deutschen Leben', directed by Theodor Kotulla, in 1977, where he gave a highly praised performance as the KZ commander Rudolf Höss.

Hansgünther Heyme signed him in 1972 to the Kölner Schauspielhaus, where George played Martin Luther in Dieter Forte's Martin Luther und Thomas Münzer.

He became well-known to a broad audience when, during his theater tour in Göttingen, Horst Wendlandt persuaded him to play in one of the Karl May series of films, which he started in 1962 with Der Schatz im Silbersee. It was originally planned to give him the lead role, but this plan was abandoned when Lex Barker was hired to play the role of Old Shatterhand, so George played the farmer son Fred Engel.

In 1960 he received his first major award (the Bundesfilmpreis) for his appearance in the film 'Jacqueline' (directed by Wolfgang Liebeneiner), followed by the German Critics Award in 1961. A year later he received the public "Bambi"-award as the most popular German actor.

Between 1959 and 1969 Götz George appeared in 26 cinema features, among them 'Kirmes' (directed by Wolfgang Staudte), 'Das Mädchen und der Staatsanwalt' (director Jürgen Goslar), 'Liebe will gelernt sein' (director Kurt Hoffmann), 'Sie nannten ihn Gringo' (director Roy Rowland) and 'Ostwind' (director Jean-Luc Godard).

From 1955 to 1958 he also studied at the Berlin UFA-Nachwuchsstudio, though he received the crucial part of his acting education between 1958 and 1963.

In 1953 he was able to get a small film role next to Romy Schneider in Wenn der weiße Flieder wieder blüht. In the same year he played, as he would often do from then on, next to his mother in Shakespeare's Richard III. After small movie parts during the 1950s, Götz George broke through with audiences and critics in the film Jacqueline (1959). George was awarded the Bundesfilmpreis and the Preis der Filmkritik for his role. In 1962 he received the Bambi Award as the most popular actor.

George made his stage debut in 1950, performing a role in William Saroyan's My Heart's in the Highlands.

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 15, Götz George started his career as a movie actor.