Götz George

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Götz George

Götz George (born July 23, 1938 in Berlin, real name Götz Schulz) is a German actor, son of actor couple Berta Drews and Heinrich George. His arguably best-known role is that of Duisburg commissar Horst Schimanski in the TV crime series Tatort.

1 Early years
2 Acting career
3 Filmography (Movies)
4 Filmography (made-for-TV movies and series)
5 Awards
6 External links

[edit] Early years

Götz George was born into an actor family: His father Heinrich George was a famous film and theater star of his era; his mother Berta Drews a well-known character actress. George is named after his father's favorite character, Götz von Berlichingen. His father was imprisoned by the Soviets and died in 1946, after a botched appendix operation at the Oranienburg concentration camp. George grew up in Berlin with his elder brother Jan and his mother. He went to school in Berlin-Lichterfelde and later attended the Lyzeum Alpinum in Zuoz. He was married to Loni von Friedl from 1966 to 1976, who gave birth to their daughter Tanja-Nicole in 1967.

[edit] Acting career

George made his stage debut in 1950, performing a role in William Saroyan's Mein Herz ist im Hochland. 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. From 1955 to 1958 he studied at the Berlin UFA-Nachwuchsstudio, though he received the crucial part of his acting education between 1958 and 1963. Following his mother's advice he occasionally played at the Deutsches Theater in Göttingen under the direction of Heinz Hilpert. After Hilpert's death, George would never join a fixed theater company again, although he did regularly perform on tours and as a guest performer.

Hansgünther Heyme signed him in 1972 to the Kölner Schauspielhaus, where George played Martin Luther in Dieter Forte's Martin Luther und Thomas Münzer. His most important stage achievement, in his own opinion, was the lead role in Büchner's Dantons Tod during the Salzburger Festspiele in 1981. In 1986 and 1987 George, together with Eberhard Feik and Helmut Stauss, stage-managed Gogol's Revisor. Performing in Anton Tschechow's Platonov, George went on his hitherto last theater tour.

After small movie parts during the 1950s, Götz George broke through with audiences and critics in the film Jacqueline.

The surprise is Götz George, who, in the role of the good natured pro boxer Gustav, has a beautiful presence. Funny, moving, awkward, full of realness in his delivery, motion and expression - a well-rounded performance. Let us hope that this gifted young artist will not be typecast as the clumsy nature-boy with an awkward speech impediment right away. After all, he doubtlessly can do a lot more than that.

George was awarded the Bundesfilmpreis and the Preis der Filmkritik for his role. In 1961 he received the Bambi award as the most popular actor.

In the sixties, George got the chance to show that he is able to do more than playing sappy peasants, through roles in movies such as Kirmes, playing a desperate Wehrmacht deserter, and Herrenpartie. More often, though, he performed in comedies and action-oriented movies which benefited from his physical presence. 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 George the lead role of the farmer son Fred Engel, but this plan was abandoned when Lex Barker became engaged, playing the role of Old Shatterhand.

George performs all stunts himself, even in his lead role as sheriff in Sie nannten ihn Gringo.

In the 1970s he turned primarily to stage roles and to television, including the many episodes of Der Komissar, Tatort, Derrick, and Der Alte for which he would become famous. It was not until 1977 that he was cast in a prominent role again, playing Franz Lang in Aus Einem Deutschen Leben, a character modeled after Auschwitz commander Rudolf Höß.

George probably had his greatest popular success in the eighties on TV: The Schimanski Tatort episodes of the WDR, broadcast from 1981 to 1991. The series of Schulz & Schulz movies, starting in 1989 and dealing with the issue of the German reunification, gave him the opportunity to show his talents as a comedian in a double role, as did the role of the industry consultant Morlock in the series of the same name, which is very far away from the roughneck charm of senior commissar Schimanski.

Among George's most impressive roles in the nineties are his TV appearances: In Der Sandmann he portrayed the alleged serial killer and writer Henry Kupfer as a cold, calculating and manipulative intellectual, and in Die Bubi-Scholz-Story, the trauma of an aged, broken boxer.

[edit] Filmography (Movies)

Wenn der weiße Flieder wieder blüht, 1953
Ihre große Prüfung, 1953
Alter Kahn und junge Liebe / Sonne über den Seen (GDR), 1957
Solange das Herz, 1958
Jacqueline, 1959
Kirmes, 1960
Die Fastnachtsbeichte, 1960
Der Teufel spielt Balaleika, 1961
Mörderspiel, 1961
Unser Haus in Kamerun, 1961
Ihr schönster Tag / Das Fenster zum Flur, 1962
Das Mädchen und der Staatsanwalt, 1962
Nur tote Zeugen schweigen (Hipnosis), 1963
Liebe will gelernt sein, 1963
Mensch und Bestie, 1963
Herrenpartie, 1964
Wartezimmer zum Jenseits, 1964
Unter Geiern, 1964
Ferien mit Piroschka, 1965
Sie nannten ihn Gringo, 1965
Winnetou und das Halbblut Apanatschi, 1966
Der Schatz im Silbersee, 1962
Ich spreng' euch alle in die Luft - Inspektor Blomfields Fall Nr. 1 (video release title: Der Superbulle / Mad Joe), 1968
Der Todeskuss des Dr. Fu Man Chu, 1968
Himmelfahrtskommando El Alamein (Commandos), 1969
Ostwind (Le Vent d'Est), 1970
Die Diamanten des Präsidenten (The Pawn), 1976
Aus einem deutschen Leben, 1977
Abwärts, 1984
Zahn um Zahn, 1985
Zabou, 1987
Die Katze, 1988
Der Bruch (GDR), 1989
Blauäugig, 1989
Schtonk!, 1992
Ich und Christine, 1993
Die Sturzflieger, 1993
Der Sandmann, 1995
Der Totmacher 1995
Rossini, 1997
Das Trio, 1998
Murder at 1600 1997
Solo für Klarinette, 1998
Nichts als die Wahrheit, 1999
Commercial Man, 2001
Gott ist tot, 2003