| Curd Jürgens | |
|---|---|
Curd Jürgens on a German stamp, 2000 |
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| Born | Curd Gustav Andreas Gottlieb Franz Jürgens 13 December 1915 Solln, Kingdom of Bavaria, German Empire |
| Died | 18 June 1982 (aged 66) Vienna, Austria |
| Occupation | Actor |
| Years active | 1935–1982 |
| Spouse | Lulu Basler (1938–1947) Judith Holzmeister (1947–1955) Eva Bartok (1955–1956) Simone Bicheron (1958–1977) Margie Schmitz (1978–1982) |
| Awards | Volpi Cup for Best Actor 1955 Les héros sont fatigués |
Curd Gustav Andreas Gottlieb Franz Jürgens (1915–1982) was a German-Austrian stage and film actor. He was usually billed in English-speaking films as Curt Jurgens.
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Jürgens was born on 13 December 1915 in the Munich borough of Solln, Kingdom of Bavaria, German Empire. His father was a trader from Hamburg and his mother a French teacher.[1][2] He began his working career as a journalist before becoming an actor at the urging of his actress wife, Louise Basler. He spent much of his early acting career on the stage in Vienna.
Jürgens was critical of the Nazis in his native Germany. In 1944 he was sent to a concentration camp in Hungary as a "political unreliable".[3]
Jürgens became an Austrian citizen after the war.
Like many multilingual German-speaking actors, Jürgens went on to play soldiers in innumerable war movies. Notable performances in this vein include a meditative officer in the epic The Longest Day. His breakthrough screen role came in Des Teufels General (1955, The Devil's General) and he came to Hollywood following his appearance in the sensational 1956 Roger Vadim directed French film Et Dieu... créa la femme (And God Created Woman) starring Brigitte Bardot. In 1957, Jürgens made his first Hollywood film, The Enemy Below, where he portrayed a German U-boat commander. Jürgens became an international film star. He eventually gained the role of the villain in Roger Moore's favourite James Bond film in The Spy Who Loved Me as Karl Stromberg, a sociopathic industrialist seeking to transform the world into an ocean paradise. His last film appearance was as Maître Legraine, beside Alain Delon and Claude Jade in the spy-thriller Teheran 43 in 1981. He played Chancellor Otto von Bismarck in several episodes of the 1974 BBC TV series Fall of Eagles. He appeared as General Vladimir in the BBC TV series Smiley's People in 1982.
Although he appeared in over 100 films, Jürgens considered himself primarily a stage actor. His last stage appearance was in 1980 as Bassa Selim in Mozart's opera Die Entführung aus dem Serail touring Japan with the Vienna State Opera. He also directed a few films with limited success, and wrote screenplays.
Showing his sense of humor, he titled his 1976 autobiography … und kein bißchen weise (And not a Bit Wise).[4]
Jürgens maintained a home in France, but frequently returned to Vienna to perform on stage and that was where he died of a heart attack on 18 June 1982. He was interred in the city's Zentralfriedhof. Jürgens had suffered a heart attack several years before. During this he had a near-death experience where he claimed he died and went to Hell.
He was a tall man, standing 1.92 metres (6 ft 4 in) tall.[5] Brigitte Bardot nicknamed him "the Norman Wardrobe" during their work for Et Dieu… créa la femme.[6]
Jürgens was married to:
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