| Hardy Krüger | |
|---|---|
| Born | Franz Eberhard August Krüger 12 April 1928 Wedding, Berlin. |
| Years active | 1944–2011 |
| Spouse | Anita (1978–present) Francesca Marazzi (1965–?) (divorced) Renate Densow (1950–?) (divorced) |
Hardy Krüger (born Franz Eberhard August Krüger; 12 April 1928) is a German actor. He is thought of as one of the greatest German actors of the 1960s. He was born in Wedding, Berlin, German Reich. He is arguably the first German actor to have been accepted as a protagonist by Western audiences after World War II.
Contents |
From 1941, Krüger went to a Napola school at the Ordensburg Sonthofen. At age 15, Hardy made his film debut in a German picture, "The Young Eagles", but his acting career was interrupted when he was conscripted into the German Infantry in 1944 at age 16.[1] In March 1945, Krüger was drafted into the 38th SS Division Nibelungen, where he was drawn into heavy fighting before being captured by American forces. Because of his archetypal Aryan German look, blond hair and blue eyes, Hardy Krüger often performed in roles portraying German soldiers.
He first came to the attention of English language audiences in the 1957 British war film The One That Got Away, the story of Franz von Werra, the only German prisoner of war to successfully escape from Allied custody and return to Germany.
In 1960, Krüger bought Ngorongoro farm in what is now northern Tanzania, which he owned for 13 years. Ngorongoro served as the setting for the 1962 film Hatari!, a Howard Hawks film, in which Krüger appeared with John Wayne.
He has worked in numerous European and American films such as the original 1965 version of The Flight of the Phoenix and the German version of The Moon is Blue. Other films include The Wild Geese (1978) with Richard Burton, Stanley Kubrick's Barry Lyndon with Ryan O'Neal and Richard Attenborough's A Bridge Too Far (sharing a scene with Laurence Olivier). His daughter Christiane Krüger and his son, Hardy Krüger, Jr. are also actors.