Thure Riefenstein

Thure Riefenstein
Born Thure Riefenstein
11 October 1965
Ulm, Germany
Occupation Actor
Years active 1998–present

Thure Riefenstein (born 11 October 1965[1]) is a German actor with a Austrian-Serbian background and was born in Ulm, Baden-Württemberg, as the youngest of two children.

Biography

He graduated as an actor in Germany, and continued studying acting and film in New York and Los Angeles and since has been working internationally for cinema, television and theatre in the USA, Canada, Germany, Great Britain, France, Italy, Austria, Czech Republic, Sweden, Serbia, Morocco and Turkey.

Important features in leading parts are the most recent US-Canadian feature “Sophie” (director: Leif Bristow) with John Rhys-Davies and Deborah Kara Unger. In the “Golden Czech Lion Award” winning WW2 drama “Dark Blue World”, he played for director and Academy Award Winner Jan Sverák and in the action thriller “Hostile Takeover” he worked with director Carl Schenkel. In the US-German feature “Baltic Storm” (Dir.: Reuben Leder) he took a leading part aside Greta Scacchi, Jürgen Prochnow, and Donald Sutherland.

Mr. Riefensteins acclaimed TV-work includes the French period movie “Julie, chevalier de Maupin” (Dir.: Charlotte Brandstroem), where he starred with Marisa Berenson, Pierre Arditi and Gottfried John and which achieved an 'International Emmy Award' nomination for best foreign film. The TV production series “Kommissarin Lukas, (Detevtive Lukas) with Thure Riefenstein as the male leading detective, achieved the highly acclaimed German “Adolf Grimme Award” nomination” for ‘Best Film’. In the Film “Boseckendorf, the night a village vanished” he was nominated as “Best Lead Male Actor” (Bambi Audience Award 2009 & Quotenmeter Award 2010) and was also semi finalist for the International Emmy Award 2010 in the same category as Best Lead Male Actor, to name a few productions.

Mr. Riefenstein also starred in the international action drama mini-series “Crusaders” (Dir.: Dominique Othenin-Girard) with Armin Mueller-Stahl and Franco Nero, the successful feature comedy “666: In Bed with the Devil” (Dir.: Rainer Matsutani), the Canadian film “Criminal Instinct” (Dir.: Brad Turner) with Victor Garber or in the science fiction feature “Ainoa” (Dir.: Marko Kalantari).

Riefenstein also has a fundamental experience in theatre which includes plays from Shakespeare, Bertolt Brecht, Walter Jens, Ariane Mnouchkine or the legendary revue of “The Blue Angel” at repertory theatres in Germany, - comparable to Broadway Shows, - like the "Hamburger Schauspielhaus", the "Theater des Westens" at Berlin" or the "Berliner Ensemble". He worked with European theatre icons, AS for example the directors Peter Zadek , Jerome Saváry, Peter Palitzsch or Vlad Mugur.

He lived in London to practice in fringe theatres and in New York to work with Kristin Linklater. His American debut was in the New Yorker production of Jean Genet’s “The Maids” for the Berkshire Theatre Festival. In Los Angeles he studied acting at the ACI based on Lee Strasberg's and Sandford Meisner’s working techniques.

Filmography (excerpts)

References

  1. ↑ (German) Thure Riefenstein's biography

Sources and External links