Armin Mueller-Stahl
Armin Mueller-Stahl | |
---|---|
Armin Mueller-Stahl, October 2007 | |
Born |
Tilsit, East Prussia, Free State of Prussia, Germany now Sovetsk, Kaliningrad Oblast, Russia | 17 December 1930
Other names | Armin Müller–Stahl |
Occupation | Actor, writer |
Years active | 1956–present |
Spouse(s) | Gabriele Scholz (1973–present) |
Armin Mueller-Stahl (born 17 December 1930) is a German film actor, painter and author.
Early life
Mueller-Stahl was born in Tilsit, East Prussia (now Sovetsk, Kaliningrad Oblast, Russia). His mother, Editta, was from an upper class family and became a university professor in Leipzig. His father, Alfred Müller, was a bank teller who changed the family's surname to "Mueller-Stahl".[1][2] The rest of the family moved to Berlin while his father fought on the Eastern Front in World War II.[1] Mueller-Stahl was a concert violinist while he was a teenager and enrolled at an East Berlin acting school in 1952.[1]
Career
Mueller-Stahl was a film and stage actor in East Germany, performing such films as Her Third and Jacob the Liar. For that country's TV, he played the main character of the popular series Das unsichtbare Visier from 1973–1979, a spy thriller program designed, in co-operation with the Stasi, as a counterpart to the James Bond films. After protesting against Wolf Biermann's denaturalisation in 1976 he was blacklisted by the government. Emigrating in 1980 to West Germany,[1] he found regular work in films. These included Rainer Werner Fassbinder's Lola (1981) and Veronika Voss (1982), Andrzej Wajda's A Love in Germany (1984), Angry Harvest and Colonel Redl (both 1985), the latter about Alfred Redl.
Mueller-Stahl made his American film debut as Jessica Lange's character's father in Music Box (1989). He subsequently took strong character roles in Kafka by Steven Soderbergh and Night on Earth by Jim Jarmusch (both 1991). He is also remembered for his role as the Soviet general in charge of the occupied United States in the ABC television miniseries Amerika (1987). Mueller-Stahl's leading role in Avalon (1990) is also memorable.
Mueller-Stahl won the Silver Bear for Best Actor at the 42nd Berlin International Film Festival for his performance in Utz (1992).[3] He was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performance in Shine (1996). Mueller-Stahl was also in A Pyromaniac's Love Story (1995) and the 1997 remake of the movie 12 Angry Men. Conversation with the Beast (1996) was his first film as director. In 1998, he played the German scientist and syndicate member, Conrad Strughold, in the feature film The X-Files. In 1999 he played the mastermind of a criminal gang opposite Ray Liotta and Gloria Reuben in Pilgrim, also distributed under the title Inferno.
In the early 2000s, Mueller-Stahl received a positive response for his portrayal of Thomas Mann in a German film about the Mann family (Thomas Mann, his brother Heinrich Mann, and others) called Die Manns - Ein Jahrhundertroman. In 2004, Mueller-Stahl made a foray into American television, guest-starring in four episodes on the television drama series The West Wing as the Prime Minister of Israel. In 2006, he played the role of reclusive Russian artist Nikolai Seroff in Local Color. He had a role in David Cronenberg's crime drama Eastern Promises (2007) and the thriller The International (2009), both of which co-starred British-Australian actress Naomi Watts. In 2008, he won the Genie Award for Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role for Eastern Promises, and Mueller-Stahl played the role of Cardinal Strauss, Dean of the College of Cardinals and the Papal Conclave, in Angels & Demons (2009),
In 2011, he was awarded the Honorary Golden Bear at the 61st Berlin International Film Festival.[4] Since the creation of the Freya von Moltke Stiftung, working out of Berlin and Krzyżowa, he has been a supporter and linked with their work.[5] He and his wife live in Los Angeles.
Filmography
- Heimliche Ehen (1956) as Norbert
- Five Cartridges (1960) as Pierre Gireau
- Star-Crossed Lovers (1962) as Michael
- … und deine Liebe auch (1962) as Ullrich Settich
- Naked among Wolves (1963) as André Höfel
- Christine (1963)
- Preludio 11 (1964) as Quintana
- Alaskafüchse (1964) as Sowjetischer Arzt
- Wolf Among Wolves (1965, TV series) as Wolfgang Pagel
- Ein Lord am Alexanderplatz (1967) as Dr. Achim Engelhardt
- Ways across the Country (1968) as Jürgen Leßtorff
- Tödlicher Irrtum (1970) as Chris Howard
- Her Third (1972) as The Blind Man
- Januskopf (1972) as Dr. Brock
- Die Hosen des Ritters von Bredow (1973) as Dechantvon Krummensee
- Kit & Co. (1974) as Mr. Slavovitz
- Jacob the Liar (1974) as Roman Schtamm
- Nelken in Aspik (1976) as Wolfgang Schmidt
- Das unsichtbare Visier (1973–1976, TV series) as Werner Bredebusch
- Die Flucht (1977) as Schmidt
- Lola (1981) as Von Bohm
- Collin (1981, TV film) as Andreas Roth
- Veronika Voss (1982) as Max Rehbein
- Der Westen leuchtet! (1982) as Harald Liebe
- Die Flügel der Nacht (1982) as Goedel
- Glut (1983) as François Korb / Andres Korb
- Viadukt (1983) as Tetzlav
- Un dimanche de flic (1983) as The lawyer
- The Wounded Man (1983) as Le père d'Henri
- A Love in Germany (1983) as Mayer
- Trauma (1983) as Sam
- Rita Ritter (1984)
- Tausend Augen (1984) as Arnold
- Colonel Redl (1985) as Thronfolger
- Angry Harvest (1985) as Leon Wolny
- Die Mitläufer (1985)
- Forget Mozart (1985) as Graf Pergen
- The Assault of the Present on the Rest of Time (1985) as Blinder Regisseur
- Momo (1986) as Chef der Grauen Männer
- Amerika (1987, TV miniseries) as General Petya Samanov
- Lethal Obsession (1987) as Axel Baumgartner
- Killing Blue (1988) as Inspector Alex Glass
- Spider's Web (1989) as Baron von Rastchuk
- Schweinegeld (1989) as Maxwell
- A hecc (1989) as Marnó, kabinos, Tamás barátja
- Music Box (1989) as Mike Laszlo
- Avalon (1990) as Sam Krichinsky
- Night on Earth (1991) as Helmut Grokenberger
- Kafka (1991) as Grubach
- Bronsteins Kinder (1991) as Aaron
- Utz (1992) as Baron Kaspar Joachim von Utz
- The Power of One (1992) as Doc
- Far from Berlin (1992) as Otto Lindner
- Red Hot (1993) as Dimitri
- Der Kinoerzähler (1993) as Kinoerzähler (Movie Teller)
- The House of the Spirits (1993) as Severo
- Taxandria (1994) as Karol / Virgilus
- Holy Matrimony (1994) as Wilhelm
- The Last Good Time (1994) as Joseph Kopple
- A Pyromaniac's Love Story (1995) as Mr. Linzer
- Theodore Rex (1995) as Elizar Kane
- Shine (1996) as Peter
- Conversation with the Beast (1996) as Adolf Hitler
- The Ogre (1996) as Count von Kaltenborn
- In the Presence of Mine Enemies (1997, TV film) as Rabbi Adam Heller
- 12 Angry Men (1997, TV film) as Juror #4
- The Game (1997) as Anson Baer
- The Assistant (1997) as Mr. Morris Bober
- The Peacemaker (1997) as Dimitri Vertikoff
- The Commissioner (1998) as Hans Koenig
- The X-Files: Fight the Future (1998) as Strughold
- The Thirteenth Floor (1999) as Hannon Fuller / Grierson
- The Third Miracle (1999) as Werner
- Jakob the Liar (1999) as Kirschbaum
- Jesus (1999, TV film) as Joseph
- Mission to Mars (2000) as Ray Beck (uncredited)
- Pilgrim (2000) as Mac
- The Long Run (2001) as Bertold 'Barry' Bohmer
- Die Manns – Ein Jahrhundertroman (2001, TV miniseries) as Thomas Mann
- The Story of an African Farm (2004) as Otto
- The West Wing (2004, TV series, 4 episodes) as Israeli Prime Minister Efraim 'Eli' Zahavy
- The Dust Factory (2004) as Grandpa Randolph
- Local Color (2006) as Nicholi Seroff
- Ich bin die Andere (2006) as Karl Winter
- Eastern Promises (2007) as Semyon
- Buddenbrooks (2008) as Johann 'Jean' Buddenbrook
- The International (2009) as Wilhelm Wexler
- Angels & Demons (2009) as Cardinal Strauss
- Attack on Leningrad (2009) as Fon Leeb
- Knight of Cups (2015) as Fr. Zeitlinger
Awards
- Berlin Film Festival
- Silver Bear for Best Actor at the 42nd Berlin International Film Festival
- Berlinale Camera at the 47th Berlin International Film Festival[6]
- Honorary Golden Bear at the 61st Berlin International Film Festival
- Genie Award for Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role (2007)
- Honorary citizen of Sovetsk (2011)[7]
See also
References
- 1 2 3 4 Farrell, Mary H.J.; Franz Spelman (1990-11-12). "Emerging from Behind the Iron Curtain, Armin Mueller-Stahl Finds Freedom-and Stardom in Avalon". People Magazine. Retrieved 2009-12-08.
- ↑ Geffen, Pearl Sheffy (1997-02-21). "Shining through the darkness". Jerusalem Post. Retrieved 2009-12-08.
- ↑ "Berlinale: 1992 Prize Winners". berlinale.de. Retrieved 2011-05-29.
- ↑ "Berlinale 2011: The Honorary Golden Bear". berlinale.de. 2010-12-26. Archived from the original on 28 December 2010. Retrieved 2010-12-26.
- ↑ http://www.fvms.de/de/schirmherr-und-gremien/kuratorium.html
- ↑ "Berlinale: 1997 Prize Winners". berlinale.de. Retrieved 2012-01-14.
- ↑ Armin Mueller-Stahl Ehrenbürger seiner Heimatstadt Archived September 23, 2015, at the Wayback Machine. Berliner Zeitung, 8 December 2011 (in German)
External links
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