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Bruno Ganz
Bruno Ganz as Adolf Hitler in Der Untergang
Born	March 22, 1941 (age 66) Zurich, Switzerland
Notable roles	Damiel in Wings of Desire (1987) Adolf Hitler in Downfall (2004)

Bruno Ganz (help·info) (born March 22, 1941 in Zurich) is a Swiss actor. He is one of the leading figures in contemporary European theatre and cinema.

Contents 1 Biography 2 Awards 3 Filmography 4 Trivia 5 External links

Bruno Ganz is the son of a Swiss father and a northern Italian mother. He had decided to pursue an acting career by the time he entered university. He was equally drawn to stage and screen but initially enjoyed greater success in the theater. In 1960, at the age of 19, he landed his first film role, in Der Herr mit der schwarzen Melone (The Man in the Black Derby). Despite the support of lead actor Gustav Knuth, his cinematic debut was not particularly successful and it was only many years later that his career in film got off the ground. Ganz made his theatrical debut the following year and devoted himself primarily to the stage for almost two decades thereafter. In 1970, he helped found the Berliner Schaubühne ensemble and two years later performed in the Salzburg Festival premier of Thomas Bernhard’s Der Ignorant und der Wahnsinnige, under the direction of Claus Peymann. The German magazine Theater heute (Theater Today) solidified Ganz’s reputation as a stage actor by pronouncing him Schauspieler des Jahres (Actor of the Year) in 1973. Perhaps his most breathtaking role was to perform for 13 hours straight as the lead in Peter Stein’s 2000 production of Goethe's Faust (Parts I and II).

Ganz’s breakthrough in cinema came with a major part in the 1976 film Sommergäste. His performance launched a distinguished career that has included important roles in both European and American films, for which he has received several of Europe’s most prized accolades. He has worked with the directors Werner Herzog, Wim Wenders, Éric Rohmer, and Francis Ford Coppola, among others. In 1979 he starred opposite Klaus Kinski in Herzog’s Nosferatu: Phantom der Nacht (Nosferatu: Phantom of the Night). More recently, in Bernd Eichinger’s much acclaimed film Der Untergang [2004] (The Downfall), Ganz may be the second native German speaker after Albin Skoda (in Georg Wilhelm Pabst's 1955 film Der lezte Akt) to play Adolf Hitler on screen, a role that most German directors had tended to relegate to very brief scenes or bit parts, often shot from behind.

He is separated from his wife Sabine, whom he married in 1965, and with whom he had his only son Daniel (b.1972). When not in his hometown of Zürich, he resides in Venice and Berlin.

In 1996 he received the Iffland-Ring. Further awards:

• Schauspieler des Jahres 1973 -- awarded by the German magazine Theater heute
• Deutscher Darstellerpreis (Chaplin-Schuh)
• Bundesfilmpreis
• Hans-Reinhart-Ring der Schweizerischen Gesellschaft f. Theaterkultur
• Schweizer Filmpreis 2000
• Officier dans l’ordre des arts et des lettres
• David di Donatello 2000
• Berliner Filmpreis 2001

• Baruto no Gakuen (バルトの楽園), 2006, starring Ken Matsudaira
• Youth Without Youth, 2006, starring Tim Roth, Alexandra Maria Lara. Regie: Francis Coppola
• Have No Fear: The Life of Pope John Paul II (2005)
• Der Untergang - Hitler und das Ende des Dritten Reichs (The Downfall: Hitler and the End of the Third Reich), 2004, as Adolf Hitler
• The Manchurian Candidate, 2004, as Richard Delp
• Luther, 2003, as Johann von Staupitz
• Behind Me - Bruno Ganz, 2002
• Epsteins Nacht (Epstein's Night), 2002, as Adam Rose
• Johann Wolfgang von Goethe: Faust, 2001 TV, Faust
• Pane e tulipani (Bread and Tulips), 2000, Fernando Girasoli
• Mia aioniotita kai mia mera (Eternity and a Day) 1998, Alexandre, directed by: Theo Angelopoulos
• Saint-Ex, 1997, Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
• L'Absence (The Absence), 1994, Player, screen-play and directed by: Peter Handke
• In weiter Ferne, so nah! (Faraway, So Close!), 1993, Damiel, directed by: Wim Wenders
• Brandnacht (Night on Fire), 1992, Peter Keller, starring Suzanne von Borsody, Dietmar Schönherr
• The Last Days of Chez Nous, 1992, J.P.
• La Domenica specialmente (Especially on Sunday), 1991, Vittorio, starring Nicoletta Braschi, Ornella Muti
• Erfolg (Success), 1991, starring Franziska Walser, Peter Simonischek, Mathieu Carrière, Thomas Holtzmann, Jutta Speidel, Gustl Bayrhammer
• Strapless, 1989, Raymond Forbes, starring Blair Brown, Bridget Fonda
• Der Himmel über Berlin (Wings of Desire) , 1987, Damiel, directed by: Wim Wenders
• Krieg und Frieden (War and Peace), 1983
• Die Fälschung (Circle of Deceit), 1981, Georg Laschen, screen-play: Nicolas Born, directed by: Volker Schlöndorff, starring Hanna Schygulla, Gila von Weitershausen
• La Dame aux camélias (Lady of the Camelias), 1980, Count Perregaux, starring Isabelle Huppert, Clio Goldsmith
• Der Erfinder (The Inventor), 1980, Jakob Nüssli
• 5% de risques, 1980, David, starring Jean-Pierre Cassel
• Retour à la bien-aimée (Return to the Beloved), 1979, Dr. Stephan Kern, starring Isabelle Huppert (Jeanne Kern)
• Nosferatu: Phantom der Nacht (Nosferatu the Vampyre), 1979, Jonathan Harker, directed by: Werner Herzog, starring Klaus Kinski, Isabelle Adjani (Lucy Harker), Roland Topor
• The Boys from Brazil, 1978, Professor Bruckner, starring Gregory Peck, Laurence Olivier, Lilli Palmer
• Die Linkshändige Frau (The Left-Handed Woman), 1977, Bruno, screen-play and directed by: Peter Handke, starring Edith Clever, Michael Lonsdale, Angela Winkler, Bernhard Wicki, Bernhard Minetti, Gérard Depardieu
• Der Amerikanische Freund (The American Friend), 1977, Jonathan Zimmermann, directed by: Wim Wenders, screen-play: Patricia Highsmith, co-starring: Dennis Hopper
• Die Wildente (Wild Duck), 1976, Gregors, with Anne Bennent
• Die Marquise von O... (The Marquise of O...), 1976, The Count, directed by: Éric Rohmer, starring Edith Clever, Otto Sander, Ruth Drexel
• Lumière (Lumiere), 1976, Heinrich Grün, screen-play and directed by: Jeanne Moreau
• Sommergäste (Summer Guests), 1976, screen-play: Botho Strauß, directed by: Peter Stein, starring Edith Clever, Jutta Lampe
• Chikita, 1961
• Der Herr mit der schwarzen Melone (The Man in the Black Derby), 1960

• Alcide Nikopol, the protagonist of the "Nikopol trilogy" of graphic novels by Enki Bilal, is clearly modelled after the likeness of a young Bruno Ganz.
• Played a biologist convincing the characther Liebermann (Laurence Olivier) that cloning Hitler was possible in The Boys from Brazil and later went on to play Hitler himself in Der Untergang.
• Turned down the lead role in Schindler's List

• Bruno Ganz at the Internet Movie Database