Götz George

Götz George (born July 23, 1938 in Berlin, real name Götz Schulze) is a German actor, son of actor couple Berta Drews and Heinrich George. His arguably best-known role is that of Duisburg commissar Horst Schimanski in the TV crime series Tatort.

Acting career

George gave his stage debut in 1950, performing a role in William Saroyan's Mein Herz ist im Hochland. In 1953 he is able to get a small film role next to Romy Schneider in Wenn der weiße Flieder wieder blüht. In the same year he plays, as he will often do from then on, next to his mother in Shakespeare's Richard III. From 1955 to 1958 he studies at the Berlin UFA-Nachwuchsstudio, though he receives the crucial part of his actorial education between 1958 and 1963. Following his mother's advice he occasionally plays at the Deutsches Theater in Göttingen under the direction of Heinz Hilpert. After Hilpert's death, George would never join a fixed theater company again, although he did regularly stand on stage during tours and guest performances.

Related Topics:
William Saroyan - 1953 - Romy Schneider - Shakespeare - Richard III - 1955 - 1958 - 1963 - Göttingen

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Hansgünther Heyme signed him in 1972 to the Kölner Schauspielhaus, where George played Martin Luther in Dieter Forte's Martin Luther und Thomas Münzer. His most important stage achievement, in his own opinion, was the lead role in Büchner's Dantons Tod during the Salzburger Festspiele in 1981. In 1986 and 1987 George, together with Eberhard Feik and Helmut Stauss, stage-managed Gogol's Revisor. Performing in Anton Tschechow's Platonov, George goes on his hitherto last theater tour.

Related Topics:
1972 - Kölner - Martin Luther - Büchner - 1981 - 1986 - 1987 - Gogol

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After small movie parts during the 1950s, Götz George's breakthrough with audience and critics manifests itself in the form of the film Jacqueline.

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The surprise is Götz George, who, in the role of the good natured pro boxer Gustav, puts on an beautiful presence. Funny, moving, awkward, full of realness in his play, motion and expression - a well-rounded performance. Let us hope that this gifted young artist will not be typecast as the clumsy nature-boy with an awkward speech impediment right away. After all, he doubtlessly can do a lot more than that.

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George is awarded the Bundesfilmpreis and the Preis der Filmkritik for his role. In 1961 he receives the Bambi as the most popular actor.

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In the sixties, George gets the chance to show that he is able to do more than playing sappy peasants, through roles in movies such as Kirmes, playing a desperate Wehrmacht deserter, and Herrenpartie. More often, though, he performs in comedies and action-oriented movies, which gain from his physical presence. He becomes well-known to a broad audience when during his theater tour in Göttingen Horst Wendlandt is able to persuade him to play in one of the Karl May series of films, which he started in 1962 with Der Schatz im Silbersee. It was originally planned to give George the lead role of the farmer son Fred Engel, but this plan was abandoned when Lex Barker became engaged, playing the role of Old Shatterhand.

Related Topics:
Wehrmacht - Deserter - Karl May - 1962 - Lex Barker - Old Shatterhand

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George performs all stunts himself, even in his lead role as sheriff in Sie nannten ihn Gringo.

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The Neue Deutsche Film ('New German Film') has quite some difficulties with Götz George, who gained a firm stand in the German movie business of the fifties and sixties. There are few film roles for George during the seventies. He performs at the theater and in TV productions, among them many episodes of Der Komissar, Tatort, Derrick, and Der Alte. It was not until 1977 that he was cast in a prominent role again, playing Franz Lang in Aus Einem Deutschen Leben, a character modeled after Auschwitz commander Rudolf Höß.

Related Topics:
1977 - Auschwitz - Rudolf Höß

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George probably had his greatest popular success in the eighties on TV: The Schimanski Tatort episodes of the WDR, broadcast from 1981 to 1991. The series of Schulz & Schulz movies, starting in 1989 and dealing with the issue of the German reunification, gave him the opportunity to show his talents as a comedian in a double role, as did the role of the industry consultant Morlock in the series of the same name, which is very far away from the roughneck charm of senior commissar Schimanski.

Related Topics:
1981 - 1991 - 1989 - German reunification

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Among George's most impressive roles in the nineties are his TV appearances: In Der Sandmann he plays the alleged serial killer and writer Henry Kupfer as a cold, calculating and manipulative intellectual, and in Die Bubi-Scholz-Story George lays down the trauma of an aged, broken boxer.

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