Werner Herzog

Werner Herzog was born Werner Stipetic on September 5, 1942 in Munich. He is a German screenwriter, film director, actor and opera director of Croat descent.

Trivia

• Claims to have once walked on foot from Munich to Paris to visit an ailing friend, critic Lotte Eisner. The experience is recounted in Herzog's book Of Walking in Ice (ISBN 0934378010).
• Once ate his own shoe after losing a bet to fellow filmmaker Errol Morris. Morris was interested in making a film about a pet cemetery (Gates of Heaven) and Werner believed Morris was not amitious enough to make the film. This story resulted in the film Werner Herzog Eats His Shoe (1980).
• Narrowly avoided being on the plane that crashed in the Amazonian Rainforest with only one survivor (Juliane Koepcke) on December 24, 1971. Herzog was location scouting for Aguirre, Wrath of God and had his reservation cancelled due to over-booking. This incident inspred Herzog filming Wings of Hope together with Koepcke.