Thomas Kretschmann (German pronunciation: [ˈtoːmas ˈkrɛʧman]; born 8 September 1962) is a German actor best known for playing Leutnant Hans von Witzland in the 1993 film Stalingrad, Hauptmann Peter Kahn in the 2013 film Stalingrad, Hauptmann Wilm Hosenfeld in The Pianist, Hermann Fegelein in Downfall, Major Otto Remer in the 2008 film Valkyrie, and Captain Engelhorn in the 2005 remake of King Kong, and for voicing Professor Z in Cars 2. He appeared briefly as Baron Strucker in Captain America: The Winter Soldier, and is subsequently set to portray the character in Marvel Studios' Avengers: Age of Ultron.
Nika Award for Best Supporting Actor, European Film Awards Audience Award for Best Actor, Deutscher Fernsehpreis - Best actor
Movies
The Pianist, Avengers: Age of Ultron, King Kong, Hitman: Agent 47, Resident Evil: Apocalypse, Valkyrie, Stalingrad, Downfall, U-571, Dracula 3D, Blade II, Head in the Clouds, Wanted, Cars 2, The Stendhal Syndrome, Open Grave, The Young Victoria, Hostel: Part III, Grimm Love, Immortal, Transsiberian,...
TV Shows
Dracula, The River
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Quote
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[on his title role in Eichmann (2007)] I was born long after the war but I still carry this collective guilt around. It's not as much fun for a German to play a part like this than it would be for, say, Ralph Fiennes. It's a very juicy part, but I couldn't get myself excited to go and play Eichmann. Strangely, I have lots of Jewish friends in LA. My wife is Jewish. They were all excited that I play him, so I wanted to do it for them.
2
Leaving [home] is kind of a strange thing - the world opens up but, at the same time, it gets smaller. The more you see of the world, the smaller it seems. After I did the film Stalingrad (1993), I left Germany, and I did a couple of films in France and lived there for about three years, and a couple of films in Italy, and lived there for two years. Then I came over here. The more you get familiar with different countries, the more you think, "Where am I going to live for the rest of my life?" You think, "OK, Germany sucks - don't want to live there; France, no; Italy - the food is nice, but I don't want to live there". In the end, you have nowhere to go anymore.
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Fact
1
He starred in two World War II films with the same title: Stalingrad (1993) and Stalingrad (2013).
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Now living and working in Los Angeles [2000]
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Was hired to voice Johan Krauss in Hellboy II: The Golden Army (2008) but Guillermo Del Toro considered that his voice and the mechanical noise of the character's suit didn't mesh well. The job went to Seth McFarlane.
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He played Count Dracula in Dracula 3D (2012) and his arch nemesis Professor Abraham Van Helsing in Dracula (2013).
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Considered buying a house in the Bahamas while filming Der Seewolf (2008) (aka The Sea Wolf).
Aged 19, he began a month-long trek from East to West Germany to escape Communism, during which he lost part of his finger to frostbite. He crossed 4 borders with nothing other than a passport and the equivalent of $100 in his possession.
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He has three children: two sons, Nicolas (born 1998) and Alexander 'Sascha' (born 2002), and one daughter, Stella (born 1999), with his ex-girlfriend, Lena Roklin.
11
Collaborated again with his The Pianist (2002) co-star Adrien Brody in King Kong (2005). Incidentally, both of Kretschmann's roles with Brody are as captains, albeit of a very different type. In The Pianist (2002), he played a Nazi officer with a conscience; in King Kong (2005) he plays a tough boat captain guiding a film crew.
$8 Million
