Jürgen Prochnow (German pronunciation:[ˈjʏʁɡn̩ˈpʁɔxnoː]ⓘ; born 10 June 1941) is a German actor. His international breakthrough was his portrayal of the good-hearted and sympatheticU-boat Commander "Der Alte" ("Old Man") in the 1981 war filmDas Boot.[1]
Prochnow portrayed the good-hearted and sympatheticU-boat Commander "Der Alte" ("Old Man") in the 1981 war filmDas Boot. He starred in the World War II dramaForbidden (1985), which earned aGerman Film Award nomination for Outstanding Feature Film. He had a significant supporting role inThe Seventh Sign (1988).
Prochnow dubbedSylvester Stallone's voice in the German version ofRocky (1976) andRocky II (1979), as well asF.I.S.T andParadise Alley (both 1978). He later acted alongside Stallone in the 1995 movieJudge Dredd. After the retirement of Stallone's long-time voice actorThomas Danneberg, Prochnow assumed this job in 2018 withCreed II. He usually also dubs his own roles in English-language productions.[3]
Prochnow and his older brother,Dieter [de] appeared inThe Man Inside (1990), in which Jürgen played the leading role and Dieter a supporting role.
In the early 1980s, Prochnow was in a relationship with Austrian actressAntonia Reininghaus [de], who fatally poisoned their 7-year-old daughter, Johanna, in 1987. In 1982, he married actorJürgen Goslar's daughter, Isabel Goslar, with whom he has two children: a daughter, Mona, and a son, Roman. The couple divorced in 1997. From 2004 until the divorce in 2014, he was married toBirgit Stein [de], a German actress and screenwriter. Stein died in August 2018 in a motorcycle accident inKanab, Utah.[5] Since 2015, he has been married to actress Verena Wengler.[6]
Prochnow used to divide his time between Los Angeles andMunich. He received U.S. citizenship in 2004.[7] In 2017, he announced that he had sold his house inBrentwood, Los Angeles, and would be moving to Berlin.[8]