Klaus Maria Brandauer | |
|---|---|
.jpg) Brandauer at theVienna International Film Festival 2012 | |
| Born | Klaus Georg Steng (1943-06-22)22 June 1943 (age 82) |
| Occupation(s) | Actor, director |
| Years active | 1962–present |
| Spouse(s) | (1 child)[1] [2] |
| Children | 1 |
Klaus Maria Brandauer (Austrian German:[klaʊsmaˈriːaˈbrandaʊɐ]ⓘ; bornKlaus Georg Steng; 22 June 1943) is an Austrian actor and director. He is also a professor at theMax Reinhardt Seminar.
Brandauer is known internationally for his roles inMephisto (1981),Never Say Never Again (1983),Hanussen (1988),Burning Secret (1988),The Russia House (1990), andWhite Fang (1991).
For his supporting role asBror von Blixen-Finecke inOut of Africa (1985), he was nominated for anAcademy Award and won aGolden Globe Award.
Brandauer has a working knowledge of and has acted in at least five languages including German, Italian,Hungarian, English and French.
Brandauer was born as Klaus Georg Steng inBad Aussee, Austria (then part of theGerman Reich).[3] He is the son of Maria Brandauer and Georg Steng (or Stenj), a civil servant.[4] He subsequently took his mother's name as part of his professional name, Klaus Maria Brandauer.
His first wife was Karin Katharina Müller (14 October 1945 – 13 November 1992), an Austrian film and television director and screenwriter, from 1963 until her death in 1992, aged 47, from cancer. Both were teenagers when they married, in 1963. They had one son, Christian.[5] Brandauer married Natalie Krenn in 2007.
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Brandauer began acting on stage in 1962. After working in national theatre and television, he made his film debut in English in 1972, inThe Salzburg Connection. In 1975 he played inDerrick – in Season 2, Episode 8 called "Pfandhaus". His starring and award-winning role inIstván Szabó'sMephisto (1981) playing a self-absorbed actor, launched his international career. (He would later act in Szabó's 1985Oberst Redl.)
Following his role inMephisto, Brandauer appeared asMaximillian Largo inNever Say Never Again (1983), a remake of the 1965 James Bond filmThunderball.Roger Ebert said of his performance: "For one thing, there's more of a human element in the movie, and it comes from Klaus Maria Brandauer, as Largo. Brandauer is a wonderful actor, and he chooses not to play the villain as a cliché. Instead, he brings a certain poignancy and charm to Largo, and since Connery always has been a particularly human James Bond, the emotional stakes are more convincing this time."[6]
He starred inOut of Africa (1985), oppositeMeryl Streep andRobert Redford. Brandauer was nominated for anOscar and won aGolden Globe for the performance. In 1987, he was the Head of the Jury at the37th Berlin International Film Festival.[7] In 1988 he appeared inHanussen oppositeErland Josephson andIldikó Bánsági.
Brandauer was originally cast as Marko Ramius inThe Hunt for Red October. That role eventually went toSean Connery, who playedJames Bond to Brandauer's Largo inNever Say Never Again. He co-starred with Connery again inThe Russia House (1990).
His other film roles have been inThe Lightship (1986),Streets of Gold (1986),Burning Secret (1988),White Fang (1991),Becoming Colette (1991),Introducing Dorothy Dandridge (1999, as directorOtto Preminger), andEveryman's Feast (2002). In 1989, he participated inTF1's two-part historical filmLa Révolution française, playing the role ofGeorges Danton. He has also appeared asKing Nebuchadnezzar II in 1998, in Time Life'sJeremiah, from The Bible Collection: The Old Testament.
Brandauer has directed two films:Seven Minutes [de] (1989), in which he starred as attemptedHitler assassinGeorg Elser; andMario and the Magician (1994), based on the1929 novella by Thomas Mann, in which he starred as Cipolla, a magician with hypnotic powers.
In August 2006, Brandauer's much-awaited production ofThe Threepenny Opera gained a mixed reception. Brandauer had resisted questions about how his production ofBertolt Brecht andKurt Weill's classic musical comedy about the criminal MacHeath would differ from earlier versions, and his production featured Mack the Knife in a three-piece suit and white gloves, stuck to Brecht's text, and avoided any references to contemporary politics or issues.
