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Klaus Kinski | |
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.jpg) Kinski at the 1988Cannes Film Festival | |
| Born | Klaus Günter Karl Nakszynski[1] (1926-10-18)18 October 1926 |
| Died | 23 November 1991(1991-11-23) (aged 65) Lagunitas, California, U.S. |
| Nationality | German |
| Occupation | Actor |
| Years active | 1948–1989 |
| Spouses | |
| Children | |
Klaus Kinski (German:[klaʊsˈkɪnskiː]ⓘ, bornKlaus Günter Karl Nakszynski[2] 18 October 1926 – 23 November 1991)[3] was a German actor.[4] Equally renowned for his intense performance style and notorious for his volatile personality,[5][6][7] he appeared in over 130 film roles in a career that spanned 40 years, from 1948 to 1988. He is best known for starring in five films directed byWerner Herzog from 1972 to 1987 (Aguirre, the Wrath of God;Nosferatu the Vampyre;Woyzeck;Fitzcarraldo; andCobra Verde), who would later chronicle their tumultuous relationship in the documentaryMy Best Fiend.[8]
Kinski's roles spanned multiple genres, languages, and nationalities, includingSpaghetti Westerns,horror films,war films,dramas, andEdgar Wallacekrimi films. His infamy was elevated by a number of eccentric creative endeavors, including a one-man show based on the life ofJesus Christ,[9] abiopic of violinistNiccolò Paganini directed by and starring himself, and over twentyspoken word albums.[10]
Kinski was prone to emotional and often violent outbursts aimed at his directors and fellow cast members, issues complicated by a history ofmental illness. Herzog described him as "one of the greatest actors of the century, but also a monster and a great pestilence."[11][12]
Posthumously, he was accused of physically and sexually abusing his daughterPola.[8][13][14][15] His notoriety and prolific output have developed into a widespreadcult following[16][17] and a reputation as apopular icon.[18]
Klaus Günter Karl Nakszynski was born on 18 October 1926 inZoppot,Free City of Danzig (now Sopot, Poland), toPolish-German parents. His father, Bruno Nakszynski, worked as anopera singer before becoming a pharmacist, while his mother, Susanne Lutze, was a nurse and the daughter of a local pastor. He had three older siblings; Inge, Arne and Hans-Joachim.[19] Due to theGreat Depression, his family was unable to make a living in Danzig and moved toBerlin in 1931, where they also experienced financial difficulties. The family settled in an apartment in theSchöneberg district of the city and acquiredGerman citizenship.[19] In 1936, he began attending thePrinz-Heinrichs-Gymnasium [de] in Schöneberg.[20]
Kinski was conscripted into theWehrmacht in 1943 at the age of 17, serving in aFallschirmjäger unit.[21][22] He saw no action until the winter of 1944, when his unit was transferred to theGerman-occupied Netherlands and he was captured by theBritish Army on his second day of combat.[21][23] In his 1988 autobiography, he claimed that he had decided to desert from theWehrmacht and had been recaptured by German forces and sentenced to death in acourt-martial before escaping and hiding in the woods, subsequently encountering a British patrol which shot him in the arm and captured him.[21] After being treated for his wounds and interrogated, he was transferred to aprisoner-of-war camp inColchester,Essex; the ship transporting him to Britain was torpedoed by a GermanU-boat but arrived safely.[21][24]
In his documentaryMy Best Fiend,Werner Herzog claimed that Kinski had fabricated much of his 1988 autobiography, including claims of maternalsexual abuse,incest, and childhood poverty; according to Herzog, Kinski was actually raised in a financially stableupper middle class family.[25]
While interned at Berechurch Hall in Colchester, Kinski played his first roles on stage, taking part in variety shows intended to maintain morale among the prisoners.[21][24] By May 1945, at theend of the war in Europe, the German POWs were anxious to return home. Kinski had heard that sick prisoners were to be returned first, and tried to qualify by standing outside naked at night,drinking urine and eating cigarettes. He remained healthy, however, and was returned to Germany in 1946.[21]
Arriving in Berlin, he learned his father had died during the war, and his mother had been killed in anAllied air attack on the city.[21]
After his return to Germany, Kinski started out as an actor,[26] first at a small touring company inOffenburg, where he first used the name "Klaus Kinski". In 1946, he was hired by the renowned Schlosspark-Theater in Berlin, but he was fired the following year due to his unpredictable behavior.[27] He found work at other theater companies thereafter, but his emotional volatility regularly got him into trouble.[28]
For three months in 1955, Kinski lived in the same boarding house as a 13-year-old Werner Herzog, who would later direct him in a number of films. InMy Best Fiend, Herzog described how Kinski once locked himself in the communal bathroom for 48 hours and broke everything in the room.
In March 1956, he made a guest appearance atVienna'sBurgtheater inGoethe'sTorquato Tasso. Although respected by his colleagues, among themJudith Holzmeister, and cheered by the audience, Kinski did not gain a permanent contract after the Burgtheater's management became aware of his earlier difficulties in Germany. Kinski then unsuccessfully tried to sue the company.[29]
Living jobless in Vienna, Kinski reinvented himself as amonologist andspoken word artist.[10] He presented the prose and verse ofFrançois Villon,William Shakespeare andOscar Wilde, amongst others, and touredAustria, Germany, andSwitzerland with his shows.[30]
Kinski's first film role was a small part in the 1948 filmMorituri. He appeared in several GermanEdgar Wallace movies, and had bit parts in the American war filmsDecision Before Dawn (1951),A Time to Love and a Time to Die (1958), andThe Counterfeit Traitor (1962). InAlfred Vohrer'sDie toten Augen von London (1961), his character refused any personal guilt for his evil deeds and claimed to have only followed the orders given to him. Kinski's performance reflected post-war Germany's reluctance to take responsibility for what had happened during World War II.[31]
During the 1960s and 1970s, he appeared in various Europeanexploitation films, as well as more acclaimed works such asDoctor Zhivago (1965), in which he appeared as an anarchist prisoner on his way to theGulag.
He relocated to Italy during the late 1960s, and found roles in numerousSpaghetti Westerns, includingFor a Few Dollars More (1965),A Bullet for the General (1966),The Great Silence (1968),Twice A Judas (1969), andA Genius, Two Partners and a Dupe (1975). In 1977, he starred as theRZguerrilleroWilfried Böse inOperation Thunderbolt, based on the events of theEntebbe raid.
Kinski's work with Werner Herzog brought him international recognition. They made five films together:Aguirre: The Wrath of God (1972),Woyzeck (1979),Nosferatu the Vampyre (1979),Fitzcarraldo (1982) andCobra Verde (1987). The working relationship between the two was contentious; Herzog had threatened, on occasion, to murder Kinski. In one incident, Kinski was said to have been saved by his dog who attacked Herzog as he crept up to supposedly burn down the actor's house.[32] Herzog has refused to comment on his numerous other plans to kill Kinski. However, he did pull a gun on Kinski, or at least threatened to do so, on the set ofAguirre, the Wrath of God, after the actor threatened to walk off the set.[32] Late in the filming ofFitzcarraldo in Peru, the chief of theMachiguenga tribe offered to kill Kinski for Herzog, but the director declined.[33]
In 1980, Kinski refused the lead villain role ofMajor Arnold Toht inRaiders of the Lost Ark, telling directorSteven Spielberg that the script was "a yawn-making, boring pile of shit"[32] and "moronically shitty".[34] Kinski would go on to play Kurtz, an Israeli intelligence officer, inThe Little Drummer Girl, a feature film byGeorge Roy Hill in 1984.
Kinski co-starred in the science fictiontelevision filmTimestalkers withWilliam Devane andLauren Hutton. His last film wasPaganini (1989), which he wrote, directed, and starred in asNiccolò Paganini.
Kinski was married three times. He married his first wife, singerGislinde Kühlbeck, in 1952. The couple had a daughter,Pola Kinski. They divorced in 1955. Five years later he married actressRuth Brigitte Tocki. They divorced in 1971. Their daughterNastassja Kinski was born in January 1961.[35] He married his third and final wife, modelMinhoi Geneviève Loanic, in 1971.[36] Their sonNikolai Kinski was born in 1976. They divorced in 1979.
Kinski published his autobiography,All I Need Is Love, in 1988 (reprinted in 1996 asKinski Uncut). The book prompted his second daughterNastassja Kinski to file alibel suit against him, which she afterward withdrew.[37]
In 1950, Kinski stayed at theKarl-Bonhoeffer-Nervenklinik(de), apsychiatric hospital inWest Berlin, for three days after stalking his theatricalsponsor and attempting to strangle her.[38] Medical records from the period listed a preliminary diagnosis ofschizophrenia, but the doctors' ultimate conclusion waspsychopathy (antisocial personality disorder).[39] Kinski soon became unable to secure film roles, and in 1955 he attempted suicide twice.[29]
In 2013, more than 20 years after her father's death,Pola Kinski published an autobiography titledKindermund (orFrom a Child's Mouth), in which she claimed her father had sexually abused her from the age of 5 to 19.[8][13]
In an interview published by the German tabloidBild on 14 January 2013, Kinski's younger daughter and Pola's half-sister, Nastassja, said their father would embrace her in a sexual manner when she was 4–5 years old but never had sex with her. Nastassja has expressed support for Pola and said that she was always afraid of their father, whom she described as an unpredictable tyrant.[15]
In a scathing obituary of Kinski published in 1991, Spanish film directorFernando Colomo alleged that Kinski had tried to rape actressMaria Lamor during the filming ofThe Knight of the Dragon.[40]
Kinski died on 23 November 1991 of a sudden heart attack at his home inLagunitas, California; he was 65 years old.[41][42] His body was cremated, and his ashes were scattered into the Pacific Ocean.[43] Of his three children, only his sonNikolai attended his funeral.[44]
InMy Best Fiend, his 1999 documentary about Kinski, Werner Herzog claimed that Kinski had fabricated much of his autobiography, and told of the difficulties in their working relationship. In the same year, directorDavid Schmoeller released a short film entitledPlease Kill Mr. Kinski, which examined Kinski's erratic and disruptive behavior on the set of Schmoeller's 1986 filmCrawlspace. The film features behind-the-scenes footage of Kinski's various confrontations with the director and crew, along with Schmoeller's account of the events, in which he claims a producer offered to murder Kinski for his life insurance money.[45]
In 2006, Christian David published the first comprehensive biography of Kinski, based on newly discovered archived material, personal letters and interviews with the actor's friends and colleagues. Peter Geyer published a paperback book of essays on Kinski's life and work.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)German actor Klaus Kinski puts his arm around his third wife, Vietnamese Genevieve Minhoi, during a walk in West Berlin, 19 November 1971.
Minhaoi Loanic, Kinski's third wife, is going after the archive for releasing Kinski's patient file from the time he was admitted to the Karl Bonhoeffer Nerve Clinic in September, 1950. The records were among thousands that Vivantes, the company that runs the clinic, handed over to the city's archives last week. The mass circulation daily Bild published details from Kinski's file last week.
The entire interview, captured by KQED Arts in a Facebook Live video, includes even more Bay Area-based stories, like the time thatHerzog visited his longtime friend, actor Klaus Kinski, in his cabin in the woods of Lagunitas.
via facebook
In 1982, Kinski bought a 16 hectare property in Lagunitas near San Francisco, in a remote location in the forest. He moves into a small, sparse hut on this property to be closer to his son Nanhoï Nikolai, who lives not far away with his mother Minhoï. From then on, Kinski avoided contact with the outside world (he had neither radio nor television), but above all he avoided dealing with people. His only companion from now on is a German shepherd called "Apollo".)
via klaus-kinski.de
Kinski is in almost every scene, chewing up the scenery and his co-stars with wild abandon. But if you think he looks wild-eyed and possessed by the devil as the legendary violin virtuosi, you need to check out the behind-the-scenes featurettes on the making of KINSKI PAGANINI, because that is proof that he really was the wild man he often appeared to be.
Klaus Kinski's self-immolating screed.....In the end, the book is another performance, another ranting Kinski creation. If asked for a Siskel-and-Ebert yea or nay, I wouldn't know what to say: It can be recommended only to certain tastes. Amateur psychologists may enjoy it as a sort of high-level Nintendo game of bombarding sexual neuroses. Students of human misery can savor its underlying sadness and futility. And as always with Kinski, there's a taunting taste of comedy; the tears on his cheeks are from laughter. As I put this wretched book down, I thought I heard a cackle from somewhere, and a man with red eyes rasping, "Idioten!"
