Quick Facts
Biography
Hardy Krüger (born Franz Eberhard August Krüger; 12 April 1928) is a German actor.
Life and work
Krüger was born in Wedding, Berlin in 1928. From 1941, he went to an Adolf Hitler School at the Ordensburg Sonthofen. At age 15, Hardy made his film début in a German picture, The Young Eagles, but his acting career was interrupted when he was conscripted into the German Wehrmacht in 1944 at age 16. In March 1945, Krüger was conscripted into the 38th SS Division Nibelungen, where he was drawn into heavy fighting before being captured by American forces.
Because of his stereotypical Teutonic look (blond hair and blue eyes), Hardy Krüger often performed in roles portraying German soldiers.
He first came to the attention of English language audiences in the 1957 British war film The One That Got Away, the story of Franz von Werra, the only German prisoner of war to successfully escape from Allied custody and return to Germany.
In 1960, Krüger bought Ngorongoro farm in the then Tanganyika Territory, which he owned for 13 years. Ngorongoro served as the setting for the 1962 film Hatari!, a Howard Hawks film, in which Krüger appeared with John Wayne.
Fluent in German, English and French, he has worked in numerous European and American films such as the Oscar-winning Les dimanches de ville d'Avray (1962), the original 1965 version of The Flight of the Phoenix and the German version of The Moon is Blue. Other films include The Wild Geese (1978) with Richard Burton, Stanley Kubrick's Barry Lyndon with Ryan O'Neal, the comedy-drama The Secret of Santa Vittoria (1969) where he played a German officer during the Second World War trying to find hidden wine in a small Italian town, and Richard Attenborough's A Bridge Too Far (sharing a scene with Laurence Olivier).
His daughter Christiane Krüger and his son, Hardy Krüger Jr. are also actors.
Selected filmography
- Junge Adler (Young Eagles) (1944) as Junge Adler
- Diese Nacht vergess ich nie (1949) as Eugen Schröter
- Kätchen für alles (1949) as Schuspielschüler
- Das Fräulein und der Vagabund (1949) as Karl
- Das Mädchen aus der Südsee (1950) as Richard Kirbach
- Insel ohne Moral (1950) as Manfred
- You Have to be Beautiful (1951) as Juppi Holunder Jr.
- My Friend the Thief (1951)
- My Name is Niki (1952)
- Die Jungfrau auf dem Dach (1953)
- As Long as You're Near Me (1953)
- Muß man sich gleich scheiden lassen? (1953) as Andreas von Doerr
- Ich und Du (1953) as Peter Erdmann
- The Last Summer (1954) as Rikola Valbo
- An der schönen blauen Donau (1955) as König Richard
- Der Himmel ist nie ausverkauft (1955) as Michael
- Alibi (1955) as Harald Meinhardt
- Liane, Jungle Goddess (1956) as Thoren
- Die Christel von der Post (1956) as Horst Arndt, Kriminalassistent
- Banktresor 713 (1957) as Klaus Burkhardt, sein Bruder
- Der Fuchs von Paris (1957) as Capt. Fürstenwerth
- The One That Got Away (1957) as Franz Von Werra
- Confess, Doctor Corda (1958) as Dr. Fred Corda
- Bachelor of Hearts (1958) as Wolf Hauser
- The Rest Is Silence (1959) as John H. Claudius
- Blind Date (1959) as Jan-Van Rooyer
- The Goose of Sedan (1959) as Fritz Brösicke
- Cry Double Cross (Bumerang) (1960) as Robert Wegner
- Un taxi pour Tobrouk (1961) as le capitaine Ludwig von Stegel
- Zwei unter Millionen (1961) as Karl
- Liane, die Tochter des Dschunglers (1961) as Thoren
- Der Traum von Lieschen Müller (1961) as Autograph hunter
- Hatari! (1962) as Kurt Muller
- Sundays and Cybele (Les dimanches de ville d'Avray) (1962) as Pierre
- Three Fables of Love (1962) as El rubio (segment "La mort et le bûcheron")
- Le Gros Coup (1964) as Frank Willes
- The Uninhibited (1965) as Vincent
- Le Chant du monde (1965) as Antonio
- The Flight of the Phoenix (1965) as Heinrich Dorfmann
- The Defector (1966) as Counselor Peter Heinzmann
- La Grande Sauterelle (1967) as Carl
- Le Franciscain de Bourges (1968) as Alfred Stanke
- The Lady of Monza (1969) as Father Paolo Arrigone
- The Battle of Neretva (1969) as Kranzer
- The Secret of Santa Vittoria (1969) as Capt. von Prum
- The Red Tent (1969) as Aviator Lundborg
- Das Messer (1971) (TV miniseries) as Jim Ellis
- What the Peeper Saw (1972) as Paul
- Le Solitaire (1973) as Eric Lambrecht
- Paper Tiger (1975) as Müller
- Barry Lyndon (1975) as Captain Potzdorf
- Potato Fritz (1976) as Potato Fritz
- The Spy Who Never Was (Tod eines Fremden) (1976) as Arthur Hersfeld
- À chacun son enfer (1977) as Commissare Bolar
- A Bridge Too Far (1977) as Der Generalmajor Waffen-SS Karl Ludwig
- The Wild Geese (1978) as Lt. Pieter Coetzee
- Blue Fin (1978) as Bill Pascoe
- High Society Limited (1982) as Harms
- Wrong Is Right (1982) as Helmut Unger
- Slagskämpen (The Inside Man) (1984) as Mandell
- War and Remembrance (1988-1989) (TV miniseries) as Field Marshal Erwin Rommel
- Familiengeheimnisse – Liebe, Schuld und Tod (2011) (TV film) as Victor Frey
Awards
- 1959 Bravo Otto (bronze)
- 1960 Bravo Otto (silver)
- 1983 Deutscher Filmpreis
- 1986 Goldene Kamera
- 2001 Bavarian Film Awards Honorary Award [1]
- 2001 Officier de la Légion d’Honneur
- 2008 Bambi: Lifetime Achievement Award
- 2009 Grand Cross of Merit, neck cross