Siegfried Rauch

Siegfried Rauch (2 April 1932 – 11 March 2018) was a German film and television actor. In a career spanning over 60 years, he appeared in several international film productionsand had leading roles in numerous German television productions.

Siegfried Rauch was born in Landsberg am Lech, Upper Bavaria. He studied drama at the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich and also attended private drama lessons. He began performing in theatres in 1958, beginning with Bremen (until 1962), and followed by Berlin, Munich and Hamburg.

In the 1970s, Rauch appeared in the 1970 Hollywood film Patton as Captain Steiger. In Le Mans (1971), Rauch played the race driver Erich Stahler who is Steve McQueen's rival. In Samuel Fuller's The Big Red One, Rauch played a German army sergeant, the counterpart of Lee Marvin's character, who experiences the same events as Marvin only from a German perspective. Other Hollywood productions in which Rauch appeared were The Eagle Has Landed (1976) and Escape to Athena (1979).

His most famous leading role on 1970s German television was Thomas Lieven in Es muss nicht immer Kaviar sein (It Can't Always Be Caviar), based on the spy novel by Johannes Mario Simmel. His various other roles on television propelled his career as an actor in Germany.

From 1999 to 2013 Rauch had one of the leading roles as the captain on Das Traumschiff, one of the most-watched television series in Germany. In this role he was preceded by Heinz Weiss and succeeded by Sascha Hehn. He also appeared regularly in other German TV productions, including Der Bergdoktor, and remained active until his death.

Siegfried Rauch, also known as "Sigi", lived near Weilheim in the Bavarian Alps. Rauch married Karin in 1964, and they had two sons together. Steve McQueen was the godfather of his son Jakob.

Rauch died on 11 March 2018 from sudden heart failure which caused him to fall down stairs at a fire station near his home in Obersöchering near Munich. He was 85 years old.