Gert Fröbe

Early life

Karl Gerhart Fröbe was born in Oberplanitz, today part of Zwickau. He was initially a violinist, but he abandoned it for Kabarett and theatre work.

He joined the Nazi Party in 1929 at the age of 16 and left in 1937. During the Nazi regime, he aided two German Jews by hiding them from the Gestapo. In September 1944, the Nazis closed down theatres in Germany and he was drafted into the German Army, the Wehrmacht, where he served until the end of World War II.

Acting career

Fröbe gained fame in one of the first German films made after the Second World War, called Berliner Ballade (The Ballad of Berlin, 1948). His character's name, "Otto Normalverbraucher" (lit. Otto Average Consumer), became a German term equivalent to "Average Joe" or "Joe Bloggs".

In 1958, he was cast as the villain in the Swiss-German film Es geschah am hellichten Tag (It Happened in Broad Daylight), with the original screenplay written by Friedrich Dürrenmatt. His role as a serial killer of children drew the attention of the producers of the 1964 James Bond movie Goldfinger and he was chosen to play one of the best remembered villains of the series, gold tycoon Auric Goldfinger. Due to his former membership in the Nazi Party, the film was initially banned in Israel until a Jewish family he had protected during the war came forward and thanked him for saving their lives.

Fröbe made several appearances in all-star casts in the 1960s, including the films The Longest Day, Is Paris Burning?, Monte Carlo or Bust and Those Magnificent Men in their Flying Machines. During the 1980s, Fröbe played small parts in Mercedes Benz W123 commercials, helping to promote the coupé and the sedan. Aside from acting, Fröbe was a prolific reciter of lyric poetry, especially that of Christian Morgenstern and Joachim Ringelnatz.

Death

Fröbe died in Munich in September 1988 at age 75 from a heart attack.