Years active 1944–2011 | Role Actor Name Hardy Kruger | |
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Full Name Franz Eberhard August Kruger Born 12 April 1928 (age 95) ( 1928-04-12 ) Wedding, Berlin, Germany Children Hardy Kruger junior, Christiane Kruger, Malaika Kruger Spouse Anita Kruger (m. 1978), Francesca Marazzi (m. 1965–1977), Renate Densow (m. 1950–1964) Movies Hatari!, Wild Geese, The Flight of the Phoenix, Barry Lyndon, The One That Got Away Similar People Hardy Kruger junior, Christiane Kruger, Elsa Martinelli, Stewart Granger, Red Buttons | ||
Grandchildren Tim Kruger Bockelmann Parents Auguste Meier, Max Kruger | ||
Movie Legends - Hardy Kruger
Hardy Krüger (born Franz Eberhard August Krüger; 12 April 1928) is a German actor.
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Markus lanz hardy kruger schauspieler dr stefan hordler ruth anne damm dr manfred lutz
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.