Jürgen Prochnow (German pronunciation: [ˈjʏʁɡn̩ ˈpʁɔxnoː] ; born 10 June 1941) is a German actor. His international breakthrough was his portrayal of the good-hearted and sympathetic U-boat Commander "Der Alte" ("Old Man") in the 1981 war film Das Boot.[1]

Jürgen Prochnow
Prochnow in 2019
Born (1941-06-10) 10 June 1941 (age 83)
Citizenship
    • Germany
    • United States (since 2004)
OccupationActor
Years active1963–present
Spouses
  • Isabel Goslar
    (m. 1982; div. 1997)
  • Birgit Stein
    (m. 2004; div. 2014)
  • Verena Wengler
    (m. 2015)
PartnerAntonia Reininghaus (1978–1981)
Children3

He is also known for his roles in The Lost Honour of Katharina Blum (1975), Dune (1984), Beverly Hills Cop II (1987), In the Mouth of Madness (1994), The English Patient (1996), Air Force One (1997), The Da Vinci Code (2006), and for playing Sergei Bazhaev on the eighth season of 24 (2010). He is a Goldene Kamera, Bavarian Film Awards, and Bambi Award winner.

Early life

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Prochnow was born on 10 June, 1941 in Berlin in then Nazi Germany. He was brought up in Düsseldorf. His father was an engineer.[2][better source needed]

Career

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Prochnow starred in the World War II drama Forbidden (1985), which earned a German Film Award nomination for Outstanding Feature Film. He had a significant supporting role in The Seventh Sign (1988).

Prochnow portrayed Arnold Schwarzenegger in See Arnold Run, a 2005 film about the actor's political career in California. He played Commander Paul Gerald in Wing Commander (1999). He was the main antagonist in the Broken Lizard film, Beerfest (2006).

Prochnow dubbed Sylvester Stallone's voice in the German version of Rocky (1976) and Rocky II (1979), as well as F.I.S.T and Paradise Alley (both 1978). He later acted alongside Stallone in the 1995 movie Judge Dredd. After the retirement of Stallone's long-time voice actor Thomas Danneberg, Prochnow assumed this job in 2018 with Creed II. He usually also dubs his own roles in English-language productions.[3]

Prochnow and his older brother, Dieter [de] appeared in The Man Inside (1990), in which Jürgen played the leading role and Dieter a supporting role.

In 1996, he was a member of the jury at the 46th Berlin International Film Festival.[4]

Personal life

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In the early 1980s, Prochnow was in a relationship with Austrian actress Antonia Reininghaus [de], who fatally poisoned their 7-year-old daughter, Johanna, in 1987. In 1982, he married actor Jürgen Goslar's daughter, Isabel Goslar, with whom he has two children: a daughter, Mona, and a son, Roman. The couple divorced in 1997. From 2004 until the divorce in 2014, he was married to Birgit Stein [de], a German actress and screenwriter. Stein died in August 2018 in a motorcycle accident in Kanab, Utah.[5] Since 2015, he has been married to actress Verena Wengler.[6]

Prochnow used to divide his time between Los Angeles and Munich. He received U.S. citizenship in 2004.[7] In 2017, he announced that he had sold his house in Brentwood, Los Angeles, and would be moving to Berlin.[8]

Awards

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Filmography

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Film

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Year Title Role
1972 Zoff Joky
1972 The Merchant of Four Seasons Mann am Stammtisch / Man at the Meeting Table (uncredited)
1973 The Tenderness of Wolves Hehler
1974 Die Verrohung des Franz Blum [de] Franz Blum
1974 One or the Other of Us Bernd Ziegenhals
1975 The Lost Honour of Katharina Blum Ludwig Götten
1977 Die Konsequenz (The Consequence) Martin Kurath
1977 Operation Ganymed [de] (1977) Oss
1980 As Far as the Eye Sees [de] Alexander Späh
1981 Das Boot (“The Boat”) Commander (“Der Alte”) of U96
1982 War and Peace Kevin
1983 The Keep Captain Klaus Woermann
1984 Dune Duke Leto Atreides
1984 Forbidden Fritz Friedländer
1985 The Cop and the Girl [de] The Cop
1986 Killing Cars [de] Ralph Korda
1987 Terminus Sir / Doctor / Yellow Truck's Driver
1987 Des Teufels Paradies [de] (Devil's Paradise) Escher
1987 Beverly Hills Cop II Maxwell Dent
1988 The Seventh Sign David Bannon
1989 A Dry White Season Captain Stolz
1990 The Fourth War Col. Valachev
1990 Kill Cruise The Skipper
1990 The Man Inside Günter Wallraff
1990 The Schoolmaster Rozinsky
1991 Robin Hood Sir Miles Folcanet
1992 Hurricane Smith Charlie Dowd
1992 Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me Woodsman
1992 Interceptor Phillips
1993 Body of Evidence Doctor Alan Paley
1993 The Lucona Affair [de] Hans Strasser
1993 The Last Border Duke
1993 Die Wildnis Brenner
1994 Trigger Fast Jack Neumann
1994 In the Mouth of Madness Sutter Cane
1995 Judge Dredd Judge Griffin
1996 The English Patient Major Muller
1997 DNA Dr. Carl Wessinger
1997 Air Force One General Ivan Radek
1998 The Replacement Killers Michael Kogan
1998 China Dream Paul Konen
1998 Schuldig
1999 The Fall József Kovács
1999 Wing Commander Cdr. Paul Gerald
1999 Youri
2000 Gunblast Vodka [fr] Sacha Roublev
2000 The Last Stop Fritz
2001 Jack the Dog Klaus
2001 The Elite Avi
2001 Last Run Andrus Bukarin
2001 Ripper Detective Kelso
2001 Dark Asylum Dr. Fallon
2002 Heart of America Harold Lewis
2002 Checkpoint
2003 House of the Dead Capitain Victor Kirk
2003 The Poet [fr] Vashon
2003 Baltic Storm Erik Westermark
2006 Chain Reaction [de]
2006 The Celestine Prophecy Jensen
2006 The Da Vinci Code Andre Vernet
2006 Beerfest Baron Wolfgang von Wolfhausen
2006 Schroeder's Wonderful World [de] John Gregory
2007 Primeval Jacob Krieg
2007 Nanking John Rabe
2008 La Conjura de El Escorial Espinosa
2008 Merlin and the War of the Dragons The Mage
2009 Oko (2009), Mr. Hooked
2010 Sinners & Saints Mr. Rhykin
2012 Die Schuld der Erben Kurt Hanson
2013 Ein schmaler Grat Uwe Wolfmann
2013 Company of Heroes Luca Gruenewald
2013 Ohne Gnade! Helmutchen
2013 Die Kinder meiner Tochter Ernst Blessing
2014 Twin Peaks: The Missing Pieces Woodsman
2015 Hitman: Agent 47 Tobias
2015 Remember Rudy Kurlander No. 4
2015 The Dark Side of the Moon [de] Pius Ott
2016 Interference Herr Ryser
2017 Old Agent Men [de] Kern
2017 Leanders letzte Reise Eduard Leander
2017 Damascus Cover Franz Ludin
2017 Dengler [de] Dr. Schweikert
2019 A Hidden Life Major Schlegel (uncredited)

Television

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Year Title Role
1972 Shot on Command – The Sass Brothers, Once Berlin's Big Crooks Franz Sass
1973 Tatort: Jagdrevier [de] Dieter Brodschella
1976 Hans im Glück [de] Hans Schmidtke
1977 Tatort: Das Mädchen von gegenüber Klaus Linder
1983 Love Is Forever General Siegfried Kaplan
1992 Jewels Joachim von Mannheim
1993 The Fire Next Time Larry Richter
1993 Evelyn Hamanns Geschichten aus dem Leben [de]
1994 Lie Down with Lions Marteau
1994 Guns of Honor Jack Neumann
1994 Aventures dans le Grand Nord Simon McQuarie
1995 Tödliche Wahl [de] Alex Bronner
1995 Fesseln Guenther
1996 Sorellina e il principe del sogno [it] Kurdok
1996 On Dangerous Ground Carl Morgan
1996 The Great War and the Shaping of the 20th Century Kaiser Wilhelm II
1997 The Cry of Love [de] Holger
1998 The Human Bomb Gerhardt Dach
1999 Esther Haman
1999 The Blond Baboon Jan Vleuten
1999 Heaven's Fire Quentin Darby
2000 Poison [de; blonde Biest – Wenn Mutterliebe blind macht] Carl Krieger
2000 Padre Pio: Miracle Man Visitatore / The Inquisitor
2000 Final Ascent Paul
2002 Davon stirbt man nicht Everett Burns
2004 Julie, chevalier de Maupin Baron de Hengen
2005 See Arnold Run Arnold Schwarzenegger
2007 Ohne einander Ernest
2007 Ein Fall für zwei KHK Max Gerber
2010 24 (2010) Sergei Bazhaev
2010 Spear of Destiny [de] Baron von Hahn
2010 Tatort: Schlafende Hunde [de] Hans Rodenburg
2010 Amigo Fredo Kovacs
2010-2014 NCIS: Los Angeles Mattias Draeger
2010 Nachtschicht [de] Friedrich Otto Winterstein
2012 Luck Racetrack Owner
2016 Tatort: Borowski und das verlorene Mädchen [de] Kesting
2017 Dengler [de] Dr. Schweikert
2018 Lore Andreas Gruber

Video games

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Year Title Role
1996 Privateer 2: The Darkening (video game) Xavier Shondi
2008 Dark Sector (video game) Yargo Mensik (voice)
2008 Hellboy: The Science of Evil (video game) Herman von Klempt (voice)

Audiobooks (excerpt)

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  • 2008: Frank Herbert: Dune: Der Wüstenplanet (together with Simon Jäger and Marianne Rosenberg), publisher: Lübbe Audio, ISBN 978-3-7857-3584-8
  • 2013: Andreas Eschbach: Quantenmüll, publisher: Lübbe Audio (Audible)
  • 2017: Andreas Eschbach: Eine unberührte Welt (together with Simon Jäger, Yara Blümel and Nicole Engeln), publisher: Lübbe Audio, ISBN 978-3785754979

References

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  1. ^ "German Hollywood star Jürgen Prochnow turns 80". Deutsche Welle.
  2. ^ Juergen Prochnow Biography (1941-). Filmreference.com. Retrieved on 18 June 2017.
  3. ^ "Deutsche Synchronkartei (german)". synchrondatei.de. Retrieved 1 June 2021.
  4. ^ "Berlinale: 1996 Juries". berlinale.de. Retrieved 1 January 2012.
  5. ^ "Jürgen Prochnow trauert um seine Ex-Frau". 15 August 2018.
  6. ^ ""Das Boot"-Schauspieler heiratet zum dritten Mal". 26 March 2015.
  7. ^ "Jürgen Prochnow: Making It as a German Actor in Hollywood".
  8. ^ Jürgen Prochnow über Ehrgeiz - Kultur - Süddeutsche.de. Sueddeutsche.de (20 January 2017). Retrieved on 18 June 2017.
  9. ^ "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 25 March 2009. Retrieved 19 August 2008.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
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