Biography for
Thomas Kretschmann More at IMDbPro »

Date of Birth

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Mini Biography

Thomas Kretschmann was born in East Germany. Before becoming an actor, he was a swimmer. He has acted in several popular American movies, such as Resident Evil: Apocalypse (2004), The Pianist (2002), U-571 (2000), In Enemy Hands (2004), etc. He now lives in Los Angeles with his girlfriend Lena and their three children, Nicolas, Stella and Sascha.

Trivia

Received the Max Ophüls Prize for best young actor in 1991.

Started working as an actor at the age of 25, after being trained to be an Olympic swimmer.

Has played a Nazi officer in eight different, completely unrelated films: Stalingrad (1993), U-571 (2000), The Pianist (2002), In Enemy Hands (2004), Der Untergang (2004), Head in the Clouds (2004),Eichmann (2007) and Valkyrie (2008).

Collaborated again with his The Pianist (2002) co-star Adrien Brody in King Kong (2005). Incidentally, both of Kretschmann's roles with Brody are as captains, albeit of a very different type. In The Pianist (2002), he played a Nazi officer with a conscience; in King Kong (2005) he plays a tough boat captain guiding a film crew.

He has three children: one son, Nicolas, one daughter, Stella and another child, with his girlfriend Lena.

Aged 19, he began a month-long trek from East to West Germany to escape Communism, during which he lost part of his finger to frostbite. He crossed 4 borders with nothing other than a passport and the equivalent of $100 in his possession.

He played a Nazi in The Pianist (2002), and, in Have No Fear: The Life of Pope John Paul II (2005) (TV), he played Pope John Paul II, who (as the movie shows) fought against and tried to protect people from the Nazis.

Made his stage debut in "Macbeth," directed by Katharina Thalbach.

Modeled in Hugo Boss perfume advertisement.

Considered buying a house in the Bahamas while filming "The Sea Wolf".

Personal Quotes

Leaving [home] is kind of a strange thing - the world opens up, but at the same time, it gets smaller. The more you see of the world, the smaller it seems. After I did the film "Stalingard," I left Germany, and I did a couple of films in France and lived there for about three years, and a couple of films in Italy, and lived there for two years. Then I came over here. The more you get familiar with different countries, the more you think, "Where am I going to live for the rest of my life?" You think, "OK, Germany sucks - don't want to live there; France, no; Italy - the food is nice, but I don't want to live there." In the end, you have nowhere to go anymore.

Where Are They Now

(2000) Now living and working in Los Angeles

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