Trivia: Leading German actress Barbara Sukowa was a protégée of director Rainer Werner Fassbinder, who made her feature-film debut in his drama Lola (1981). Prior to that, she had appeared in Fassbinder's made-for-television movie Berlin Alexanderplatz (1980). Following the filmmaker's death in 1982, Sukowa went on to act in the occasional international production, notably Lars von Trier's Zentropa (1991).

Trivia: A musical prodigy, East Prussian-born Armin Mueller-Stahl was a noted concert violinist while still in his teens. Mueller-Stahl turned to film acting in East Berlin in 1950, later launching a 25-year stint as a repertory performer at Theater aum Schiffbaurdamm. The winner of the GDR State Prize for his film work, Mueller-Stahl became persona non grata with the communist regime in 1977, due to his activism in protesting government suppression of performing artists. He relocated to the West in 1980, where he recouped his film stardom in such productions as Fassbinder's Lola (1981) and Veronika Voss (1982) and Agnieszka Holland's Angry Harvest (1985), winning the Montreal Festival "Best Actor" prize for his performance in the latter. Most American viewers first became aware of Mueller-Stahl through his portrayal of Russian general Samanov in the controversial miniseries Amerika (1987). He then gained perhaps his greatest recognition to date by U.S. film fans for two radically different characterizations: aging Nazi war criminal Mike Laszlo in Costa-Gavras' The Music Box (1989) and Jewish grandpa Sam Krischinsky in Barry Levinson's Avalon (1990). He spent the rest of the decade working steadily in Hollywood and abroad, appearing in such films as Jim Jarmusch's Night on Earth (1991), The X-Files (1998), and Jakob the Liar (1999). In 1996, he earned particular acclaim and a Best Supporting Actor Oscar nomination for his portrayal of pianist David Helfgott's domineering father in Scott Hicks' Shine.He appeared in 2000's Mission to Mars, and followed that up the next year in The Long Run. He was away from screens for three years, reappearing in Bustin' Bonaparte and The Dust Factory, before landing the role of the scary patriarch of a crime family in David Cronenberg's Eastern Promises. He appeared in the highly-successful Dan Brown adaptation Angels & Demons.

Trivia: Born in China to Russian parents, Ivan Desny spent his formative years in Paris. It was Desny's bad luck to be there when the Nazis marched in, and he spent the war in a German labor camp along with thousands of other Russian expatriates. After the war, Desny drifted into French films, first as an extra, then as a leading man. Essentially a European actor, Desny has appeared in scattered American films, notably Anastasia (1956), Song Without End (1960) and Disney's Bon Voyage (1962). Though his film career spans four decades, Ivan Desny is most fondly remembered by English fans for his 1950 portrayal of blackmailing social climber Emile l'Angelier in director David Lean's Madeleine.

Trivia: German-born Rosel Zech started her professional acting career in the theater in the 1970s. Her interpretation of Hedda in Ibsen's Hedda Gabler won her recognition in her own country as Best Actress of the Year in 1977. She began her film work in 1973, working with top German directors, such as Peter Zadek and Rainer Werner Fassbinder.In 1973, Rosel made her film debut in Ulli Lommel's chilling story The Tenderness of Wolves. She received high praise for her role in Zadek's Ice Age (1975), with her portrayal of a nurse who befriends former Nazi collaborator Knut Hamsum, winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature, who lived out his last years in a nursing home.The excesses of World War II were the subject of a trilogy of films made by Fassbinder. Zech had parts in two of them: a supporting role in Lola (1981), and the title role in Veronika Voss (1982). Veronika Voss is a portrait of a once-celebrated screen actress and intimate of Joseph Goebbels, said to be based on a true story. The audience watches as the aging hetaira grapples with her loss of youth, beauty, and stature in a deadly decline into drugs and degradation, exploitation, and betrayal.The actress continued to work in the German cinema, in Alexander Kluge's Odds and Ends (1987), The Blind Director (1985), and The Assault of the Present on the Rest of Time, as well as in Peter Beauvais' A Runaway Horse (1986). It was with the Percy Adlon film Salmonberries (1993) that Zech made her biggest impression on American audiences. Set in the great expanse of Alaska, the film features Zech playing opposite k.d. lang, in an offbeat love story, in which the two women find shelter from their lives' many storms in each other's company. Zech is luminescent as the recently widowed German with a new job and a new life in the American frontier.The subject of Nazi Germany turns up again in her role in the surreal 1995 film Hades, directed by Herbert Achternbusch, in which personal remembrance and guilt recall that dark chapter in human history.Zech next appeared in Aimee and Jaguar (2000), directed by Max Färberböck. Set during the Holocaust, the story centers on the unlikely love affair between two women caught in the madness of wartime Germany. Zech displays once again her gift for creating complex and sympathetic characters, which has always been the hallmark of her performances.

Trivia: In German films from the age of eight, sad-eyed leading lady Christine Kaufmann gained international recognition when she essayed the demanding role of a teenaged rape victim in 1961's Town Without Pity. The press of the period was less concerned with Kaufmann's histrionic skills than with the revealing bikini which she wore in her early scenes (some historian has incorrectly claimed that Kaufmann was the first actress ever to bare her navel on screen). While playing the heroine of the big-budget Taras Bulba (1962), Kaufmann fell in love with her co-star, Tony Curtis. They were married in 1963, then appeared together in the frothy Universal comedy Wild and Wonderful (1964). Briefly retiring from films after this project, Kaufmann returned to acting following the breakup of her marriage. She accepted choice supporting roles in major German films; her best showing was in the Percy Adlon-directed cult favorite Bagdad Cafe (1987). Kaufmann died in 2017, at age 72.

Trivia: Possessing a pair of the most elegantly piercing steel blue eyes ever to be captured on celluloid, German cult actor Udo Kier has made a distinct mark for himself in the world of cinema with roles in everything from obscure European exploitation films to the most mainstream of Hollywood fare. Though as an actor Kier has made a name for himself by essaying frequently bizarre and sometimes sadistic film roles, the man himself is almost the complete opposite of the characters he portrays onscreen, exuding a flamboyant and personable earthy elegance that stands in stark contrast to his unforgettably cold, vampiric screen presence. Born in October of 1944 in Cologne, Germany, it may come as no surprise that Kier's incredibly dramatic birth would easily rival the intensity of any of the future actor's film roles. As war raged outside the serene confines of the hospital, Kier's mother requested a few moments alone with her newborn son immediately following his birth. Moments later the hospital was bombed and Kier's mother began the grueling task of digging herself and her son from out of the rubble. His father absent for much of his youth, Kier had a chance encounter with an aspiring young filmmaker named Rainer Werner Fassbinder before moving to Britain at the age of 18 to study English and acting. Shortly after Kier's arrival, director Mike Sarne offered him the role of a gigolo in The Road to St. Tropez (1966), and with that film the young actor made his screen debut. Though Kier would appear in a few films rounding out the 1960s, it was his part in the controversial 1970 film The Mark of the Devil that would truly set his career path in motion. His role as a witch hunter apprentice who meets a gruesome demise horrified audiences, and the film was subsequently banned in many areas of the world. Increasingly prolific in the following years, it was a pair of Paul Morrissey films from the mid-'70s that would leave an indelible impression on not only European audiences, but American audiences as well. It was while on a flight from Rome to Munich that Kier made the acquaintance of director Morrissey, and shortly thereafter Kier was cast in the role of Baron Frankenstein in Andy Warhol's Frankenstein (aka Flesh for Frankenstein). Filled to the brim with satirical gore and graphic violence, the notorious film immediately garnered an X-rating though it would become a hit with strong-stomached audiences who could appreciate its dark humor. Released that same year, Andy Warhol's Dracula (aka Blood for Dracula) once again found Kier relishing in gore-drenched satire. In 1977 Kier would appear before old friend Fassbinder's lens in the television drama The Stationmaster's Wife and play a small role in Italian horror director Dario Argento's Suspiria. The remainder of the 1970s as well as the majority of the 1980s, found Kier appearing frequently in European exploitation films with such lurid titles as G.I. Bro (1977) and Prison Camp Girls, Jailed for Love (1982). Though sharp-eyed American audiences could catch glimpses of Kier in such films as Moscow on the Hudson (1984) (in which he appeared uncredited), it was during this period that Kier would work almost exclusively in Europe. Though American audiences didn't necessarily bear witness to most of Kier's work in the 1980s, his career continued to flourish overseas and the actor began to develop a strong personal and professional relationship with director Lars von Trier. Following his appearance in von Trier's Medea (1987), Kier would not only appear in all of the director future films, but also become the godfather of von Trier's daughter Agnes as well. It was Kier's role in director Gus Van Sant's My Own Private Idaho (1991) that brought the actor back to stateside audiences, and following his memorable appearance in the film, Kier would appear in such big-budget American films as Johnny Mnemonic (1995), Armageddon (1998), and Blade (also 1998). Despite appearances in such mainstream comedies as Ace Ventura: Pet Detective (1994), Kier would remain true to his European roots by simultaneously appearing in numerous foreign films such as von Trier's Europa (1991) and the gleefully amoral Terror 2000 (1992). With the millennial turnover bringing Kier more stateside exposure than ever, following a memorable turn in Shadow of the Vampire (2000), the tireless actor would appear in no less than eight films in 2001 alone, including Werner Herzog's Invincible and the apocalyptic thriller Meggido: The Omega Code 2. His feature career continuing to flourish, Kier could now be considered a full-fledged star, as appearances in numerous commercials and music videos by such popular acts as Korn virtually guaranteed that while he might not necessarily be a household name, his face would be instantly recognizable by virtually anyone. Though he continued to appear in numerous mainstream films, his experimental side could be evidenced with his participation in director von Trier's film Dimension. The production of the film would span 30 years, following the actors (without makeup) as they aged. The actors and director got together once a year to shoot a scene. Spending much of his free time in nature, Kier enjoys gardening, enjoying the company of his dog, and working on his home in California.