Trivia: Though he invariably looked sickly and tubercular, Polish/German actor Klaus Kinski rose to fame in roles calling for near-manic aggressiveness. His war career consisted primarily of a year and a half in a British POW camp. After this experience, Kinski took to the theater, where he rapidly built a reputation for on-stage brilliance and off-stage emotional instability. He made his first German film, Morituri, in 1948; three years later, he made his English-language movie debut with a fleeting bit in Decision Before Dawn (1951). Villainy was Kinski's film stock in trade during the 1950s and '60s, with several appearances in Germany's Edgar Wallace second-feature series and in such Italian spaghetti Westerns as For a Few Dollars More (1965). International stardom came Kinski's way via his off-the-beam appearances in the films of director Werner Herzog, notably Aguirre, the Wrath of God (1973), Woyzeck (1978), Nosferatu (1979), and Fitzcarraldo (1982). With 1989's Paganini, Kinski proved to be as colorful and chaotic a director as he was an actor. Kinski was the father of actress Nastassja Kinski, though the two seldom saw each other and were never close. He died in 1991.

Trivia: Swiss-born actor Bruno Ganz established himself in Germany, first as co-founder of the Schaubuhne Theatre company, then as a romantic lead in films. International renown came Ganz' way when he was starred in Eric Rohmer's The Marquise of O (1976). Subsequent film roles range from Jonathan Harker in Werner Herzog's 1979 remake of Nosferatu, to misplaced angel Damiel in Wim Wenders' Wings of Desire (1987). Another of his many collaborations with director Wenders was The American Friend (1977), which Ganz regards as one of his favorite films, even though he and co-star Dennis Hopper came to blows during a spirited argument about acting technique.

Trivia: Much-loved in Europe but little-known in the United States, iconoclastic Roland Topor utilized different media in which to share his absurdist and often disturbing view of the world. An illustrator, graphic designer, author, playwright, filmmaker, song writer, actor, and creator of innovative television programming, he was at his best when upsetting life's apple cart. As an illustrator/graphic artist, Topor was responsible for the odd visual style of the Czech/French animated sci-fi feature La Planete Sauvage (Fantastic Planet) (1973), which won the Prix Special at Cannes that year and has since become a cult favorite. As an author, he was known for combining surrealism with black humor. Roman Polanski's The Tenant (1976) is based on Topor's Le Locataire Chimerique. As a screenwriter, Topor penned a number of stories, including the silent comedy La Fille du Garde Barriere (1975) and the surreal Marquis (1989), a recounting of the Marquis de Sade's involvement in the French Revolution in which the protagonists' true characters were represented by animal masks. Topor's movie posters, notably his European one for The Tin Drum, were frequently controversial. Topor's offbeat puppet show Telechat ran for two years on French station Antenne 2 with 234 episodes. The show's main characters were a cat, an ostrich, and a fork. Topor the playwright's productions were like his stories and incorporated plenty of dark absurdism. Occasionally, as with the play Ubu Roi, he would design the sets and costumes too. Topor had acted before and was at his best playing Renfield in Werner Herzog's remake of F.W. Murnau's Nosferatu (1979). As a songwriter, Topor provided tunes for Jerome Savary's Grand Magic Circus. He was also respected as a popular and prolific painter who created hundreds of works. When not creating, Topor was thinking and he frequently came up with pithy bits such as, "Imagine an ancient typewriter in which all the keys have disappeared, save for three tiny letters: f, i, n." During the 1960s, he involved himself with Panique, a group involved with Dadaism. Other group members included Fernando Arrabal and fellow cult figure, expatriate Chilean filmmaker and kindred spirit to Topor, Alejandro Jodorowsky. Topor was an incurable bon vivant. And despite the cynicism inherent in his work, he seemed to live life to its fullest. Still, on April 16, 1997, the 59-year-old avant garde artist died in a coma. Doctors were unsure whether the coma resulted from an aneurysm or a cerebral hemorrhage.

Trivia: Supporting actor Jacques Dufilho first appeared onscreen in the '50s.