Bruno Ganz

Bruno Ganz (22 March 1941 – 16 February 2019) was a highly regarded Swiss actor. His notable career spanned almost six decades, and saw him collaborate with esteemed directors like Werner Herzog, Éric Rohmer, Francis Ford Coppola, Theo Angelopoulos and Wim Wenders. He earned widespread recognition for roles such as Jonathan Zimmerman in The American Friend (1977), Jonathan Harker in Nosferatu the Vampyre (1979) and Damiel the Angel in Wings of Desire (1987). Ganz received renewed international acclaim for his portrayal of Adolf Hitler in the Oscar-nominated film Downfall (2004), which critics acclaimed as one of the most convincing screen depictions of Hitler. He performed in several English-language films including The Boys from Brazil (1978), Strapless (1989), The Last Days of Chez Nous (1992) and The Manchurian Candidate (2004).

Born in Zürich to a Swiss-German factory worker father and a northern Italian mother, he decided to pursue an acting career as a young adult. Ganz made his theatrical debut in 1961, devoting himself mainly to the stage throughout the next two decades. His passion for the stage never diminished and through his career, he cultivated a reputation as a formidable stage actor. During his career in theater and cinema, he received several awards, including the Iffland-Ring, considered the highest honor in German speaking theatre. From 1996 till his demise in 2019, Ganz held the Iffland-Ring, passing it onto the next most worthy actor of the German-speaking theatre.