August Diehl
German autograph card.
German actor August Diehl (1976) is primarily known to international audiences as Gestapo major Dieter Hellstrom in Quentin Tarantino's Inglourious Basterds (2009) and as Michael "Mike" Krause, Evelyn Salt's boyfriend, in Salt (2010). He also played leading roles in Die Fälscher/The Counterfeiters (2007), Le jeune Karl Marx/The Young Karl Marx (2017), and Terrence Malick's A Hidden Life (2019).
August Diehl was born in 1976 in West Berlin in a family of artists. His father is actor Hans Diehl, his mother is a costume designer and his brother is a composer. His family was frequently moving around. Diehl spent his childhood in Auvergne, France and moved back to Germany when he was nine years old. The family lived in Hamburg, Vienna, and Düsseldorf. At the age of 18, he played Franz Mohr in a school theatre production of Die Räuber (The Robbers) by Friedrich Schiller. After passing the Abitur exams, Diehl studied acting at the renowned Hochschule für Schauspielkunst Ernst Busch in Berlin. He made his film debut with the leading role as a young hacker in the thriller 23 – Nichts ist so wie es scheint/23 -Nothing is what it seems (Hans-Christian Schmid, 1998) about real life Karl Koch, who died on 23 May 1989, a presumed suicide. The title derives from the protagonist's obsession with the number 23, a phenomenon often described as apophenia. In 2000, Diehl was named one of European film's Shooting Stars by the European Film Promotion. He had a supporting part in the crime drama Love the Hard Way (Peter Sehr, 2001), the story of a petty thief (Adrien Brody) who meets an innocent young woman (Charlotte Ayanna) and brings her into his world of crime while she teaches him the lessons of enjoying life and being loved. He also appearede in the thriller Tattoo (Robert Schwentke, 2002) with Christian Redl, the ensemble film Lichter/Distant Lights (Hans-Christian Schmid, 2003) and the tragic love story Was nützt die Liebe in Gedanken/Love in Thoughts (Achim von Borries, 2004) with Daniel Brühl. He also starred in the German historical drama Der neunte Tag/The Ninth Day (Volker Schlöndorff, 2004) opposite Ulrich Matthes. The film is about a Catholic priest from Luxembourg who is imprisoned in Dachau concentration camp, but released for nine days. In Great Britain, he appeared in the drama Mouth to Mouth (Alison Murray, 2005) starring Ellen Page. The first feature film written and directed by Canadian-born Alison Murray, In 2006, Gala magazine named him "the most important German actor of today." Diehl had his breakthough in the Austrian-German drama Die Fälscher/The Counterfeiters (Stefan Ruzowitzky, 2007), which fictionalises Operation Bernhard, a secret plan by Nazi Germany during World War II to destabilize the United Kingdom by flooding its economy with forged Bank of England pound notes. The film centres on a Jewish counterfeiter, Salomon 'Sally' Sorowitsch (Karl Markovics), who is coerced into assisting the operation at the Sachsenhausen concentration camp. The film won the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film 2007. Next he played one of the Buddenbrooks in the drama Buddenbrooks/Buddenbrooks: The Decline of a Family (Heinrich Breloer, 2008), adapted from the novel by Thomas Mann, and starring Armin Mueller-Stahl as the family's patriarch Consul Jean Buddenbrook, and Iris Berben as his wife
August Diehl played Gestapo major Dieter Hellstrom in Quentin Tarantino's black comedy and revisionist war film Inglourious Basterds (2009) starring Brad Pitt and Christoph Waltz. The film tells an alternate history story of two plots to assassinate Nazi Germany's leadership, one planned by Shosanna Dreyfus (Mélanie Laurent), a young French Jewish cinema proprietor and the other by a team of Jewish American soldiers led by First Lieutenant Aldo Raine (Pitt). The film's title was inspired by Italian director Enzo G. Castellari's macaroni combat film The Inglorious Bastards (1978). Inglourious Basterds grossed over $321 million in theaters worldwide. The following year, Diehl played in another blockbuster, the American action thriller Salt (Phillip Noyce, 2010), starring Angelina Jolie, Liev Schreiber and Daniel Olbrychski. He played the boyfriend of Jolie's Evelyn Salt, who is accused of being a Russian sleeper agent and goes on the run to try to clear her name. alt grossed $294 million at the worldwide box office and received generally positive reviews, with praise for the action scenes and Jolie's performance. In the following years, his films were uneven. He had a supporting part in the mystery Night Train to Lisbon (Bille August, 2013) with Jeremy Irons, a leading role in the French war drama En mai, fais ce qu'il te plaît/Come What May (Christian Carion, 2015), and a small part in the Blockbuster Allied (Robert Zemeckis, 2016), starring Brad Pitt and Marion Cotillard. Diehl played Karl Marx in the historical drama Le jeune Karl Marx/The Young Karl Marx (2017), directed by Haitian filmmaker and political activist Raoul Peck. The film commemorates to the 200th birthday of the founder of the communist movement. Recently, Diehl starred in the historical drama A Hidden Life (Terrence Malick, 2019), with both Michael Nyqvist and Bruno Ganz in their final performances. The film depicts the life of Franz Jägerstätter, an Austrian farmer and devout Catholic who refused to fight for the Nazis in World War II. The film had its world premiere at the Cannes Film Festival in May 2019. He also starred as architect Walter Gropius in the TV Mini-series Die Neue Zeit/Bauhaus - A New Era (Lars Kraume, 2019) with Anna Maria Mühe. From 1999 till 2016, August Diehl was married to actress Julia Malik. He has two children with Malik: a daughter (2009) and a son (2012). Diehl plays the guitar and speaks German, Spanish, French, and English.
Sources: Wikipedia and IMDb.
And, please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.
August Diehl
German autograph card.
German actor August Diehl (1976) is primarily known to international audiences as Gestapo major Dieter Hellstrom in Quentin Tarantino's Inglourious Basterds (2009) and as Michael "Mike" Krause, Evelyn Salt's boyfriend, in Salt (2010). He also played leading roles in Die Fälscher/The Counterfeiters (2007), Le jeune Karl Marx/The Young Karl Marx (2017), and Terrence Malick's A Hidden Life (2019).
August Diehl was born in 1976 in West Berlin in a family of artists. His father is actor Hans Diehl, his mother is a costume designer and his brother is a composer. His family was frequently moving around. Diehl spent his childhood in Auvergne, France and moved back to Germany when he was nine years old. The family lived in Hamburg, Vienna, and Düsseldorf. At the age of 18, he played Franz Mohr in a school theatre production of Die Räuber (The Robbers) by Friedrich Schiller. After passing the Abitur exams, Diehl studied acting at the renowned Hochschule für Schauspielkunst Ernst Busch in Berlin. He made his film debut with the leading role as a young hacker in the thriller 23 – Nichts ist so wie es scheint/23 -Nothing is what it seems (Hans-Christian Schmid, 1998) about real life Karl Koch, who died on 23 May 1989, a presumed suicide. The title derives from the protagonist's obsession with the number 23, a phenomenon often described as apophenia. In 2000, Diehl was named one of European film's Shooting Stars by the European Film Promotion. He had a supporting part in the crime drama Love the Hard Way (Peter Sehr, 2001), the story of a petty thief (Adrien Brody) who meets an innocent young woman (Charlotte Ayanna) and brings her into his world of crime while she teaches him the lessons of enjoying life and being loved. He also appearede in the thriller Tattoo (Robert Schwentke, 2002) with Christian Redl, the ensemble film Lichter/Distant Lights (Hans-Christian Schmid, 2003) and the tragic love story Was nützt die Liebe in Gedanken/Love in Thoughts (Achim von Borries, 2004) with Daniel Brühl. He also starred in the German historical drama Der neunte Tag/The Ninth Day (Volker Schlöndorff, 2004) opposite Ulrich Matthes. The film is about a Catholic priest from Luxembourg who is imprisoned in Dachau concentration camp, but released for nine days. In Great Britain, he appeared in the drama Mouth to Mouth (Alison Murray, 2005) starring Ellen Page. The first feature film written and directed by Canadian-born Alison Murray, In 2006, Gala magazine named him "the most important German actor of today." Diehl had his breakthough in the Austrian-German drama Die Fälscher/The Counterfeiters (Stefan Ruzowitzky, 2007), which fictionalises Operation Bernhard, a secret plan by Nazi Germany during World War II to destabilize the United Kingdom by flooding its economy with forged Bank of England pound notes. The film centres on a Jewish counterfeiter, Salomon 'Sally' Sorowitsch (Karl Markovics), who is coerced into assisting the operation at the Sachsenhausen concentration camp. The film won the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film 2007. Next he played one of the Buddenbrooks in the drama Buddenbrooks/Buddenbrooks: The Decline of a Family (Heinrich Breloer, 2008), adapted from the novel by Thomas Mann, and starring Armin Mueller-Stahl as the family's patriarch Consul Jean Buddenbrook, and Iris Berben as his wife
August Diehl played Gestapo major Dieter Hellstrom in Quentin Tarantino's black comedy and revisionist war film Inglourious Basterds (2009) starring Brad Pitt and Christoph Waltz. The film tells an alternate history story of two plots to assassinate Nazi Germany's leadership, one planned by Shosanna Dreyfus (Mélanie Laurent), a young French Jewish cinema proprietor and the other by a team of Jewish American soldiers led by First Lieutenant Aldo Raine (Pitt). The film's title was inspired by Italian director Enzo G. Castellari's macaroni combat film The Inglorious Bastards (1978). Inglourious Basterds grossed over $321 million in theaters worldwide. The following year, Diehl played in another blockbuster, the American action thriller Salt (Phillip Noyce, 2010), starring Angelina Jolie, Liev Schreiber and Daniel Olbrychski. He played the boyfriend of Jolie's Evelyn Salt, who is accused of being a Russian sleeper agent and goes on the run to try to clear her name. alt grossed $294 million at the worldwide box office and received generally positive reviews, with praise for the action scenes and Jolie's performance. In the following years, his films were uneven. He had a supporting part in the mystery Night Train to Lisbon (Bille August, 2013) with Jeremy Irons, a leading role in the French war drama En mai, fais ce qu'il te plaît/Come What May (Christian Carion, 2015), and a small part in the Blockbuster Allied (Robert Zemeckis, 2016), starring Brad Pitt and Marion Cotillard. Diehl played Karl Marx in the historical drama Le jeune Karl Marx/The Young Karl Marx (2017), directed by Haitian filmmaker and political activist Raoul Peck. The film commemorates to the 200th birthday of the founder of the communist movement. Recently, Diehl starred in the historical drama A Hidden Life (Terrence Malick, 2019), with both Michael Nyqvist and Bruno Ganz in their final performances. The film depicts the life of Franz Jägerstätter, an Austrian farmer and devout Catholic who refused to fight for the Nazis in World War II. The film had its world premiere at the Cannes Film Festival in May 2019. He also starred as architect Walter Gropius in the TV Mini-series Die Neue Zeit/Bauhaus - A New Era (Lars Kraume, 2019) with Anna Maria Mühe. From 1999 till 2016, August Diehl was married to actress Julia Malik. He has two children with Malik: a daughter (2009) and a son (2012). Diehl plays the guitar and speaks German, Spanish, French, and English.
Sources: Wikipedia and IMDb.
And, please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.