Armin Mueller-Stahl

Armin Mueller-Stahl
Armin Mueller-Stahl, October 2007
Born	17 December 1930 (1930-12-17) Tilsit, East Prussia, Germany
Other names	Armin Müller–Stahl
Occupation	Actor
Years active	1956–present
Spouse	Gabriele Scholz (1973–present)

Armin Mueller-Stahl (born 17 December 1930) is a German film actor, painter, writer and musician.

Early life

Mueller-Stahl was born in Tilsit, East Prussia (now Sovetsk, Kaliningrad Oblast). His mother, Editta, was from an upper class family and became a university professor at Leipzig, and his father, Alfred Müller, was a bank teller who changed the family's surname to "Mueller-Stahl". His family moved to Berlin while his father fought on the Eastern Front in World War II. Mueller-Stahl was a noted concert violinist while he was a teenager and enrolled in an acting school in East Berlin in 1952.

Career

Mueller-Stahl was a successful film and stage actor in East Germany, starring in films such as The Third and Jacob, the Liar. On East-German TV, he played the main character of the popular series Das unsichtbare Visier (see the article in the German Wikipedia) from 1973–1979, a spy thriller program designed, in co-operation with the Stasi, as an East Bloc counterpart to the James Bond franchise. After protesting against Wolf Biermann's denaturalisation in 1976 he was blacklisted by the government and emigrated to West Germany in 1980. Mueller-Stahl's talent found ample work in the West German film industry. He appeared in such films as Rainer Werner Fassbinder's Lola (1981), Veronika Voss (1982), Andrzej Wajda's A Love in Germany (1984), Angry Harvest and Colonel Redl (both 1985), the latter about Alfred Redl.

Mueller-Stahl broadened his film career with his US film debut as Jessica Lange's father in Music Box (1989). He subsequently took strong character roles in Kafka by Steven Soderbergh and Night on Earth by Jim Jarmusch (both 1991). He is also remembered for his role as the Soviet general in charge of the occupied United States in the ABC television miniseries Amerika (1987). Mueller-Stahl's leading role in Avalon (1990) is also memorable.

Mueller-Stahl won the Silver Bear for Best Actor at the 42nd Berlin International Film Festival for his performance in Utz. He received an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor for his performance in Shine (1996). Mueller-Stahl was also in A Pyromaniac's Love Story (1995) and the 1997 remake of the movie 12 Angry Men. Conversation with the Beast (1996) was his first film as director. In 1998, he played the German scientist and syndicate member, Conrad Strughold, in the feature film The X-Files. In 1999 he played the mastermind of a criminal gang opposite Ray Liotta and Gloria Reuben in Pilgrim, also distributed under the title Inferno.

In the early 2000s, Mueller-Stahl gained applause for his portrayal of Thomas Mann in a German historic film production about the Mann family (Thomas Mann, his brother Heinrich Mann, and others) called Die Manns - Ein Jahrhundertroman. In 2004, Mueller-Stahl made another rare foray into American television, guest-starring in four episodes on the television drama series The West Wing as the Prime Minister of Israel. In 2006, he played the role of reclusive Russian artist Nikolai Seroff in Local Color. He starred in David Cronenberg's 2007 crime drama Eastern Promises and 2009's thriller The International, both of which co-starred British-Australian actress Naomi Watts. In 2008, he won the Genie Award for Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role for Eastern Promises, and in 2009, Mueller-Stahl played the role of Cardinal Strauss, Dean of the College of Cardinals and the Papal Conclave, in the blockbuster film Angels and Demons.

The year 2007 saw Mueller-Stahl as an artist, when the new Brockhaus encyclopedia was presented at the Frankfurt Book Fair with book covers and spines designed by him. In 2011 he was awarded the Honorary Golden Bear at the 61st Berlin International Film Festival.

Selected filmography

• Angels and Demons (2009)
• The International (2009)
• Eastern Promises (2007)
• The Dust Factory (2004)
• The West Wing (2004)
• Mission to Mars (2000)
• The Thirteenth Floor (1999)
• The X-Files: Fight the Future (1998)
• The Commissioner (1998)
• The Game (1997)
• 12 Angry Men (1997)
• The Peacemaker (1997)
• The Ogre (1996)
• Shine (1996)
• A Pyromaniac's Love Story (1995)
• The Power of One (1992)
• Utz (1992)
• Night on Earth (1991)
• Avalon (1990 film) (1990)
• Music Box (1989)
• Derrick - Season 11, Episode 14: "Stellen Sie sich vor, man hat Dr. Prestel erschossen" (1984)
• The Wounded Man (1983)
• Lola (1981)
• Jacob, the Liar (1975)
• Ways across the Country (1968).
• Naked among Wolves (1963).
• Star-Crossed Lovers (1962)
• Five Cartridges (1960)

Awards

• Berlin Film Festival
  • Silver Bear for Best Actor at the 42nd Berlin International Film Festival
  • Berlinale Camera at the 47th Berlin International Film Festival
  • Honorary Golden Bear at the 61st Berlin International Film Festival

• Genie Award for Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role (2008)
• Honorary citizen of Sovetsk (2011)

External links

• Armin Mueller-Stahl at the Internet Movie Database