Actor Hardy Krüger just died. With his blond-and-blue-eyed looks, he was often cast as the stereotypical German in international productions like "The One That Got Away", "Flight of the Phoenix", "Hatari!“ and "A Bridge Too Far", or as a South African in "The Wild Geese". He mostly retired from the movie industry in the 80s, preferring to write books and shoot his own "Globetrotter" travel documentaries, though as late as 2011 he still played in a German TV film. For someone who was lucky to live past 16, 93 ain't a half-bad run either
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German actor Hardy Krüger dies at 93
20.01.2022
He had attended an elite Nazi school, but after the war, he became a film star and an outspoken opponent of far-right violence. He has died at the age of 93.
"I grew up with death, I got used to it," Hardy Krüger said in a 2018 interview with German press agency dpa just before his 90th birthday, when asked if he was afraid of death.
The retired film star referred to the fact that he had survived front line operations in World War II, bombings, and had escaped a death sentence and firing squad. "A person cannot usually be that lucky," he mused.
Eberhard August Franz Ewald Krüger was born in the Berlin district of Wedding on April 12, 1928, during the era of the Great Depression.
His father, an engineer, was a fan of Adolf Hitler and an early member of the Nazi Party. A bust of Hitler stood on the family piano.
A Nazi education
Time and again, Krüger said he was raised by his parents and teachers to be a Nazi. When he was 13, he was accepted as a student into the Ordensburg Sonthofen, a Nazi educational institution designed to shape the regime's future elite.
In 1943, Krüger played a minor role in the Nazi propaganda film "Young Eagles." During the filming, Krüger overheard an older actor say a comment about Hitler that would change his life: "Your demigod, that Austrian painter, is a criminal." Krüger then discovered what was happening in camps like Bergen-Belsen and Dachau.
Sentenced to death at the age of 16
With the "Nibelungen" SS division, Krüger was ordered to the front in early 1945. By then, he had lost all faith in the regime and the possibility of a victory. As such, he refused to shoot at US soldiers, and was sentenced to death by firing squad for "cowardice in the face of the enemy." But the SS officer designated to carry out the sentence refused to shoot him — perhaps because at 16, he looked like a child, Krüger later speculated.
Instead, he was deployed as a messenger, and promptly deserted during a mission in the Alps. He was captured by the Americans, who let him go, fell into the hands of Soviet soldiers shortly afterward but managed to escape. He made his way back to Berlin and in 1945, he arrived in Hamburg.
Why Eberhard became Hardy
In the northern German port city, he worked as an extra at the Schauspielhaus theater, and as a news reader for British-controlled Radio Hamburg — a job he landed because the man, a British Jew, who interviewed him for the job was adamant he preferred "mercy before justice."
The Soviet Union, where Krüger's father had died in a camp, demanded the extradition of the Nazi's son. They dropped the issue after he changed his first name from Eberhard to Hardy.
At that point in his life, Krüger knew he wanted a career in acting, though not in German film, which he felt to be too shallow.
He was keen on the French New Wave. But he hit brick walls when he went to Paris in 1954, where he was told: "We had Germans like you galore, hundreds of thousands of them in gray uniforms. Scram!"
Breakthrough with 'The One that Got Away'
British filmmakers weren't interested in Krüger either — until he played a German air force officer during the Battle of Britain who managed to escape repeatedly from captivity in the 1957 film "The One that Got Away." The premiere of the film marked the beginning of Hardy Krüger's international film career.
He had a good long run, especially given the turbulence of his youth; he was indeed lucky to survive it. I especially liked his performance in "Hatari". I read he bought the film location sometime after the film; the production/cast/location must have had quite an effect on him!
Posts: 309 | Location: Nevada | Registered: May 12, 2013
I suspected I probably overlooked some, though was pretty sure the major actors were all gone - what with "a middle-aged army led by old men" (that phrase may have been only in the book, not the movie). But it was either that title or "Phoenix takes flight", which might have been too oblique.
Personally I think Krüger delivered his best performance in "Flight of the Phoenix" as the teutonically anal engineer, bordering on autistic. I was downright offended by the remake - Giovanni Ribisi just played an asshole on a power trip.
Wasn't trying to one-up you. Sorry if it came across as such. The Wild Geese is the last movie I ever watched with my father, so it has a special meaning for me. It gave me a jolt to realize that all of the original cast may have passed on.
Nah, no offense taken. It just confirmed some uneasiness I had about my catchy title possibly not being 100 percent correct. That's me being a teutonically anal borderline autist.
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