Klaus Kinski
Klaus Kinski (October 18, 1926 - November 23, 1991) was one of the best German actors after World War II. He was an extremely hard worker and strove for perfection; however, he was frequently at odds with co-workers and directors and rarely a good team player. He was a victim of the German directors he initially had to work with. To scream and shout abuse uncontrollably was common behaviour of theatre directors during rehearsals. This was seen as the only way to achieve perfection. Karl Paryla, for example, saw it as part of his "methodology" to drive "his" actors close to a "nervous breakdown", because then they would perform better. Fritz Kortner (whom Kinski mentions in his autobiography) was also famous for being very harsh and brutal during rehearsals.
Kinski was born Nikolaus Karl Günther Nakszynski to an ethnic Polish father, the pharmacist Bruno Nakszynski, and a Danzig (Gdansk) pastor's daughter named Susanne Lutze, in Zoppot/Free City of Danzig (now Sopot, Poland). In 1930/31, the family moved to Berlin and Klaus attended the Prinz-Heinrich-Gymnasium in Schöneberg.
During the war, he served in the German Army in the Netherlands.
Kinski supposedly spent his short term in the military flagging down American planes and begging them to shoot him. Kinski went AWOL and surrendered himself to the British forces. He spent most of his time during the war as a POW under British control. When he was in a POW camp he realized his acting talent as he performed for his fellow prisoners. After the war he returned to West Germany. Because his place of birth was conquered by Soviet communists and had become Poland, he never got to go back to either Westprussia, Zoppot or Danzig. He began acting and changed his name to Klaus Kinski. He started on stage in Germany, became a legend as a presenter of lyrics (Francois Villon), and soon moved, pragmatically, to film, where the money was better. He acted in an enormous number of films, most of them considered "junk" (Schrott) by Kinski himself.
His film roles include A Time to Love and a Time to Die (1958), The Counterfeit Traitor (1962), Doctor Zhivago (1965), For a Few Dollars More (1966), Grand Slam (movie) (1968). His international reputation was built on his collaborations with director Werner Herzog in such films as Aguirre: The Wrath of God (1972), Woyzeck(a deep and tender portrayal of the Woyzeck character. Possibly the best performance Kinski ever produced on screen) (1978), Fitzcarraldo (1982) and Nosferatu the Vampyre (1979).
In real life, Kinski often appeared as a drunken, sex-crazed maniac, chronicling his exploits in an (largely fictitious) autobiography that rivals Wilt Chamberlain's in terms of sexuality. He alienated all his family with claims of incest, and when he died, only his son Nikolai attended the burial (his ashes were sunk in the Pacific Ocean).
Due to him playing a lot of crazy, murderous villains in his films (for example in the Edgar Wallace series) and his determined, often obsessive behavior, he often was referred to as a crazy genius. Herzog's retrospective on his work with Kinski was released in the United States as My Best Fiend.
He was married four times and had three children, two daughters (Nastassja Kinski and Pola Kinski, both being actresses) and a son (Nikolai Kinski). His brother Arme lives in Berlin, still bitter about the way Klaus portrayed him in his "autobiography".
He died of a heart attack in Lagunitas, California, United States.
Recently he was honoured by his city of birth, Sopot. However, this proved to be highly controversial.