Wolfgang Preiss
Wolfgang Preiss (27 February 1910 at Nuremberg - 27 November 2002 at Baden-Baden) was a German theatre, film and television actor.
The son of a teacher, in the early 1930s Preiss studied philosophy, German and drama. He also took private acting classes with Hans Schlenck, making his stage début in Munich in 1932. He went to appear in various theatre productions in Heidelberg, Königsberg, Bonn, Bremen, Stuttgart and Berlin.
In 1942 he made his film début - he was exempted from military service specifically - in the UFA production Die grosse Liebe with Zarah Leander. After the end of the Second World War Preiss returned to the theatre, and from 1949 worked extensively dubbing films into German.
In 1954 he returned to film acting, appearing in Alfred Weidenmann's Canaris. The following year Preiss played the lead role of Claus von Stauffenberg in Falk Harnack's film Der 20. Juli, which dramatised the 1944 plot to assassinate Hitler. This role brought Preiss to popular attention and also the 1956 Federal Film Award.
From now on Preiss was largely typecast in the role of the upright and obligation-conscious German officer to the other A-list actor playing the Fanatic (I.E. Paul Scofeld in The Train) a part he played in many films, later reprising it in numerous international productions, predominantly in Italy and the USA, while occasionally playing a more typically cynical or brutal Nazi officer.
Preiss appeared in such productions as The Longest Day (1962), Otto Preminger's The Cardinal (1963), and with Jean-Paul Belmondo in Is Paris Burning? (1966). He starred alongside Burt Lancaster in John Frankenheimer's The Train (1964), Frank Sinatra in Von Ryan's Express (1965), Robert Mitchum in Anzio (1968), with Richard Burton, in the title role of Erwin Rommel in Raid on Rommel (1971), and The Boys From Brazil (1978) with Gregory Peck. He also appeared in several Italian language films, credited as "Luppo Prezzo", and played Field Marshal Von Rundstedt in Richard Attenborough's all-star war epic A Bridge Too Far (1977).
In addition, for the cinema-going public of West Germany he became the epitome of the evil genius in his role as Doctor Mabuse, a role he first played in 1960 (following Rudolf Klein-Rogge) in Fritz Lang's The Thousand Eyes of Dr. Mabuse. He went on to play the role four more times.
In the 1980s Preiss turned to television, notably playing General Walther von Brauchitsch in the American TV mini-series Winds of War and War and Remembrance, based on the books of Herman Wouk.
In 1987 received a second Federal Film Award for his outstanding work in film.
In film dubbing Preiss provided the voice for such actors as Lex Barker, Christopher Lee, Anthony Quinn, Claude Rains, Richard Widmark, as well as that of Conrad Veidt as "Major Strasser" in the remastered version of Casablanca.
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Filmography (154 Appearances)
Die 1000 Glotzböbbel vom Dr. Mabuse
Open Air
Florian III
Tassilo - Ein Fall für sich
Dr. M
Land der Väter, Land der Söhne
Mrs. Harris fährt nach Monte Carlo
War and Remembrance
Die Männer vom K3
Mrs. Harris fährt nach Moskau
The Second Victory
Lang soll er leben
Mrs. Harris - Der geschmuggelte Henry
Ein heikler Fall
Forget Mozart
Ein Heim für Tiere
Mrs. Harris - Freund mit Rolls Royce
Ein Mann namens Parvus
Die Dame und die Unterwelt
The Winds of War
Mrs. Harris - Ein Kleid von Dior
Die Schraiers
Unheimliche Geschichten
A Case For Two
Ghost of Love
Ringstraßenpalais
The Formula
Sonne, Wein und harte Nüsse
Bloodline
Ike
Ike
Wallenstein
Die Anstalt
The Boys from Brazil
SOKO München
The Standard
A Bridge Too Far
Hungária kávéház
Der Anwalt
Die Insel der Krebse
Eurogang
The Big Delirium
La Cloche tibétaine
Die Kriegsbraut
Die Montagsmaler
Eine ungeliebte Frau
Okay S.I.R.
Diamantenparty
Du stirbst nicht allein - Ein deutscher Kriegspfarrer in Paris
The Master Touch
The Salzburg Connection
Die sexuellen Wünsche der Deutschen
The Bloodstained Butterfly
The Fifth Cord
Dalli Dalli
Raid on Rommel
Der Minister und die Ente
Scene of the Crime
Sir Henri Deterding
General Oster – Verräter oder Patriot?
Peenemünde
Das Haus Lunjowo
Playgirl 70
Familie Mack verändert sich
Battle of the Commandos
Gestern gelesen
Liebe, Love, l'Amour
Hürdenlauf
Hannibal Brooks
The Commissioner
Schatzsucher unserer Tage
Anzio
Meinungsverschiedenheiten
Der Fall Petkov
Tamara
Ein Mann namens Harry Brent
Flachsmann als Erzieher
Jack of Diamonds
Death on a Rainy Day
Spy Today, Die Tomorrow
Dead Run
Wo liegt Jena?
Jungfrau aus zweiter Hand
Is Paris Burning?
The Rat Patrol
To Skin a Spy
Das Leben in meiner Hand
Samba
Der Fall Kapitän Behrens. Fremdenlegionäre an Bord
The Spy Who Went Into Hell
Von Ryan's Express
X-Ray of a Killer
100 Horsemen
The Train
The Death Ray of Dr. Mabuse
Backfire
Die erste Legion
Frühstück mit dem Tod
Cave of the Living Dead
Einer wird gewinnen
The Cardinal
Zwischenmahlzeit
The Mad Executioners
Scotland Yard Hunts Dr. Mabuse
Das tödliche Patent
Die fünfte Kolonne
The Black Cobra
Leb wohl, mein Traum
Das Kriminalmuseum
The Longest Day
The Testament of Dr. Mabuse
The Counterfeit Traitor
The Invisible Dr. Mabuse
Das Mädchen und der Staatsanwalt
Lafayette
Riviera-Story
The Return of Dr. Mabuse
Confessions of a Sixteen-Year-Old
The Thousand Eyes of Dr. Mabuse
Mill of the Stone Women
Mistress of the World - Part II
Mistress of the World - Part I
Darkness Fell on Gotenhafen
Roses for the Prosecutor
Doctor Without Scruples
Konto ausgeglichen
Gorilla's Waltz
Stalingrad: Dogs, Do You Want to Live Forever?
Prisoner of the Volga
Straße der Gerechten
The Girl with the Cat Eyes
Grabenplatz 17
The Green Devils of Monte Cassino
The Italians They Are Crazy
Ich war ihm hörig
Eurydice
Der Banditendoktor
Sharks and Little Fish
Schinderhannes
Stresemann
Von der Liebe besiegt
Johannisnacht
Anastasia: the Czar's Last Daughter
Like Once Lili Marleen
Before Sundown
Der Cornet
The Plot to Assassinate Hitler
Oberarzt Dr. Solm
Canaris
German Film Award
Falschmünzer am Werk
Frischer Wind in alten Gassen
The Crew of the Dora
The Great Love