Thomas Kretschmann

Thomas Kretschmann — Biography

Thomas Kretschmann was born on 8 September 1962 in Dessau, East Germany. He moved west to Berlin as a young man and trained for the stage before turning to film, winning the 1991 Max Ophüls award for best young actor for his part in Der Mitwisser. His international profile grew through Stalingrad (1993) and The Stendhal Syndrome, in which he played a disturbing killer opposite Asia Argento.

Kretschmann went on to portray Captain Wilm Hosenfeld in Roman Polanski's The Pianist and, two years later, the Nazi officer Hermann Fegelein in Downfall. He was Captain Englehorn in the 2005 King Kong remake and Major Otto Remer in Valkyrie. He joined the Marvel Cinematic Universe as Baron Wolfgang von Strucker in Captain America: The Winter Soldier and Avengers: Age of Ultron, and lent his voice to Professor Z in Cars 2. He has received two Deutscher Fernsehpreis nominations for best actor, along with nominations for the European Film Award and the Nika Award.