Bruno Ganz ( 22 March 1941 - 16 February 2019) was a Swiss actor who has been a prominent figure in German language film and television for over fifty years.

He has collaborated several times with filmmaker Wim Wenders, first as Jonathan Zimmerman in The American Friend (1977) and again as Damiel the Angel in both Wings of Desire (1987) and Faraway, So Close! (1993).

Ganz was internationally renowned for portraying Adolf Hitler in the Academy Award-nominated film Downfall (2004). He has also had roles in several English language films, including The Boys From Brazil (1978), Strapless (1989), The Manchurian Candidate (2004), The Reader (2008), Unknown (2011) and Remember (2015).

On stage, Ganz portrayed Dr. Heinrich Faust in Peter Stein's staging of Faust, Part One and Faust, Part Two in 2000.

Ganz was the holder of the Iffland-Ring, which is passed from actor to actor as being judged the "most significant and most worthy actor of the German-speaking theatre".

Early life

Bruno Ganz was born in Zürich to a Swiss mechanic father and a northern Italian mother. He had decided to pursue an acting career by the time he entered university. He was equally drawn to stage and screen but initially enjoyed greater success on the stage.

Career

In 1960, Ganz landed his first film role, in Der Herr mit der schwarzen Melone (The Gentleman in the Black Derby). Despite the support of lead actor Gustav Knuth, Ganz's cinematic debut was not particularly successful and it was only many years later that his career in film got off the ground. Ganz made his theatrical debut the following year and devoted himself primarily to the stage for almost two decades thereafter. In 1970, he helped found the Berliner Schaubühne ensemble and two years later performed in the Salzburg Festival premier of Thomas Bernhard's Der Ignorant und der Wahnsinnige, under the direction of Claus Peymann.

The German magazine Theater heute (Theater Today) solidified Ganz's reputation as a stage actor by pronouncing him Schauspieler des Jahres (Actor of the Year) in 1973. One of Ganz's most physically demanding stage portrayals was the title character in Peter Stein’s 2000 production of Goethe's Faust (Parts I and II), as he suffered injuries during rehearsals and his assumption of the role was delayed.

Ganz made his film breakthrough in a major part in the 1976 film Sommergäste [de], launching a widely recognized film career in both Europe and the U.S. He has worked with directors Werner Herzog, Wim Wenders, Éric Rohmer, and Francis Ford Coppola, among others. In 1977, he co-starred with Dennis Hopperin Wenders's American Friend, an adaptation of Patricia Highsmith's novel Ripley's Game. In 1979, he starred opposite Klaus Kinski in Herzog’s Nosferatu: Phantom der Nacht (Nosferatu: Phantom of the Night). In 2017 he was in Sally Potter's The Party.

Ganz played a professor opposite Sir Laurence Olivier in the thriller The Boys from Brazil (1978), about Nazi fugitives.

In 1987, Ganz first played the role of the angel Damiel in Wim Wenders's Wings of Desire. He reprised the role in Wenders' film Faraway, So Close! in 1993.

Ganz portrayed Adolf Hitler in Der Untergang (Downfall) (2004). Ganz did four months of research on Hitler in preparation for the role. His performance, which was widely critically acclaimed, became the basis for a series of "Hitler Rant" parody videos on YouTube. In 2014, popular culture website Watchmojo.com named his performance as the best portrayal of a real-life 'bad guy' of all time, beating out competition from Forest Whitaker and Charlize Theron's Oscar-winning portrayals of Idi Amin and Aileen Wuornos, respectively.

Ganz appeared in The Reader and Der Baader Meinhof Komplex, which were both nominated for the 81st Academy Awards (Best Picture and Best Foreign Language Film).

Ganz has also served as a speaker in classical music works, including a recording of Luigi Nono's Il canto sospeso with the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra.

Personal life

Ganz is separated from his wife Sabine, whom he married in 1965; they have a son named Daniel.

In 2018, doctors in Salzburg found that Ganz is suffering from intestinal cancer, and he immediately began chemotherapy.

He passed away on 16 February 2019 in Zürich, Switzerland.

Awards

• 1973 "Actor of the Year" in German magazine Theater heute (Theatre Today)
• 1976 German Film Awards in gold for dramatic performances in The Marquise of O
• 1979 Deutscher Darstellerpreis (Chaplin-Shoe)
• 1991 Hans-Reinhart-Ring, given by the Swiss Society for Theatre Culture
• 1996 Iffland-Ring
• 1998: Officier of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres (France)
• 1999: Grimme-Preis for Towards the End of the Night
• 1999: Bremer Filmpreis
• 2000 Swiss Film Prize
• 2000: Chevalier of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres (France)
• 2000 David di Donatello Award for Bread and Tulips
• 2001 Berliner Filmpreis (Berlin Film Awards)
• 2001: Swiss Film Prize
• 2004: Bambi for Downfall
• 2004: SwissAward Division culture
• 2004: European Film Award
• 2004: Bavarian Film Awards, Best Actor
• 2005: Goldener Gong for Downfall
• 2005: Jupiter Prize for Downfall
• 2005: Austrian Decoration for Science and Art
• 2006: Kunstpreis der Stadt Zürich
• 2006 Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany (Verdienstorden der Bundesrepublik Deutschland)
• 2006: Prize of Honour at the FilmArtFestival Mecklenburg-Pomerania
• 2007: Knight of the Légion d'honneur (France)
• 2008: 22nd International FilmFest Braunschweig – European Theatre Prize "Europa"
• 2010: Star on the Boulevard of the Stars in Berlin
• 2010: European Film Academy Lifetime Achievement Award
• 2011: Pardo alla Carriera at Locarno International Film Festival
• 2013: Actors award at the Festival des deutschen Films, Ludwigshafen
• 2014: Lifetime Achievement Award, Goldene Kamera
• 2015: Special Golden Camera 300 for lifetime achievement- Manaki Brothers Film Festival 

Filmography

• Der Herr mit der schwarzen Melone [de] (The Man in the Black Derby) (1960) as Hotelpage
• Es Dach überem Chopf (1962) as Fred Weber
• Chikita (1964)
• The Smooth Career (1967) as Barnhard Kral
• Sommergäste [de] (Summer Guests) (1976) as Jakov Shalimov
• Lumière (1976) as Heinrich Grün
• Die Marquise von O... (The Marquise of O...) (1976) as Der Graf
• Die Wildente [de] (The Wild Duck) (1976) as Gregers
• Der Amerikanische Freund (The American Friend) (1977) as Jonathan Zimmermann
• Die linkshändige Frau (The Left-Handed Woman) (1978) as Bruno
• Schwarz und weiß wie Tage und Nächte (1978) as Thomas Rosemund
• The Boys from Brazil (1978) as Professor Bruckner
• Messer im Kopf (Knife in the Head) (1978) as Hoffmann
• Nosferatu: Phantom der Nacht (Nosferatu the Vampyre) (1979) as Jonathan Harker
• Retour à la bien-aimée (Return to the Beloved) (1979) as Dr. Stephan Kern
• Oggetti smarriti (Lost and Found / Lost Objects / An Italian Woman) (1980) as Werner
• 5% de risque (1980) as David
• La provinciale (1981) as Remy
• Etwas wird sichtbar (1981)
• La Dame aux camélias (The Lady of the Camellias) (1980) as Count Perregaux
• Hands Up! (1981)
• Die Fälschung (Circle of Deceit) (1981) as Georg Laschen
• Der Erfinder (The Inventor) (1981) as Jakob Nüssli
• Logik des Gefühls (1982)
• Polenta (1982) as Jules, le narrateur
• Krieg und Frieden (War and Peace) (1982)
• Dans la ville blanche (In the White City) (1983) as Paul
• System ohne Schatten [de] (1983) as Faber
• De ijssalon (Private Resistance) (1985) as Gustav
• Killer aus Florida (Killer from Florida) (1983)
• El río de oro (1986) as Peter
• Väter und Söhne – Eine deutsche Tragödie (1986) (TV miniseries) as Heinrich Beck
• Der Pendler (1986)
• Der Himmel über Berlin (Wings of Desire) (1987) as Damiel
• Un amore di donna (1988) as Franco Bassani
• Bankomatt (1989) as Bruno
• Strapless (1989) as Raymond Forbes
• The Legendary Life of Ernest Hemingway (1989) as Ezra Pound
• Tassilo (1991) (TV series) as Tassilo
• Erfolg (Success) (1991) as Engill
• La Domenica specialmente (Especially on Sunday) (1991) as Vittorio (segment "La domenica specialmente")
• Prague (1992) as Josef
• L'Absence (The Absence) (1992) as Player
• The Last Days of Chez Nous (1992) as J.P.
• In weiter Ferne, so nah! (Faraway, So Close!) (1993) as Damiel
• Brandnacht (Night on Fire) (1992) as Peter Keller
• Heller Tag (1994) as Georg
• Diario senza date (1995)
• Saint-Ex (1997) as Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
• Mia aioniotita kai mia mera (Eternity and a Day) (1998) as Alexandros
• You Can't Go Home Again (1999) as Narrator (voice)
• WerAngstWolf (2000)
• Pane e Tulipani (Bread and Tulips) (2000) as Fernando Girasole
• Johann Wolfgang von Goethe: Faust (2001, TV) as Faust
• La forza del passato (The Power of the Past) (2002) as Bogliasco
• Epsteins Nacht [de] (Epstein's Night) (2002) as Adam Rose
• Behind Me – Bruno Ganz (2002) as Himself
• Luther (2003) as Johann von Staupitz
• The Manchurian Candidate (2004) as Delp
• Der Untergang (Downfall) (2004) as Adolf Hitler
• Have No Fear: The Life of Pope John Paul II (2005) as Cardinal Stefan Wyszynski
• Vitus (2006) as Grandfather
• Baruto no Gakuen (バルトの楽園; Ode an die Freude) (2006) as Kurt Heinrich
• Youth Without Youth (2007) as Prof. Roman Stanciulescu
• Stairway to Nowhere (2008) as Brot Darsteller
• Der Baader Meinhof Komplex (The Baader Meinhof Complex) (2008) as Horst Herold
• Η Σκόνη του Χρόνου (The Dust of Time) (2008) as Jacob
• The Reader (2008) as Professor Rohl
• Giulias Verschwinden (2009) as John
• Der grosse Kater (2010) as Kater
• Taxiphone: El Mektoub (2010)
• Satte Farben vor Schwarz [de] (Colours in the Dark) (2010) as Fred
• Das Ende ist mein Anfang (The End Is My Beginning) (2010) as Tiziano Terzani
• Unknown (2011) as Ernst Jürgen
• Sport de filles (2011) as Franz Mann
• Night Train to Lisbon (2013) as Older Jorge O'Kelly
• Michael Kohlhaas (2013) as The Governor
• The Counselor (2013) as Diamond Dealer
• In Order of Disappearance (2014) as Papa
• Amnesia (2015) as Bruno – le grand-père de Jo
• Remember (2015) as Rudy Kurlander #1
• Heidi (2015) as Alpöhi
• Un Juif pour l'exemple (2016)[16] as Arthur Bloch
• The Party (2017) as Gottfried
• In Times of Fading Light (2017) as Wilhelm Powileit
• Fortuna (2018)
• The House That Jack Built (2018) as Verge
• Radegund (2018)