Gert Fröbe

Gert Fröbe
Born	Karl Gerhart Fröbe (1913-02-25)25 February 1913 Oberplanitz (now Zwickau), Saxony, German Empire
Died	Munich, Bavaria, West Germany
Cause of death	Heart attack
Nationality	German
Occupation	Actor
Years active	1948–1988
Spouse(s)	Karin Kuderer-Pistorius (1970–?) Beate Bach (1962–1968) Hannelore Görtz (1953–1959) Tatjana Iwanow (one child) Clara Peter (one child)

Karl Gerhart Fröbe, better known as Gert Fröbe (German pronunciation: [ˈɡɛɐt ˈfʁøːbə]; 25 February 1913 – 5 September 1988), was a German film actor known for his work as Auric Goldfinger in the James Bond film Goldfinger, as Peachum in The Threepenny Opera, as Baron Bomburst in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and as Hotzenplotz in Der Räuber Hotzenplotz.

Early life

Karl Gerhart Fröbe was born in Oberplanitz, today part of Zwickau. He was initially a violinist, but he abandoned it for Kabarett and theatre work.

He joined the Nazi Party in 1929 at the age of 16 and left it in 1937. During the Nazis' reign, he aided two German Jews by hiding them from the Gestapo.

In September 1944, the Nazis closed down theatres in Germany and he was drafted into the German Army where he served till the end of World War II.

Acting career

Fröbe gained fame in one of the first German films made after the Second World War, called Berliner Ballade (The Ballad of Berlin, 1948). His character's name, "Otto Normalverbraucher" (lit. Otto Average Consumer), became a German term equivalent to "Average Joe" or "Joe Bloggs". In 1958, he was cast as the villain in the Swiss-German film Es geschah am hellichten Tag (It Happened in Broad Daylight), with the original screenplay written by Friedrich Dürrenmatt. His role as a serial killer of children drew the attention of the producers of the 1964 James Bond movie Goldfinger and he was chosen to play one of the best remembered villains of the series, gold tycoon Auric Goldfinger. Because of his former membership in the Nazi Party, Goldfinger was initially banned in Israel until a Jewish family he had protected during the war came forward and thanked him for saving their lives.

Fröbe made several appearances in all-star casts in the 1960s, including the films The Longest Day, Is Paris Burning?, Monte Carlo or Bust and Those Magnificent Men in their Flying Machines. He also appeared in $ (1971) with Goldie Hawn and Warren Beatty. During the 1980s, Fröbe played small parts in Mercedes Benz W123 commercials, helping to promote the coupé and the sedan.

Besides acting, Fröbe was a prolific reciter of lyric poetry, especially that of Christian Morgenstern and Joachim Ringelnatz.

Fröbe died in Munich in September 1988 at age 75 from a heart attack.

Selected filmography

Year	Film	Role	Notes
1948	Berliner Ballade	Otto Normalverbraucher
1952	The Day Before the Wedding
1953	Salto Mortale
1954	The Eternal Waltz	Gawriloff
1955	it	Hermann
	Mr. Arkadin
1956	Winter in the Woods	Gerstenberg
1957	The Mad Bomberg
	de	Mr. Gillis
	Typhon sur Nagasaki
	He Who Must Die	Patriarcheos
	The Heart of St. Pauli
1958	It Happened in Broad Daylight	Schrott
	Nasser Asphalt	Jupp
	Rosemary	Willy Bruster
	de	Titu Goritsch
1959	Prisoner of the Volga	Professor
	The Forests Sing Forever	Dag
	Menschen im Hotel	Preysing
	de	Doctor Albert Maurer
	de	Johannes Grohmann
	Old Heidelberg	Doctor Jüttner
1960	The High Life	Doctor Kölling
	The Thousand Eyes of Dr. Mabuse	Inspector Kras
	de	Paul Wittkowski
1961	The Green Archer	Abel Bellamy
	Via Mala	Jonas Lauretz
	The Return of Doctor Mabuse	Kommissar Lohmann	USA screening in 1966
	Auf Wiedersehen	Angelo Pirrone
1962	Redhead	Kramer
	de	Kommissar Lohmann
	The Longest Day	Unteroffizier Kaffeekanne
1963	fr	Melchior Kimmel
	de	Peachum
	fr	Raymond Lachard
1964	Greed in the Sun	Castigliano
	Tonio Kröger	Policeman Peterson
	Backfire	Karl Fehrman
	Goldfinger	Auric Goldfinger
1965	A High Wind in Jamaica	Dutch Captain
	Those Magnificent Men in their Flying Machines	Colonel Manfred von Holstein
	Who Wants to Sleep?	Emil Claasen
1966	fr	Walter
	de	Importen-Paul
	Is Paris Burning?	General Dietrich von Choltitz
	Triple Cross	Colonel Steinhager
1967	I Killed Rasputin	Grigori Rasputin
	Jules Verne's Rocket to the Moon	Professor von Bulow
1968	fr	Doctor Belhomme
	Chitty Chitty Bang Bang	Baron Bomburst
1969	Monte Carlo or Bust	Willi Schickel / Horst Muller
1971	$	Mr. Kessel
1972	Ludwig	Father Hoffmann
1974	de	Hotzenplotz
	And Then There Were None	Wilhelm Blore	Dubbed into English by Robert Rietti.
	Nuits Rouges	Commissaire Sorbier
1975	fr	Max Orwall
1976	Death Rite	Vestar
1977	The Serpent's Egg	Inspector Bauer
	de	Graf von Buttlar
1978	de	Tede Volkerts
1979	Bloodline	Inspector Max Hornung
1980	The Umbrella Coup	Otto Krampe ("Whale")
1982	The Falcon	Jug Bogdan
1986	The Little Vampire (TV series)	Detective Gurrmeyer

External links

• Gert Fröbe at the Internet Movie Database
• Gert Fröbe at Find a Grave