Gert Fröbe

Gert Fröbe
Gert Fröbe as Auric Goldfingerin 1964 Born February 25, 1913(1913-02-25)
Died September 5, 1988(aged 75)
Occupation actor Years active 1948–1988

Karl Gerhart Fröbe, better known as Gert Fröbe (pronounced [geɐt fʁøbə]) (February 25, 1913 – September 5, 1988), was a German actor who starred in many films, including the James Bond film Goldfinger as Auric Goldfinger and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang as Baron Bomburst and in "Der Räuber Hotzenplotz" as Hotzenplotz

Fröbe made several appearances in big all-star casts in the 1960s, including the films The Longest Day, Is Paris Burning?, and Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines. Due to his thick German accent, Fröbe was dubbed in some of his classic roles, including by British actor Michael Collins in Goldfinger. He also appeared in $ (1971) with Goldie Hawn and Warren Beatty.

While Fröbe was a member of the Nazi Party before and during World War II, he aided German Jews by hiding them from the Gestapo before 1945. Owing to his connection to the Nazi Party, the film Goldfinger was banned in Israel until he was publicly thanked by a Jewish family.[1]

Fröbe gained early fame in one of the first movies made after WWII, called Berliner Ballade (The Ballad of Berlin, 1948), as a very thin man. That changed rapidly in later movies. In 1958 Fröbe was cast as the villain in the Swiss-German movie Es geschah am hellichten Tag (It Happened in Broad Daylight), which was novelised by Swiss author Friedrich Dürrenmatt. His role as an insane murderer of children drew the attention of the producers of the James Bond movie Goldfinger (1964) and he was finally to play one of the most remarkable and remembered villains of the series, gold tycoon Auric Goldfinger.

Aside from acting, Fröbe also was a prolific reciter of lyric poetry, especially of Christian Morgenstern and Joachim Ringelnatz.

Fröbe died, aged 75, in September 1988 from a heart attack.

Trivia

Gert Fröbe on a 2000 German stamp

In the film Joe Dirt, actor Christopher Walken's character, protected by the United States witness protection program, changed his name to Gert B. Frobe. Both Fröbe and Walken have played Bond villains.

References

^ Associated Press. (1988, 6 September). Gert Frobe, an Actor, Dies at 75.

External links

Gert Fröbe at the Internet Movie Database

Preceded by
Lotte Lenya Official James Bond villain actor
1964 Succeeded by
Adolfo Celi

PersondataNAME Fröbe, Gert ALTERNATIVE NAMES SHORT DESCRIPTION German actor DATE OF BIRTH February 25, 1913PLACE OF BIRTH Planitz DATE OF DEATH September 5, 1988PLACE OF DEATH Munich, Germany