Gottfried John
Birthday: Born in 1942-08-29 in Berlin, Germany
Deathday: 2014-09-01
Gottfried John (German: [ˈjoːn];[1] 29 August 1942 – 1 September 2014) was a German stage, screen, and voice actor. A long-time collaborator of Rainer Werner Fassbinder, John appeared in many of the filmmaker's projects between 1975 and his death in 1982, including Mother Küsters Goes to Heaven, Despair, The Marriage of Maria Braun , and Berlin Alexanderplatz. His distinctive, gaunt appearance saw him he frequently cast as villains, and he is best known to audiences for his role as the corrupt General Arkady Orumov in the 1995 James Bond film GoldenEye, and for his comedic turn as Julius Caesar in Asterix & Obelix Take On Caesar, the latter for which he won the Bavarian Film Award for Best Supporting Actor.
TV Credits
Augusto - Il primo imperatore
Character: Cicerone
...
Millennium
Character: Josef Heim
A retired FBI serial-profiler joins the mysterious Millennium Group, a team of underground ex-law enforcement experts dedicated to fighting against the ever-growing forces of evil and darkness in the world....
Space Rangers
Character: Erich Weiss
Space Rangers is an American futuristic science fiction drama. The short lived series aired on CBS in 1993. The show was created by Pen Densham and Trilogy Entertainment Group....
Game, Set, and Match
Character:
Focuses on Bernard Samson (Ian Holm), beginning with his search for the "mole" that threatens the Brahms Network in East Germany. Samson is sent to Berlin to bring out a Brahms agent. He is then sent to Mexico to try to persuade a KGB major (Gottfried John) to defect, using his childhood friend Verner Volkmann's wife Zena as bait. After it appears another traitor is working at London Central, Samson himself becomes one of the prime suspects....
Berlin Alexanderplatz
Character: Reinhold Hoffmann
In late 1920s Berlin, Franz Biberkopf is released from prison and vows to go straight. However, he soon finds himself embroiled in the city’s criminal underworld....
Der Kommissar
Character: Werner Stimmel
Der Kommissar is a German television series about a group of detectives of the Munich homicide squad. All 97 episodes, which were shot in black-and-white and first broadcast between 1969 and 1976, were written by Herbert Reinecker and starred Erik Ode as Kommissar Herbert Keller. Keller's assistants were Walter Grabert, Robert Heines, and Harry Klein who, in 1974, was replaced by his younger brother Erwin Klein....
Acht Stunden sind kein Tag
Character: Jochen Epp
Commissioned to make a working-class family drama for public television, up-and-coming director Rainer Werner Fassbinder took the assignment and ran, dodging expectations by depicting social realities in West Germany from a critical—yet far from cynical—perspective. Over the course of five episodes, the sprawling story tracks the everyday triumphs and travails of the young toolmaker Jochen and many of the people populating his world, including the woman he loves, his eccentric family, and his fe...
Tatort
Character: Harry Mucher
Tatort is a long-running German/Austrian/Swiss, crime television series set in various parts of these countries. The show is broadcast on the channels of ARD in Germany, ORF in Austria and SF1 in Switzerland....
Die große Flatter
Character: Herr Adam
A miniseries about a pair of teenagers living in a slum at the fringes of Berlin. Alcoholism, prostitution, and violence are just a few of the themes of the three movies....
Die Cleveren
Character: Dr. Brendel
Die Cleveren is a German television series that was produced from 1998 to 2003 on RTL. It is about a nation wide special unit of the German Bundeskriminalamt, dealing with serial offenders. The main characters are the profiler Dr. Dominik Born and a policewoman of the BKA, who co-ordinates the necessary steps to be taken by the local police authorities....
Derrick
Character: Krummbach
Derrick was a German TV series produced by Telenova Film und Fernsehproduktion in association with ZDF, ORF and SRG between 1974 and 1998 about Detective Chief Inspector Stephan Derrick and his loyal assistant Inspector Harry Klein, who solve murder cases in Munich and surroundings....
Ein Fall für zwei
Character: Hans Beckers
Ein Fall für zwei is a German television series, which premiered on September 11, 1981 on ZDF. The series, located in Frankfurt am Main, features two main characters who solve crimes: a defense attorney and a private investigator. Josef Matula, a former German police officer, has gone into private business. His method of investigation is very effective and direct, and he sometimes even resorts to dirty tricks. Claus Theo Gärtner has portrayed the role since the start of the series....
Ein Fall für zwei
Character: Markus Meyer
Ein Fall für zwei is a German television series, which premiered on September 11, 1981 on ZDF. The series, located in Frankfurt am Main, features two main characters who solve crimes: a defense attorney and a private investigator. Josef Matula, a former German police officer, has gone into private business. His method of investigation is very effective and direct, and he sometimes even resorts to dirty tricks. Claus Theo Gärtner has portrayed the role since the start of the series....
Wolffs Revier
Character: Johnny Reschke
Wolffs Revier is a German television series....
Polizeiruf 110
Character: Hellwig
Polizeiruf 110 is a long-running German language detective television series. The first episode was broadcast 27 June 1971 in the German Democratic Republic, and after the dissolution of Fernsehen der DDR the series was picked up by ARD. It was originally created as a counterpart to the West German series Tatort, and quickly became a public favorite....
Game, Set, and Match
Character: Erich Stinnes
Focuses on Bernard Samson (Ian Holm), beginning with his search for the "mole" that threatens the Brahms Network in East Germany. Samson is sent to Berlin to bring out a Brahms agent. He is then sent to Mexico to try to persuade a KGB major (Gottfried John) to defect, using his childhood friend Verner Volkmann's wife Zena as bait. After it appears another traitor is working at London Central, Samson himself becomes one of the prime suspects....
Beckmann
Character: Self
Reinhold Beckmann hosts a weekly talk show....
Donna Leon
Character: Carmello La Capra
Murder, Venice, relationships...it's a delicious concoction in the hands of crime novelist Donna Leon. Venice provides the backdrop for the lush film versions of the bestselling novels, which features the indelible Commissario Guido Brunetti, canal boat rides instead of car chases, fine cuisine and crime investigations in one of Europe’s most beautiful locations....
Balzac
Character: le comte Hanski
As Balzac prepares to die, his entire past flashes before his eyes. As a young writer, he was driven by the desire to achieve something great. With the support of Laure de Berny, he started printing and publishing without much success, but it was with his pen that he achieved fame, thanks to the constant support of Madame de Berny. Balzac became a writer that readers devoured....
Nachtcafé
Character: Self
...
Julie, chevalier de Maupin
Character: Henri, duc d'Armagnac
Agnès Dormes, a famous opera singer, saves Julie, a baby girl who was about to be sacrificed during a black mass. Twenty years later, the baby has turned into a beautiful energetic twenty-year-old young lady determined to find out about her origins. In Avignon, Julie manages to meet Agnès and discovers on the occasion she is not her real mother. A series of adventures will ensue and at a time Julie is nearly burned on the stake. But she eventually achieves her end and can marry, a street perform...
Colpo di coda
Character: Pierre
...
NDR Talk Show
Character: Self
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Welt am Draht
Character: Einstein
Cybernetics engineer Fred Stiller uncovers a massive corporate conspiracy involving a virtual reality computer project....
Movie Credits
Lili Marleen
Character: Aaron
The story of a German singer named Willie who while working in Switzerland falls in love with a Jewish composer named Robert whose family is helping people to flee from the Nazis. Robert’s family is skeptical of Willie, thinking she could be a Nazi as she becomes famous for singing the song “Lili Marleen”....
The Marriage of Maria Braun
Character: Willi Klenze
Maria marries a young soldier in the last days of World War II, only for him to go missing in the war. She must rely on her beauty and ambition to navigate the difficult post-war years alone....
GoldenEye
Character: General Arkady Grigorovich Ourumov
When a powerful satellite system falls into the hands of Alec Trevelyan, AKA Agent 006, a former ally-turned-enemy, only James Bond can save the world from a dangerous space weapon that -- in one short pulse -- could destroy the earth! As Bond squares off against his former compatriot, he also battles Xenia Onatopp, an assassin who uses pleasure as her ultimate weapon....
Abraham
Character: Eliezer
Rather than choosing a great leader or king, God chooses Abraham, an elderly shepherd from Mesopotamia, as the way to establish his Covenant with mankind... A man of great faith, Abraham continues to believe in God even when He seems to have abandoned him....
Schön war die Zeit
Character: Franz Bauer
...
John Rabe
Character: Dr. Oskar Trautmann
A true-story account of a German businessman who saved more than 200,000 Chinese during the Nanjing massacre in 1937-38....
Asterix & Obelix Take on Caesar
Character: Jules César
Set in 50 B.C., Asterix and Obelix are living in a small but well-protected village in Gaul, where a magic potion concocted by Druids turns the townsfolk into mighty soldiers. When Roman troops carve a path through Gaul to reach the English Channel, Caesar and his aide de camp Detritus discover the secret elixir and capture the Druid leader who knows its formula, and Asterix and Obelix are sent off to rescue them....
Institute Benjamenta, or This Dream People Call Human Life
Character: Herr Benjamenta
Jakob arrives at the Institute Benjamenta (run by brother and sister Johannes and Lisa Benjamenta) to learn to become a servant. With seven other men, he studies under Lisa: absurd lessons of movement, drawing circles, and servility. He asks for a better room. No other students arrive and none leave for employment. Johannes is unhappy, imperious, and detached from the school's operation. Lisa is beautiful, at first tightly controlled, then on the verge of breakdown. There's a whiff of incest. Ja...
In a Year with 13 Moons
Character: Anton Saitz
Elvira Weishaupt, once a burly working-class butcher, has made an enormous sacrifice for love. She has undergone a sex change for a romantic interest who has abandoned her, and she now must struggle to reconcile her past life with her present identity....
The Piano Tuner of Earthquakes
Character: Dr. Emmanuel Droz
Dark fairytale about a demonic doctor who abducts a beautiful opera singer with designs on transforming her into a mechanical nightingale....
The Ogre
Character: Chief Forester
Frenchman Abel Tiffauges is a naive man who lives a simple life working as a mechanic. Falsely accused of being a child abuser, he is recruited as a soldier when World War II begins, but is captured soon and taken to the heart of Nazi Germany....
Mata Hari
Character: Wolff
Based loosely on the real-life story of the World War I spy. The exotic dancer uses her contacts in European high society, along with her seductive charm, to collect military secrets during the war. She successfully plays both sides against each other until at last her deceptions catch up with her....
Life Is Too Long
Character: Georg Maria Stahl
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Fedora
Character: Kritos
An ambitious Hollywood hustler becomes involved with a reclusive female star, whom he tries to lure out of retirement....
Mary Magdalene
Character: Erode Antipa
Employed as a spy and given the task of investigating the threat posed by John the Baptist, Mary Magdalene is overwhelmed by John's powerful message of the coming of the Messiah. Gazing into John's eyes before he dies, Mary is left with the certainty that her place is at the side of this great man, Jesus Christ....
Night of the Fox
Character: Hofer
This classic war mini-series stars George Peppard and Michael York in a gripping tale of danger, intrigue, and a deadly secret that could determine the fate of millions. U.S. Officer Colonel Hugh Kelso has inside knowledge about the imminent and highly secretive D-Day Invasion. When he washes ashore behind enemy lines, special agents Harry Martineau and Sara Drayton of the Allied Forces must stage a covert rescue to save his life – or end it – before the Germans acquire the valuable information...
A Pirate's Heart
Character: Konrad von Wallenrod
The end of the 14th century. Parents send the eldest son Jan to study in Hamburg, and the youngest - Klaus - to the monastery. No sooner had the children moved away from their homes, as on Klaus'es eyes the robbers kill their parents and burn the house. Only thanks to the loyal monk Wigbold Klaus managed to survive the shock. A few years later Klaus Störtebeker finds his brother Jan and his long-time friend Elizabeth Pren in Hamburg. From her, he learns that she is expected to marry Simon von Wa...
Ruby Red
Character: Dr. White
On her 16th birthday, Gwendolyn Shepherd finds out that instead of her cousin, she has inherited a rare gene that allows her to travel through time....
The Stationmaster’s Wife
Character: Finkelberger
The lackluster and plodding Bolweiser has the (mis)fortune to be married to the town’s siren; his trusting nature leads him into serious trouble when she beds nearly every available guy....
Carlos
Character: Carlos
In the Southwest of 1915 Carlos backs an intended uprising of the common countymen against his father Phillip, a despotic landowner who exploits the rural poors in his silver mines. But Carlos' indecision and his love for his young and beautiful stepmother leads into a failure....
Despair
Character: Perebrodov
Berlin, 1930, during the rise of Nazism. Hermann Hermann, a Russian emigrant and chocolate manufacturer, married to the capricious Lydia, loses his temper more and more every day when dealing with his workers and other businessmen; until he meets Felix, a vagrant, who seems to be physically identical to him; a disconcerting fact that leads Hermann Hermann to plot a particular way out of a fake world he actually hates....
A World Beyond
Character: Dr. Jan Kersebohm
Hans and Fridel are a marriage that come to Java fleeing of the pursuit Nazi just before the Second World war comes untied. In this paradise Hans finds an employment as municipal police, but his wife, always unsatisfied, turns into one addicted to the opium. One day Hans knows Helen, the daughter of an important businessman, with whom he falls in love almost to the instant. But Fridel is his major worry, and can´t leave her, though it will not be able to forget Helen either....
Otto - The Movie
Character: Sonnemann
East Friesian Otto moves to the big city Hamburg. There he gets into trouble with a loan shark and needs to find a way to impress his love interest Silvia....
The Papal Council
Character: Paolo Naldini
...
Sams in Gefahr
Character: School Inspector
Sams in danger, it is said, when Mr. Taschenbier's son Martin brings the Sams back into the household, which, however, is kidnapped shortly afterwards by the sports teacher because of his special skills....
Jaider, the Lonely Hunter
Character: Jaider
When Jaider has to illegally poach in order to feed the citizens of a poor Alpine town, he gets into a blood-soaked conflict with the German authorities....
Wings of Fame
Character: Zlatogorski
A famous movie actor claims that he has written a book. As result, a real author, not a very well known writer, vengefully kills him but then dies as a result of an accident. Next, they both find themselves in after-life, where souls of all famous people are gathered....
Die schöne Braut in Schwarz
Character: Aldo Caldini
Sylvia Rosch is a woman with dangerous obsessions. Camouflaged by perfectly rehearsed masquerades, she wages a merciless campaign of revenge. Anyone who gets too close will succumb to an insidious murder. The marriage swindler's preferred victims are men worth millions. Barbara Lahn and Til Wegner from the BKA are facing a huge challenge. They are supposed to collect evidence against the angel of death....
Black Flowers
Character: Curtis
Following the failure of his last mission, RFG spy Michael Roddick decides to disappear, taking along Elena, the daughter of a Russian spy who died under strange circumstances. They settle in Barcelona and open a restaurant, to help them to forget about the past. Nevertheless, his former colleagues reappear alleging there are still some matters yet to be settled....
Die Löwin
Character: Jo
...
Entrusted
Character: Thomas von Gall - grandfather
Hoping to entrap Maria von Gall, who runs a courageous underground railroad for Jews in France, the Nazis kidnap her son Thomas, a brilliant 11-year-old chess master. An exchange arrangement goes awry and he sees her die in a hail of bullets; but he is rescued by his American father, whom he has never met before, and who plans to flee with him to Spain. However, Queen Maria had solemnly entrusted her little pawn Thomas with a precious secret and a terrifying mission, and it was time for him to m...
Mother Küsters Goes to Heaven
Character: Jörg Niemeyer
After a worker kills a superior and commits suicide, each of his family members attempts to forge a path forward in life....
Aghet
Character: Friedrich Kress von Kressenstein
2010 documentary film on the Armenian Genocide by the Young Turk government of the Ottoman Empire during World War I. It is based on eyewitness reports by European and American personnel stationed in the Near East at the time, Armenian survivors and other contemporary witnesses which are recited by modern German actors....
Emerald Green
Character: Dr. White (archive footage)
Emerald Green is the stunning conclusion to Kerstin Gier's Ruby Red Trilogy, picking up where Sapphire Blue left off, reaching new heights of intrigue and romance as Gwen finally uncovers the secrets of the time-traveling society and learns her fate....
Flood
Character: Arthur Moyes
Timely yet terrifying, The Flood predicts the unthinkable. When a raging storm coincides with high seas it unleashes a colossal tidal surge, which travels mercilessly down England's East Coast and into the Thames Estuary. Overwhelming the Barrier, torrents of water pour into the city. The lives of millions of Londoners are at stake....
The Mistake
Character: Jacob Alain
It is 1988. Jacob (Gottfried John), from Hamburg in West Germany, falls in love with Elisabeth (Angelica Domröse) in East Germany. When they secretly meet in East Berlin, it seems the Stasi (secret police) knows about it. When Jacob visits her village, someone informs on him and he is deported. Elisabeth knows who begrudges her this love and takes her revenge. Critics note that in this film, director Heiner Carow revisits the themes of his 1972 smash hit, The Legend of Paul and Paula, which beca...
Die Mitläufer
Character: Brocke
...
Chinese Boxes
Character: Zwemmer
An American in West Berlin finds himself caught up in murder and intrigue after his associate is killed and a diplomat's daughter is found dead in his room....
Novalis - Die blaue Blume
Character: Sophies Vater
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Rumpelstilzchen
Character: König Gustav
The king locks the miller’s daughter, Lisa, in a room full of straw to turn into gold in just one night. If she doesn’t succeed she would be executed....
Proof of Life
Character: Eric Kessler
Alice hires a professional negotiator to obtain the release of her engineer husband, who has been kidnapped by anti-government guerrillas in South America....
The Gathering Storm
Character: Friedrich von Schroder
A love story offering an intimate look inside the marriage of Winston and Clementine Churchill during a particularly troubled, though little-known, moment in their lives....
Balzac: A Life of Passion
Character: Count Hanska
This is the sprawling saga of Honoré de Balzac, a man who created a great literary oeuvre from the dramas and adventures of his own life - a life that he shaped into one spectacular and unforgettable blaze of passion. At the heart of the story are the women in Balzac's life. Although gruff, unsophisticated, and far from handsome, Balzac exerts an irresistible fascination on women....
Augustus: The First Emperor
Character: Cicero
Caesar Augustus tells of how he became the emperor to his reluctant daughter, Julia following the death of her husband Agrippa....
Fassbinder's Berlin Alexanderplatz: A Mega Movie and Its Story
Character: Self
A documentary about the making of the television mini-series by Rainer Werner Fassbinder, including interviewees with the principal actors....
Of Pure Blood
Character: Paul Bergmann
A mother investigating her son's mysterious death finds much more than she bargained for. Casting director Alicia Browning (Remick) takes leave of her job in NYC to investigate what happened to her son Mark (Browning) in Germany. Her persistence uncovers perplexing details that lead to the discovery of some very unsettling, and dark personal memories!...
Cowgirl
Character: Hans Krahl
Dreamy Paula and her husband Edgar, an insurance salesman, lead a dull, middle-class life in Struvensiel, a fictitious suburb of Hamburg. Paula runs into her childhood sweetheart Max at their 10-year class reunion. In order to save him from Hamburg's underworld, she turns - to her own surprise - from a plain country bumpkin into a tough lady....
Am I Beautiful?
Character: Herbert
Between Munich and Seville, the destinies of sixteen characters intertwine and intersect, missing each other or colliding head-on. They are all, without knowing it, at a pivotal moment in their lives......
Super
Character:
The Earth shortly before its end. The houses in the cities are deserted, the streets smashed. The sky shimmers dark gray....
Death Has A Bad Reputation
Character: Rodimstev
A British agent is chasing after famous terrorist Carlos when he resurfaces in Europe....
The Stationmaster’s Wife
Character:
The lackluster and plodding Bolweiser has the (mis)fortune to be married to the town’s siren; his trusting nature leads him into serious trouble when she beds nearly every available guy....
Renzo e Lucia
Character: Innominato
Loose adaptation of Italy's national epic, Alessandro Manzoni's “The Betrothed”. In war-torn 17th century Italy, shady feudal lord Don Rodrigo eyes young and beautiful Lucia, who loves—and is reciprocated by—commoner Renzo. The two lovers plan to marry in secret, but Rodrigo discovers it and they are forced to flee their village, becoming separated and each facing many dangers, including the Plague....
Julie, chevalier de Maupin
Character: Henri, duc d'Armagnac
Agnès Dormes, a famous opera singer, saves Julie, a baby girl who was about to be sacrificed during a black mass. Twenty years later, the baby has turned into a beautiful energetic twenty-year-old young lady determined to find out about her origins. In Avignon, Julie manages to meet Agnès and discovers on the occasion she is not her real mother. A series of adventures will ensue and at a time Julie is nearly burned on the stake. But she eventually achieves her end and can marry, a street perform...
Bartolome oder Die Rückkehr der weißen Götter
Character: Bartolomé de las Casas
...
La casa dove abitava Corinne
Character: Michele Wolf
The story of Doriana, a young lawyer, who moves to Rome, because a criminal she convicted has escaped prison and threatens to kill her. But the flat she takes in Rome doesn't bring her any luck either: In her new flat, unbeknownst to her, a call girl called Corinne has been stabbed to death almost a year ago, and the killer has never been caught. As soon as she lives there, she gets anonymous telephone calls and other hints to the murder. When she learns about the unsolved case, she starts to in...