Early life and education

Kretschmann was born in Dessau, East Germany, on 8 September 1962. Before he became an actor, Kretschmann trained to become an Olympic swimmer. At the age of 19, he fled East Germany and began a month-long trek to West Germany to escape the East German state. During this trek, part of his finger was lost but surgically reattached. Kretschmann crossed four borders (Hungary, Yugoslavia, Austria) with nothing other than his passport and the equivalent of $100 in his possession.

Career

At the age of 25, he began acting, starring in numerous European films and television series. In 1991, Kretschmann was awarded the Max Ophüls Prize for best young actor for his role in Der Mitwisser. He went on to star in his first full-length feature, the 1993 film Stalingrad. He achieved international recognition for his role as sadomasochistic rapist/murderer Alfredo Grossi in Dario Argento's The Stendhal Syndrome.

Although popular in his homeland, Kretschmann did not achieve notice in Hollywood until his role as Hauptmann Wilm Hosenfeld in Roman Polanski's 2002 film The Pianist. In the years since, Kretschmann has often portrayed military officers in films about the Third Reich. In the 2004 film Downfall, Kretschmann played Hermann Fegelein, a Waffen-SS General and brother-in-law to Eva Braun. In the 2008 thriller Valkyrie, Kretschmann played Major Otto Ernst Remer, a Wehrmacht officer who had a key role in stopping the 20 July Plot. Prior to the casting of Tom Cruise, Kretschmann had been attached to play Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg.

Kretschmann also played Adolf Eichmann in a 2007 biographical film.

Kretschmann made his first appearance on American television in 2003 when he guest starred in 2 episodes of 24. He later also appeared in Relic Hunter. In 2004, Kretschmann played Timothy Cain, a ruthless Umbrella Major, in Resident Evil: Apocalypse. In the same year, he appeared in the French film Immortal with Linda Hardy. The film was notable for its use of a digital backlot and interaction between Computer-generated characters and real actors.

In 2005, Kretschmann won a role in Peter Jackson's remake of King Kong, where he worked again with Adrien Brody, with whom he costarred in The Pianist.

The following year, Kretschmann began to win acclaim for his role in Butterfly: A Grimm Love Story (Rohtenburg in Germany). A psychological thriller, the movie co-stars Keri Russell and was inspired by the Armin Meiwes cannibalism case. It was scheduled for a March 2006 release in Germany, but its showing is under injunction after Meiwes successfully sued to have it banned on grounds of infringement of his Persönlichkeitsrecht (personality rights). At the 2006 Festival de Cine de Sitges, Kretschmann shared the Best Actor award for his performance in this film with his co-star Thomas Huber. Kretschmann also shared Best Actor with Huber at the 2007 Puchon International Fantastic Film Festival.

In 2008 Kretschmann was hired for the role of Johann Krauss in Guillermo del Toro's Hellboy II: The Golden Army. However, after several trials del Toro decided that Kretschmann's voice and the mechanical sound FX to Johann's suit did not mesh well, so the part went to Seth MacFarlane. That same year he appeared in the action thriller Wanted, alongside Angelina Jolie, Morgan Freeman and James McAvoy.

2009 saw Kretschmann guest star in the American science-fiction TV drama series FlashForward, as well as a major secondary part in the British biopic The Young Victoria as King Leopold I of Belgium. This film also received three Academy Awards nominations in 2010 for Best Art Direction, Makeup, and won for Costume Design.

The next year he returned to Germany, guest starring as himself in the romantic comedy Rabbit without Ears 2. Kretschmann then moved to Malaysia in the summer to shoot his scenes for the German biopic Dschungelkind based on the eponymous bestseller by Sabine Kuegler. The film was released in early 2011. Walt Disney Pictures confirmed in November 2010, that Kretschmann would star as one of the voice talents in the Pixar Production Cars 2. The film was released in the United States on 24 June 2011, in the United Kingdom on 22 July and in Germany on 28 July.

Kretschmann starred as Captain Kurt Brynildson in the 2011-2012 ABC original paranormal/adventure/horror television series The River about a group of people on a mission to find a missing TV explorer in the Amazon.

Kretschmann signed a multi-film contract with Marvel Studios to play Baron Wolfgang von Strucker, and first appeared as the character in a post-credits scene of the 2014 film Captain America: The Winter Soldier. He had a larger role as the character in the 2015 movie Avengers: Age of Ultron.

For the German dubs of movies and television shows he stars in, Kretschmann often dubs his parts himself.

Aside from acting Kretschmann has also worked as a fashion model, including a stint as the face for a scent by Hugo Boss.

Personal life

In early 2009 Kretschmann confirmed that he had separated from his girlfriend of 12 years Lena Roklin. Kretschmann has three children with Lena: Stella (born 1999), Nicolas (born 1998), and Sascha (born 2002). From March 2009 to June 2010, he was in a relationship with Iranian model Shermine Shahrivar. Since 2011, he has been in a relationship with Brittany Rice. He currently lives and works in Los Angeles, California.

Filmography

Year	Film	Role	Other notes
1989	Der Mitwisser		Television film Max Ophüls Prize for Best Young Actor
1992	Shining Through	Man at Zurich Station
1993	Stalingrad	Leutnant Hans von Witzland
	Die Ratte	Sven
1994	La Reine Margot	Nançay
1995	Derrick Season 22 Episode 4 Teestunde mit einer Mörderin	The Husband of the Murderess
1996	The Stendhal Syndrome	Alfredo Grossi
	Marching in Darkness (Marciando nel buio)	Gianni Tricarico
1997	Prince Valiant	Thagnar
1999	Esther: The Bible	King Ahasuerus of Persia	Television film
2000	U-571	Kapitänleutnant Günther Wassner
2001	Feindliche Übernahme - althan.com	Robert Fernau
2001	The Knights of the Quest	Vanni Delle Rondini
2002	Blade II	Eli Damaskinos
	The Pianist	Hauptmann Wilm Hosenfeld
2003	24	Max	Episodes: "Day 2: 6:00 a.m.-7:00 a.m." & "Day 2: 7:00 a.m.-8:00 a.m."
2004	In Enemy Hands	First Watch Officer Ludwig Cremer
	Immortel (Ad Vitam)	Nikopol
	Downfall	SS-Obergruppenführer Hermann Fegelein
	Resident Evil: Apocalypse	Major Timothy Cain
	The Karate Dog	Gerber	Television film
	Head in the Clouds	Major Franz Bietrich
	Frankenstein	Victor Helios	Television film
2005	Schneeland	Aron
	Have No Fear: The Life of Pope John Paul II	Pope John Paul II	Miniseries
	King Kong	Captain Englehorn
2006	Rohtenburg	Oliver Hartwin	Best Actor, Sitges 2006 (shared with co-star Thomas Huber) Best Actor, PiFan 2007 (shared with co-star Thomas Huber)
	The Celestine Prophecy	Wil
	24: The Game	Max	Video game
2007	Next	Mr. Smith
	In Transit	Max
	Eichmann	Adolf Eichmann
	Bionic Woman	The Man	Television series (episode one)
	Warum Männer nicht zuhören und Frauen schlecht einparken	Paul
2008	Wanted	Cross
	Transsiberian	Kolzak
	Mogadischu	Kapitän Jürgen Schumann	Television film
	Der Seewolf	Kapitän Wolf Larsen	Television film
	Valkyrie	Otto Ernst Remer
2009	The Young Victoria	King Leopold I of Belgium
	King Conqueror	Archbishop of Tarragona
	Wanted: Weapons of Fate	Cross	Video game
	FlashForward	Stefan Krieger	Television series
2010	The Nazi Officer's Wife	Kapitänleutnant Günther Wassner
	Dare to Love Me	Mariano
2011	Cars 2	Professor Zündapp	Voice
	The Sinking of the Laconia	Admiral Dönitz	Television film - BBC Productions
	Jungle Child	Klaus Kuegler
	The Cape	Gregor the Great	Television series
	Hostel: Part III	Flemming	Direct-to-DVD
	What a Man	Jens
2012	Dracula 3D	Dracula
	The River	Captain Kurt Brynildson	Television series
2013	Dracula	Abraham Van Helsing	Television series
	Stalingrad	Peter Kahn
	Open Grave	Lukas
	The Galapagos Affair: Satan Came to Eden	Friedrich Ritter	Narration/voice
2014	Captain America: The Winter Soldier	Baron Wolfgang von Strucker	Mid-credits scene cameo
	Plastic	Marcel
2015	Avengers: Age of Ultron	Baron Wolfgang von Strucker
	Hitman: Agent 47	Le Clerq
	Discarnate		Post-production
2016	Stratton: First Into Action		Filming

Awards

• Best Young Actor (Der Mitwisser), Max Ophüls Festival, 1991
• Best Actor (Rohtenburg), Sitges - Catalonian International Film Festival, 2006
• Best Actor (Rohtenburg), Bucheon International Fantastic Film Festivalm, 2007

[ Source: Wikipedia ]