Jürgen Prochnow

Jürgen Prochnow is a German actor who was born on 10 June 1941 in Berlin, Germany. He achieved his international breakthrough with his portrayal of the sympathetic and good-hearted U-boat Commander known as Der Alte, or Old Man, in the 1981 war film Das Boot. Over the following decades, he established a prolific acting career in both German and international film and television productions.

Prochnow was raised in Düsseldorf, Germany, where his father worked as an engineer. He eventually built a prominent career in screen acting, earning broad recognition for his work across a wide variety of genres.

His notable film credits include roles in The Lost Honour of Katharina Blum in 1975, Dune in 1984, Beverly Hills Cop II in 1987, A Dry White Season in 1989, In the Mouth of Madness in 1994, The English Patient in 1996, Air Force One in 1997, and The Da Vinci Code in 2006. On television, Prochnow portrayed Sergei Bazhaev during the eighth season of 24 in 2010.

Prochnow starred in the 1985 World War II drama Forbidden, which received a German Film Award nomination for Outstanding Feature Film. He also had a significant supporting role in the 1988 film The Seventh Sign, played the leading role alongside his older brother Dieter in the 1990 film The Man Inside, portrayed Commander Paul Gerald in Wing Commander in 1999, played Arnold Schwarzenegger in the 2005 film See Arnold Run, and served as the main antagonist in the 2006 Broken Lizard film Beerfest. In 1996, he served as a jury member at the 46th Berlin International Film Festival.

In addition to on-screen acting, Prochnow has performed extensive voice dubbing work. He dubbed Sylvester Stallone's voice in the German versions of Rocky, Rocky II, F.I.S.T., and Paradise Alley, and later acted alongside Stallone in the 1995 film Judge Dredd. Following the retirement of Stallone's long-time German voice actor Thomas Danneberg, Prochnow resumed dubbing Stallone in 2018 starting with Creed II. He also usually dubs his own roles in English-language productions.

In the early 1980s, Prochnow was in a relationship with Austrian actress Antonia Reininghaus, who fatally poisoned their seven-year-old daughter Johanna in 1987. In 1982, he married Isabel Goslar, the daughter of actor Jürgen Goslar, with whom he had a daughter, Mona, and a son, Roman, before their divorce in 1997. He was married to German actress and screenwriter Birgit Stein from 2004 until their divorce in 2014; Stein later died in a motorcycle accident in Kanab, Utah, in August 2018. Since 2015, Prochnow has been married to actress Verena Wengler.

Prochnow's honors include a Goldene Kamera, a Bambi Award, and the 1985 Bavarian Film Award for Best Actor. He obtained U.S. citizenship in 2004 and formerly divided his time between Los Angeles and Munich. In 2017, he announced the sale of his home in Brentwood, Los Angeles, to relocate to Berlin.