Gottfried John turns 70
German film’s most striking visage and its saddest eyes
Gottfried John was born in Berlin on August 29, 1942 and spent most of his early years living in child-welfare institutions. In 1960 he moved with his mother to Paris, where he earned his living as, among other things, a pavement artist. It was during this period of “vagabondage” that he began to dream of becoming an actor. However, his plans suffered a setback in 1962 when, on returning to Germany, he was refused admission to the Max Reinhardt School of Acting in West Berlin. Not to be deterred, John enrolled in a private acting school run by Marlise Ludwig. He began his acting career at Berlin’s Schiller Theater and in 1965 was cast by director Hans Neuenfels in the latter’s production of Peter Handke’s Offending the Audience, which was staged in the city of Krefeld and as well as other locations. Neuenfels subsequently took the actor to Heidelberg with him, where he cast John in classical roles such as Richard III, Macbeth and Robespierre.
JAIDER – THE LONELY HUNTER, directed by Volker Vogeler in 1970, provided Gottfried John with his first film role. He then took over the role originally slated for Klaus Kinski in Hans W. Geißendörfer’s western CARLOS. In 1972, he was cast by Fassbinder in the role of Jochen in the director’s TV series for the broadcaster WDR, EIGHT HOURS ARE NOT A DAY. The series marked the beginning of a long collaboration that included a total of nine film projects, among which were WORLD ON A WIRE (1973) and MOTHER KÜSTERS’ TRIP TO HEAVEN (1975). From 1976 to 1979, after working with Fassbinder at Frankfurt’s Theater am Turm (TAT), John appeared in the director’s THE STATIONMASTER’S WIFE, DESPAIR, THE MARRIAGE OF MARIA BRAUN, and IN A YEAR WITH 13 MOONS. He also appeared in Billy Wilder’s FEDORA. His performance as Reinhold Hoffmann, Franz Biberkopf’s counterpart in BERLIN ALEXANDERPLATZ (1979/80) undoubtedly represents the highpoint of Gottfried John’s work with Fassbinder.
Starting in the mid-1980s, John increasingly began to work elsewhere in Europe—particularly in Great Britain—appearing, for example, in the war film MATA HARI and in the TV series GAME, SET AND MATCH. In the 1990s he worked on the American series SPACE RANGERS. He has won international respect as an actor, a reputation reflected in the roles he has been awarded in large-scale international productions such as the James Bond film GOLDEN EYE (1995), Volker Schlöndorff’s THE OGRE (1995/96) and ASTERIX AND OBELIX TAKE ON CAESAR (1999). 1999 also saw him appear in the French historical film BALZAC. During the 2000s he continued working on both German and international projects, particularly notable among which is the film JOHN RABE (2007-2009).
Gottfried John has also written two novels, the semi-autobiographical Bekenntnisse eines Unerzogenen (2000) and the philosophically-tinged Das fünfte Wort (2005).
The Rainer Werner Fassbinder Foundation extends its very best wishes to Gottfried John on his birthday!
Photo left: dpa
Photo right: Gottfried John in the role of Jochen in EIGHT HOURS ARE NOT A DAY, 1972/73 © RWFF