ACADEMY AWARD: Winners and Nominees from the German-speaking Countries
by ZeddaZogenau | created - 2 months ago | updated - 2 months ago | PublicDACH-Raum ( DEUTSCHLAND / ÖSTERREICH / SCHWEIZ)
1. Albert Bassermann
Actor | Foreign Correspondent
Classically-trained actor, former chemist, whose formative years on the stage were spent in Bern (Switzerland) and, from 1909, the Deutsches Theater Berlin under Max Reinhardt's direction. Specialised in Shakespearean roles ('Richard III', 'Hamlet') and was a famous interpreter of the plays of ...
ACADEMY AWARD 1941: Nomination for FOREIGN CORRESPONDENT / DER AUSLANDSKORRESPONDENT
2. Elisabeth Bergner
Actress | The Rise of Catherine the Great
Elisabeth Bergner was the daughter of the merchant Emil Ettel and his wife Anna Rosa Wagner. She grew up in Vienna, and she made her theatre debut in Innsbruck in 1915. In 1916 she obtained a contract in Zürich, where she played Ophelia next to the famous Alexander Moissi, who fell in love with her...
ACADEMY AWARD 1936: Nomination for ESCAPE ME NEVER / VERLASS MICH NIEMALS WIEDER
3. Theodore Bikel
Actor | My Fair Lady
Theodore Bikel is one of the most versatile and respected actors and performers of his generation. A master of languages, dialects and accents, he has played every sort of film villain and semi-bad guy imaginable, and always adds depth, dimension and even sympathy to characters that would end up as...
ACADEMY AWARD 1959: Nomination for THE DEFIANT ONES / FLUCHT IN KETTEN
4. Klaus Maria Brandauer
Actor | Out of Africa
Klaus Maria Brandauer was a music student and studied drama at Stuttgarter Hochschule. He was a true stage actor and therefore didn't like to work in movies except for two small parts in The Salzburg Connection (1972) and Októberi vasárnap (1979). This changed when Hungarian director ...
ACADEMY AWARD 1986: Nomination for OUT OF AFRICA / JENSEITS VON AFRIKA
5. Sandra Bullock
Producer | The Proposal
Sandra Annette Bullock was born in Arlington, a Virginia suburb of Washington, D.C. Her mother, Helga Bullock (née Helga Mathilde Meyer), was a German opera singer. Her father, John W. Bullock, was an American voice teacher, who was born in Alabama, of German descent. Sandra grew up on the road ...
6. Doris Day
Soundtrack | Love Me or Leave Me
One of America's most loved actresses was born Doris Mary Kappelhoff on April 3, 1922, in Cincinnati, Ohio, to Alma Sophia (Welz), a housewife, and William Joseph Kappelhoff, a music teacher and choir master. Her grandparents were all German immigrants. She had two brothers, Richard, who died ...
ACADEMY AWARD 1960: Nomination for PILLOW TALK / BETTGEFLÜSTER
7. Marlene Dietrich
Soundtrack | Witness for the Prosecution
Her father was a police lieutenant and imbued in her a military attitude to life. Marlene was known in school for her "bedroom eyes" and her first affairs were at this stage in her life - a professor at the school was terminated. She entered the cabaret scene in 1920s Germany, first as a spectator ...
ACADEMY AWARD 1931: Nomination for MOROCCO / MAROKKO
8. Kirsten Dunst
Actress | Spider-Man
Kirsten Caroline Dunst is an American actress, who also holds German citizenship. She was born on April 30, 1982 in Point Pleasant, New Jersey, to parents Inez (née Rupprecht), who owned an art gallery, and Klaus Dunst, a medical services executive. She has a younger brother named Christian Dunst, ...
9. Michael Fassbender
Actor | Shame
Michael Fassbender is an Irish actor who was born in Heidelberg, Germany, to a German father, Josef, and an Irish mother, Adele (originally from Larne, County Antrim, in Northern Ireland). Michael was raised in the town of Killarney, Co. Kerry, in south-west Ireland, where his family moved to when ...
10. Oscar Homolka
Actor | The Seven Year Itch
Because of his heavy generically "European" accent and Slavic-sounding surname (not an uncommon one among Czechs or Slovaks), many people assumed Oscar Homolka was Eastern European or Russian. In fact, he was born in Vienna (then Austria-Hungary), the multicultural capital of a large multi-ethnic ...
ACADEMY AWARD 1949: Nomination for I REMEMBER MAMA
11. Emil Jannings
Actor | The Last Command
His real name was Theodor Friedrich Emil Janenz, and in the early 1900s, he was already working in the theater under Max Reinhardt's company. Important movies where he defined himself as a convincing actor were Passion (1919) and Quo Vadis? (1924), followed by The Last Laugh (1924) (aka The Last ...
ACADEMY AWARD 1929 for THE LAST COMMAND
12. Lotte Lenya
Actress | From Russia with Love
Lotte Lenya was a Tony Award-winning and Academy award-nominated actress and singer. While best remembered in the U.S. for her supporting role as Rosa Klebb in the classic Bond film From Russia with Love (1963), she is celebrated in Germany for her ground-breaking performances in the plays of Kurt ...
ACADEMY AWARD 1962: Nomination for THE ROMAN SPRING OF MRS. STONE
13. Joe Mantell
Actor | Marty
Joe Mantell was an American actor of Austrian-Jewish descent. His original last name was "Mantel", but he added an additional l at the end. He was once nominated for Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor .
In 1915, Mantell was born in Brooklyn, New York City. His parents were immigrants from the ...
ACADEMY AWARD 1956: Nomination for MARTY
14. Armin Mueller-Stahl
Actor | Eastern Promises
Armin Mueller-Stahl is a German actor with a relatively long film career. He was once nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, for his role as an abusive father in the biographical drama "Shine" (1996).
In 1930, Mueller-Stahl was born in Tilsit, East Prussia. The town developed ...
ACADEMY AWARD 1996: Nomination for SHINE
15. Paul Muni
Actor | Scarface
Paul Muni was born Sept. 22, 1895, in Lemberg, Austro-Hungarian Empire, to Salli and Phillip Weisenfreund, who were both professionals. His family was Jewish, and spoke Yiddish. Paul was educated in New York and Cleveland public schools. He was described as 5 feet 10 inches, with black hair and ...
ACADEMY AWARD 1930: Nomination for THE VALIANT / ACADEMY AWARD 1934: Nomination for I AM A FUGITIVE FROM A CHAIN GANG / ACADEMY AWARD 1936: Nomination for BLACK FURY / ACADEMY AWARD 1937 for THE STORY OF LOUIS PASTEUR / ACADEMY AWARD 1938: Nomination for THE LIFE OF EMILE ZOLA / ACADEMY AWARD 1960: Nomination for THE LAST ANGRY MAN
16. Luise Rainer
Actress | The Great Ziegfeld
Luise Rainer, the first thespian to win back-to-back Oscars, was born on January 12, 1910 in Dusseldorf, Germany, into a prosperous Jewish family. Her parents were Emilie (Königsberger) and Heinrich Rainer, a businessman. She took to the stage, and plied her craft on the boards in Germany. As a ...
ACADEMY AWARD 1937 for THE GREAT ZIEGFELD / ACADEMY AWARD 1938 for THE GOOD EARTH
17. Maximilian Schell
Actor | Judgment at Nuremberg
Maximilian Schell was the most successful German-speaking actor in English-language films since Emil Jannings, the winner of the first Best Actor Academy Award. Like Jannings, Schell won the Oscar, but unlike him, he was a dedicated anti-Nazi. Indeed, with the exception of Maurice Chevalier and ...
ACADEMY AWARD 1962 for DAS URTEIL VON NÜRNBERG / ACADEMY AWARD 1976: Nomination for THE MAN IN THE GLASS BOOTH / ACADEMY AWARD 1978: Nomination for JULIA
18. Christoph Waltz
Actor | Django Unchained
Christoph Waltz is an Austrian-German actor. He is known for his work with American filmmaker Quentin Tarantino, receiving acclaim for portraying SS-Standartenführer Hans Landa in Inglourious Basterds (2009) and bounty hunter Dr. King Schultz in Django Unchained (2012). For each performance, he won...
ACADEMY AWARD 2010 for INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS / ACADEMY AWARD 2013 for DJANGO UNCHAINED
19. Joseph Schildkraut
Actor | The Shop Around the Corner
An imposing Austrian import-turned-matinée idol on the silent screen, Hollywood actor Joseph Schildkraut went on to conquer talking films as well -- with Oscar-winning results. Inclined towards smooth, cunning villainy, his Oscar came instead for his sympathetic portrayal of Captain Alfred Dreyfus ...
ACADEMY AWARD 1938 for THE LIFE OF EMILE ZOLA
20. Lilia Skala
Actress | Flashdance
Lilia Sofer was born on November 28, 1896, to Catholic Katharina Skala and Jewish Julius Sofer , in Vienna, Austria. Julius Sofer worked as a manufacturer's representative for the Waldes Kohinoor Company. Lilia had two sisters: Lisl (later known as renowned dance-therapy pioneer Elizabeth Polk); ...
ACADEMY AWARD 1964: Nomination for LILIES OF THE FIELD
21. Erich von Stroheim
Actor | Sunset Blvd.
Erich von Stroheim was born Erich Oswald Stroheim in 1885, in Vienna, Austria, to Johanna (Bondy), from Prague, and Benno Stroheim, a hatter from Gleiwitz, Germany (now Gliwice, Poland). His family was Jewish.
After spending some time working in his father's hat factory, he emigrated to America ...
ACADEMY AWARD 1951: Nomination for SUNSET BOULEVARD
22. Oskar Werner
Actor | Ship of Fools
Remote, somewhat morose and, as a result, intriguing, Viennese talent Oskar Werner was born in 1922, not far from the birthplace of "Waltz King" Johann Strauss, and christened Oskar Josef Bschließmayer. His parents divorced when he was fairly young.
While growing up, Oskar found performing in school...
ACADEMY AWARD 1966: Nomination for SHIP OF FOOLS / DAS NARRENSCHIFF
23. Bernhard Wicki
Director | The Longest Day
Bernhard Wicki was born on October 28, 1919 in St. Pölten, Lower Austria, Austria. He was an actor and director, known for The Longest Day (1962), The Bridge (1959) and The Miracle of Father Malachia (1961). He was married to Elisabeth Endriss and Agnes Fink. He died on January 5, 2000 in Munich, ...
ACADEMY AWARD 1960: Nomination for DIE BRÜCKE
24. Sandra Hüller
Actress | Anatomie d'une chute
Sandra Hüller was born in Suhl. She studied acting at the Ernst Busch Academy of Dramatic Arts in Berlin. For her performance of Anneliese Michel in Hans-Christian Schmid's drama Requiem she won The Silver Bear for Best Actress. She is internationally known for her starring role in Maren Ade's Toni...
ACADEMY AWARD 2024: Nomination for ANATOMY OF A FALL / ANATOMIE EINES FALLS
25. Wolfgang Petersen
Director | Das Boot
A controversial film maker, Wolfgang Petersen has at once been lauded for his professionalism and attention to detail and decried for turning out a string of standard commercial Hollywood blockbusters. The son of a naval officer, Petersen held a lifelong fascination with the sea and naval subjects....
ACADEMY AWARD 1983: Nominations for DAS BOOT
26. Ilker Çatak
Director | Das Lehrerzimmer
Ilker Çatak was born on January 11, 1984 in Berlin, Germany. He is a director and writer, known for The Teachers' Lounge (2023), I Was, I Am, I Will Be (2019) and Fidelity (2014).
ACADEMY AWARD 2024: Nomination for DAS LEHRERZIMMER
27. Harald Reinl
Director | Der Frosch mit der Maske
Harald Reinl was born on July 9, 1908 in Bad Ischl, Austria-Hungary [now Upper Austria, Austria]. He was a director and writer, known for Face of the Frog (1959), Chariots of the Gods (1970) and Night on Mont-Blanc (1951). He was married to Daniela Delis, Karin Dor and Corinna Frank. He died on ...
ACADEMY AWARD 1971: Nomination for ERINNERUNGEN AN DIE ZUKUNFT
28. Robert Siodmak
Director | Nachts wenn der Teufel kam
Robert Siodmak (8 August 1900 - 10 March 1973) was a German-born, American film director. He is best remembered as a thriller specialist and for a series of stylish, unpretentious Hollywood films noirs he made in the 1940s.
Siodmak (pronounced SEE-ODD-MACK) was born in Dresden, Germany, the son of ...
ACADEMY AWARD 1947: Nomination for THE KILLERS / ACADEMY AWARD 1958: Nomination for NACHTS, WENN DER TEUFEL KAM
29. Franz Peter Wirth
Director | Helden
Franz Peter Wirth was born on September 22, 1919 in Munich, Germany. He was a director and writer, known for Arms and the Man (1958), Ein Stück Himmel (1982) and Al Capone im deutschen Wald (1969). He died on October 17, 1999 in Berg, Bavaria, Germany.
ACADEMY AWARD 1959: Nomination for HELDEN
30. Helmut Käutner
Director | Der Hauptmann von Köpenick
Helmut Käutner was born on March 25, 1908 in Düsseldorf, Germany. He was a director and writer, known for The Captain from Köpenick (1956), The Last Bridge (1954) and The Rest Is Silence (1959). He was married to Erica Balqué. He died on April 20, 1980 in Castellina in Chianti, Tuscany, Italy.
ACADEMY AWARD 1957: Nomination for DER HAUPTMANN VON KÖPENICK
31. Ernst Marischka
Writer | Der veruntreute Himmel
Ernst Marischka was born on January 2, 1893 in Vienna, Austria-Hungary [now Austria]. He was a writer and director, known for Embezzled Heaven (1958), Sissi - Schicksalsjahre einer Kaiserin (1957) and Sissi - Die junge Kaiserin (1956). He was married to Lilly Marischka. He died on May 12, 1963 in ...
ACADEMY AWARD 1946: Nomination for POLONAISE
32. Josef von Sternberg
Director | The Devil Is a Woman
Josef von Sternberg split his childhood between Vienna and New York City. His father, a former soldier in the Austro-Hungarian army, could not support his family in either city; Sternberg remembered him only as "an enormously strong man who often used his strength on me." Forced by poverty to drop ...
ACADEMY AWARD 1931: Nomination for MOROCCO / ACADEMY AWARD 1932: Nomination for SHANGHAI EXPRESS
33. Otto Preminger
Actor | Stalag 17
Otto Ludwig Preminger was born in Wiznitz, Bukovina, Austria-Hungary. His father was a prosecutor, and Otto originally intended to follow his father into a law career; however, he fell in love with the theater in his 20's and became one of the most imaginative stage producers and directors. He was ...
ACADEMY AWARD 1945: Nomination for LAURA / ACADEMY AWARD 1960: Nomination for ANATOMY OF A MURDER / ACADEMY AWARD 1965: Nomination for THE CARDINAL
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