Hardy
Kruger,
considered
one
of
post-war
Germany's
best
actors,
has
died.
He
was
93.
His
Hamburg-based
literary
agent,
Peter
Kaefferlein,
said
Thursday
that
Kruger
died
“suddenly
and
unexpectedly”
on
Wednesday,
January
19,
in
California,
where
he
lived
with
his
third
wife,
American-born
writer
Anita
Park.
Kruger
starred
in
the
1957
British
movie
The
One
That
Got
Away
about
a
captured
German
fighter
pilot
who
stages
a
series
of
daring
attempts
to
escape
the
Allies
and,
as
the
title
suggests,
finally
succeeds.
His
charm,
good
looks
and
the
fact
that
he
deserted
from
the
Nazi
army
toward
the
end
of
World
War
II
helped
Kruger
land
further
roles
at
a
time
when
Germans
of
his
generation
were
still
eyed
with
suspicion
abroad.
Kruger
appeared
in
a
string
of
English-language
adventure
and
war
movies,
including
Barry
Lyndon
(1975),
A
Bridge
too
Far
(1977)
and
The
Wild
Geese
(1978).
In
later
years,
he
focused
on
making
travel
films
for
German
television,
writing
books
and
the
occasional
stage
performance.
Photo:
DW
News
Franz
Eberhard
August
Krueger
was
born
April
12,
1928,
in
Berlin.
Initially,
he
wanted
to
follow
in
the
footsteps
of
his
engineer
father,
but
while
at
an
elite
Nazi
boarding
school
he
appeared
in
the
1944
film
Junge
Adler.
While
it
was
intended
as
a
propaganda
movie,
Kruger's
encounter
with
older
actors
on
the
set
opened
his
eyes
to
the
horrors
of
Adolf
Hitler's
dictatorship.
As
the
war
turned
against
Germany,
Kruger's
Hitler
Youth
unit
was
drafted
into
the
newly
formed
SS
division
“Nibelungen.”
Kruger,
who
was
16
at
the
time,
found
himself
fighting
experienced
American
troops
in
southern
Germany.
In
a
2006
interview
with
German
daily
Bild,
he
recounted
how
he
and
his
school
friends
were
sent
to
the
front
“as
cannon
fodder”
in
Hitler's
futile
attempt
to
halt
the
Allies'
advance.
“I
knew
the
war
was
lost,”
he
told
the
newspaper.
“I
knew
that
there
were
concentration
camps
and
that
the
Nazis
were
a
bunch
of
criminals.”
Kruger
deserted,
was
captured
by
the
Allies
and
spent
some
time
as
a
prisoner-of-war.
After
the
war,
he
returned
to
acting,
first
in
theater
and
then
in
Germany's
re-emerging
movie
industry.
Ambition
led
Kruger
to
Paris
and
London
where
he
studied
French
and
English,
and
dropped
the
umlaut
in
his
surname,
in
the
hope
of
landing
more
glamorous
roles
in
foreign
films.
The
One
That
Got
Away
His
breakthrough
came
when
English
director
Roy
Baker
picked
Kruger
for
the
role
of
Luftwaffe
ace
Franz
von
Werra
in
The
One
That
Got
Away.
Kruger
managed
to
fit
the
archetype
of
the
blond
German
soldier
without
appearing
cold
and
superior
—
thereby
avoiding
being
cast
as
the
villain
in
the
war
movie
roles
that
would
inevitably
follow.
"I
had
no
interest
in
playing
the
war
criminal,”
Kruger
said
in
a
2003
interview
with
German
magazine
Der
Spiegel,
adding
that
he
wanted
to
portray
the
many
Germans
who
found
themselves
unwilling
participants
in
the
war.
In
later
years,
Kruger
supported
campaigns
to
educate
younger
generations
about
Nazi
crimes
and
confront
neo-Nazi
groups
in
post-war
Germany.
“The
fight
against
racism
and
the
education
of
young
people
was
his
personal
mission
in
life,”
Kruger's
agent
said
in
a
statement.
“His
warm-heartedness,
his
joy
for
life
and
his
unshakable
sense
of
justice
made
him
unforgettable.”
Once
again
in
the
role
of
a
former
fighter
pilot,
Kruger
starred
in
the
French
movie
Les
Dimanches
de
Ville
d'Avray,
which
won
an
Academy
Award
for
best
foreign
film
in
1963.
Claude
Martin,
a
former
French
ambassador
in
Berlin,
said
years
later
that
the
film
inspired
sympathy
for
the
Germans
among
French
moviegoers
whose
memories
of
the
war
were
still
fresh.
During
the
1960s
and
'70s,
Kruger
appeared
in
numerous
international
blockbusters,
starring
alongside
John
Wayne
in
the
safari
movie
Hatari
(1962)
and
The
Flight
of
the
Phoenix
(1965),
whose
all-star
cast
included
James
Stewart,
Richard
Attenborough
and
Peter
Finch.
An
avid
traveller,
Kruger
once
owned
a
farm
in
Tanzania
at
the
foot
of
Mount
Kilimanjaro.
“After
World
War
II
he
was
one
of
the
first
German
actors
to
gain
international
recognition,”
Germany's
culture
minister,
Claudia
Roth,
said
in
a
statement.
“Hardy
Kruger's
power
as
an
artist
and
his
clear
stance
against
right-wing
violence
will
be
missed,”
she
said.
Kruger
is
survived
by
Park
and
his
children
Christiane,
Malaika
and
Hardy
Jr.
from
previous
marriages.
(AP)
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