| Gert Fröbe | |
| Birth Name: | Karl Gerhart Fröbe |
| Birth Date: | 25 February 1913 |
| Birth Place: | Oberplanitz (near Zwickau), Kingdom of Saxony, German Empire |
| Death Place: | Munich, West Germany |
| Occupation: | Actor |
| Party: | Nazi Party (1929–1937) |
| Years Active: | 1948–1987 |
| Children: | 2 |
Karl Gerhart "Gert" Fröbe (pronounced as /de/; 25 February 1913 – 5 September 1988) was a German actor. He was known in English-speaking countries for his work as the title character in the James Bond film Goldfinger, as Peachum in The Threepenny Opera, as Baron Bomburst in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, as Hotzenplotz in The Robber Hotzenplotz, General Dietrich von Choltitz in Is Paris Burning? and Colonel Manfred von Holstein in Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines.
Fröbe was a three-time German Film Award nominee, twice for Best Leading Actor and once for Best Supporting Actor. In 1978, he won an honorary award for "outstanding individual contributions to the German cinema over the years."
Fröbe was born in Oberplanitz, today part of Zwickau. He was initially a violinist, but he abandoned it for Kabarett and theatre work.[1]
He joined the Nazi Party in 1929 at the age of 16 and left in 1937, before the outbreak of the Second World War.[2] After his party membership became known after the war, Israel banned Fröbe's films until Mario Blumenau, a Jewish survivor, revealed just eight weeks later that his life and his mother's were probably saved when Fröbe hid them from the Nazis in his basement.[3]
In September 1944, theatres in Germany were closed down and Fröbe was drafted into the German Army, where he served until the end of the war.
Fröbe gained fame in one of the first German films made after the War, called Berliner Ballade (The Ballad of Berlin, 1948). His character's name, "Otto Normalverbraucher" (Otto Average Consumer), became the German term equivalent to "Average Joe".[4]
He was cast as the villain in the Swiss-West German-Spanish film Es geschah am hellichten Tag (It Happened in Broad Daylight, 1958), with the original screenplay written by Friedrich Dürrenmatt. His role as a serial killer of children drew the attention of the producers of the James Bond movie Goldfinger (1964) and he was chosen to play one of the best remembered villains of the series, gold tycoon Auric Goldfinger. He later remarked, "The ridiculous thing is that since I played Goldfinger in the James Bond film there are some people who still insist on seeing me as a cold, ruthless villain – a man without laughs."[5]
Fröbe made several appearances in all-star casts in the 1960s, including the films The Longest Day (1962), Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines (1965), Is Paris Burning? (1966),Triple Cross (1966), Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (1968), and Monte Carlo or Bust (1969).
During the 1980s, Fröbe was a spokesman in Mercedes Benz W123 commercials, helping to promote the coupé and the sedan.
Fröbe died in Munich in September 1988 at age 75 from a heart attack. He was buried at the Waldfriedhof cemetery in Icking.
| Year | Title | Role | Language | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1948 | Extra | German | Uncredited | ||
| The Berliner | Otto Normalverbraucher | German | |||
| 1949 | After the Rain Comes Sunshine | Konstantin | German | ||
| 1951 | Decision Before Dawn | German Corporal | English | Uncredited | |
| 1952 | The Day Before the Wedding | Rundfunkreporter | German | ||
| 1953 | Man on a Tightrope | Police Agent | English | Uncredited | |
| Salto Mortale | Jan | German | |||
| A Heart Plays False | Briefüberbringer | German | |||
| The Postponed Wedding Night | Gondoliere | German | |||
| Arlette Conquers Paris | Manager Edmond Duval | German | |||
| Wedding in Transit | Herr Mengwasser | German | |||
| 1954 | The Little Town Will Go to Sleep | Oskar Blume | German | ||
| Daybreak | Bit part | German | |||
| The Hunter's Cross | Kobbe | German | |||
| They Were So Young | Lobos | English | |||
| A Double Life | Mittelmeier | German | |||
| The Eternal Waltz | Gawriloff | German | |||
| 1955 | Special Delivery | Olaf | English | ||
| The Dark Star | Deltorri | German | |||
| I Know What I'm Living For | Pfeifer, Inspektor Jugendfürsorge | German | |||
| Mr. Arkadin | Munich Detective | English | |||
| The Heroes Are Tired | Hermann | French | |||
| The Forest House in Tyrol | Bäuerle, Kaufmann | German | |||
| 1956 | The Girl from Flanders | Rittmeister Kupfer | German | ||
| Heubacher | German | ||||
| Winter in the Woods | Gerstenberg | German | |||
| 1957 | Typhoon Over Nagasaki | Ritter | French | ||
| The Girl and the Legend | Mr. Gillis | German | |||
| He Who Must Die | Patriarcheos | French | |||
| The Mad Bomberg | Kommerzienrat Gustav-Eberhard Mühlberg | German | |||
| Charming Boys | Edmond Petersen | French | |||
| The Heart of St. Pauli | Jabowski | German | |||
| 1958 | Not Delivered | Hans | French | ||
| Nasser Asphalt | Jupp | German | |||
| It Happened in Broad Daylight | Schrott | German | |||
| Rosemary | Willy Bruster | German | |||
| Titu Goritsch | German | ||||
| The Crammer | Freddy Blei | German | |||
| Tessmann | German | ||||
| 1959 | Nick Knatterton's Adventure | Hugo | German | ||
| Prisoner of the Volga | Professor | English | |||
| Blanche | French | ||||
| Jons und Erdme | Smailus | German | |||
| The Forests Sing Forever | Dag | German | |||
| Menschen im Hotel | Preysing | German | |||
| The Day the Rains Came | Doctor Albert Maurer | German | |||
| Johannes Grohmann | German | ||||
| Old Heidelberg | Doctor Jüttner | German | |||
| 1960 | The High Life | Doctor Kölling | German | ||
| The General | French | ||||
| Soldatensender Calais | Der Chef | German | |||
| The Thousand Eyes of Dr. Mabuse | Inspector Kras | German | |||
| Until Money Departs You | Jupp Grapsch | German | |||
| Paul Wittkowski | German | ||||
| 1961 | The Green Archer | Abel Bellamy | German | ||
| Via Mala | Jonas Lauretz | German | |||
| The Return of Doctor Mabuse [6] | Kommissar Lohmann | German | |||
| Auf Wiedersehen | Angelo Pirrone | German | |||
| 1962 | Redhead | Kramer | German | ||
| The Testament of Dr. Mabuse | Kommissar Lohmann | German | |||
| The Longest Day | Sgt. Kaffeekanne | English | |||
| 1963 | Enough Rope | Melchior Kimmel | French | ||
| Alfred Paulsen | German | ||||
| Peachum | German | ||||
| Banana Peel | Raymond Lachard | French | |||
| 1964 | Greed in the Sun | Castigliano | French | ||
| Tonio Kröger | Policeman Peterson | German | |||
| Backfire | Karl Fehrman | French | |||
| Goldfinger | English | ||||
| 1965 | A High Wind in Jamaica | Dutch Captain | English | ||
| Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines | Colonel Manfred von Holstein | English | |||
| Who Wants to Sleep? | Emil Claasen | German | |||
| 1966 | The Upper Hand | Walter | French | ||
| Importen-Paul | German | ||||
| Is Paris Burning? | English | ||||
| Triple Cross | Colonel Steinhager | English | |||
| 1967 | I Killed Rasputin | English | |||
| Jules Verne's Rocket to the Moon | Professor von Bulow | English | |||
| 1968 | Darling Caroline | Doctor Belhomme | French | ||
| Chitty Chitty Bang Bang | English | ||||
| 1969 | Monte Carlo or Bust [7] | Willi SchickelHorst Muller | English | ||
| 1971 | $ | Mr. Kessel | English | ||
| 1972 | Ludwig | Father Hoffmann | English | ||
| 1974 | German | ||||
| And Then There Were None | Wilhelm Blore | English | |||
| Nuits Rouges | Commissaire Sorbier | French | |||
| 1975 | Max Orwall | French | |||
| 1976 | Death Rite | Vestar | French | ||
| 1977 | Philip Brown | German | |||
| The Serpent's Egg | Inspector Bauer | English | |||
| Graf von Buttlar | German | ||||
| 1978 | The Rider on the White Horse | Tede Volkerts | German | ||
| Felix von Korn | German | ||||
| 1979 | Bloodline | Inspector Max Hornung | English | ||
| 1980 | The Umbrella Coup | Otto Krampe ("Whale") | French | ||
| 1981 | The Falcon | Serbo-Croatian | |||
| 1983 | Emanuel Striese | German | TV film | ||
| 1986–1987 | The Little Vampire | Detective Gurrmeyer | German | TV series, 13 episodes |
!colspan="3" style="background:#C1D8FF;"| James Bond|-