Background
KRUGER, Hardy was born on April 12, 1928 in Berlin. Son of Max and Auguste (née Meier) Kruger.
KRUGER, Hardy was born on April 12, 1928 in Berlin. Son of Max and Auguste (née Meier) Kruger.
Der Rest ist Schweigen 1959, Blind Date 1959, Taxi pour Tobrouk 1961, Hatari 1961, Les Dimanches de Ville d’Avray 1962, Les Quatre Verites 1962, Le Gros Coup 1963, Le Chant du Monde 1964, Flight of the Phoenix 1965. The Defector 1966, Louisiana Grande Sauterelle 1966, The Battle of Neretva 1968, The Secret of Santa Vittoria 1969, Death of A Stranger 1972, Le Solitaire 1973, Barry Lyndon 1974, Paper Tiger 1974, Potato Fritz (Best ActorFrom 1941, he went to an Adolf Hitler School at the Ordensburg Sonthofen. At age 15, Hardy made his film début in a German picture, The Young Eagles, but his acting career was interrupted when he was conscripted into the German Wehrmacht in 1944 at age 16. In March 1945, Krüger was conscripted into the 38th Steamship Division Nibelungen, where he was drawn into heavy fighting before being captured by American forces.
Because of his archetypal Nordic German look, blond hair and blue eyes, Hardy Krüger often performed in roles portraying German soldiers.
He first came to the attention of English language audiences in the 1957 British war film The One That Got Away, the story of Franz von Werra, the only German prisoner of war to successfully escape from Allied custody and return to Germany. In 1960, Krüger bought Ngorongoro farm in the then Tanganyika Territory, which he owned for 13 years.
Ngorongoro served as the setting for the 1962 film, a Howard Hawks film, in which Krüger appeared with John Wayne. Fluent in German, English and French, he has worked in numerous European and American films such as the Oscar-winning Les dimanches de ville d"Avray, the original 1965 version of The Flight of the Phoenix and the German version of The Moon is Blue.
Other films include with Richard Burton, Stanley Kubrick"s Barry Lyndon with Ryan O"Neal, the comedy-drama where he played a German officer during the Second World War trying to find hidden wine in a small Italian town, and Richard Attenborough"s A Bridge Too Far (sharing a scene with Laurence Olivier).
Sundays and Cybele (Les dimanches de ville d"Avray) Three Fables of Love.
Married 1st Renate Damrow, one daughter. Married 2nd Francesca Marazzi, one son one daughter. Married 3rd Anita Park in 1978.