Klaus Kinski

Klaus Kinski (18 October 1926-23 November 1991) was the stage name of a German actor.

Biography
Klaus Kinski was born as Klaus Günter Karl Nakszynski to German nationals in Danzig (now Sopot, Poland) in 1926. His father was Bruno Nakszynski and his motherwas Susanne (née Lutze). He also had three older siblings: Inge, Arne and Hans-Joachim.

Due to the Great Depression, the family was unable to make a living in Danzig and moved to Berlin in 1931. In 1936, Kinski attended the Prinz-Heinrich-Gymnasium in Schöneberg. During the Second World War, Kinski was conscripted at the age of 17 into the German Wehrmacht some time in 1943, and served with the German Air Force (Luftwaffe) as an elite paratrooper (Fallschirmjäger). He saw no action until the winter of 1944, when his unit was transferred to the Netherlands. There he was captured by the British on his second day of combat.

During captivity he was in a prison camp in Essex, England. There he began to play as an actor in stages intended to boost morale among the prisoners. Finally, in 1946, he returned to Germany after spending a year and four months in captivity. After his return to Germany he then started out as an actor, first at a small touring company in Offenburg, where he used his newly adopted name of Klaus Kinski.

Then he was hired in the same year by the renowned Schlosspark-Theater in Berlin, where he was fired a year later because of his unpredictable behaviour. Other companies followed, but he still continued to have trouble because of his behaviour.

Kinski's first film role was a small part in the 1948 film Morituri. Later he also appeared in several German Edgar Wallace movies and in secondary roles in American war films. Later he moved to Italy, where he participated in several Spaghetti western films.

Finally he participated in his first horror movie in 1970 in the film Count Dracula. Later he also gained international recognition by participating in several movies of Werner Herzog, among them Nosferatu (1979). In 1980 he even was offered the villain role of Major Arnold Toht in Raiders of the Lost Ark, but he refused, because he didn't like the script.

In 1980 he moved to Los Angeles and in 1981 he built a house in Lagunitas, California, where he lived since then. There Kinski died on 23 November 1991 because of a sudden heart attack he had at his own home at age 65.