Jürgen Prochnow Biography

Jürgen Prochnow is a German-born actor born on 10th June 1941. Prochnow was born in Berlin and brought up in Düsseldorf, the son of an engineer.He studied acting at the Folkwang Hochschule in Essen. His best-known roles internationally have been as the good-hearted and sympathetic U-Boat captain in Das Boot (1981), Duke Leto Atreides in Dune (1984), the minor but important role of Kazakh dictator General Ivan Radek in Air Force One (1997), and the antagonist Maxwell Dent in Beverly Hills Cop II (1987).

Jürgen Prochnow Career

Thanks to his on-screen intensity and his fluency in English, he has become one of the most successful German actors in Hollywood. He portrayed Arnold Schwarzenegger in a film about the actor’s political career in California, entitled See Arnold Run; coincidentally, Prochnow was one of the actors considered for the title role in The Terminator. He was the main antagonist in the Broken Lizard film Beerfest, which contains a submarine scene that references his role in Das Boot. He played a supporting character in the Wing Commander film, Cmdr. Paul Gerald. In addition, he dubbed Sylvester Stallone’s voice in the German version of Rocky and Rocky II.

He was facially scarred following a stunt accident during the filming of Dune. One scene called for Prochnow (as Duke Leto) to be strapped to a black stretcher and drugged. During one take, a high-powered bulb positioned above Prochnow exploded due to heat, raining down molten glass. Remarkably, the actor was able to free himself from the stretcher, moments before glass fused itself to the place he had been strapped to. During the filming of the dream sequence, he had a special apparatus attached to his face so that green smoke (simulating poison gas) would emerge from his cheek when the Baron (Kenneth McMillan) scratched it. Although thoroughly tested, the smoke gave Prochnow first and second-degree burns on his cheek. This sequence appears on film in the released version. In 1996, he was a member of the jury at the 46th Berlin International Film Festival.

Jürgen Prochnow Spouse

In the early 1980s, Prochnow was in a relationship with Austrian actress Antonia Reininghaus who fatally poisoned their common seven-year-old daughter Johanna in 1987. In 1982, he married actor Jürgen Goslar′s daughter Isabel Goslar, with whom he has two children: a daughter, Mona, and a son, Roman. The couple divorced in 1997. From 2004 to 2014 he was married to Birgit Stein, a German screenwriter and actress. Since 2015, he has been married to actress Verena Wengler.

His elder brother Dieter Prochnow, born 1939, is also an actor. Together, the brothers appeared in The Man Inside where Jürgen played the leading role and Dieter a small supporting role. Prochnow used to divide his time between Los Angeles and Munich. In 2017 he announced that he had sold his house in California and would be moving to Berlin. He received U.S. citizenship in 2003.

Jürgen Prochnow Photo

Jürgen Prochnow Daughter

His first wife in the 1970s gave birth to a daughter named Johanna who died young. Later he got a second daughter named Mona Prochnow from his second wife.

Jürgen Prochnow Awards

• 1985 Bavarian Film Awards, Best Actor

Jurgen Prochnow Net Worth

Jurgen Prochnow’s net worth is almost $80 million.

Jürgen Prochnow Movies

1. Tatort Jagdrevier (1973)
2. One or the Other of Us (1974)
3. Die Verrohung des Franz Blum (The Brutalisation of Franz Blum) (1974)
4. The Lost Honour of Katharina Blum (1975)
5. Die Konsequenz (1977) The Consequence
6. Tatort Das Mädchen von gegenüber (1997) – trans.: The girl from opposite
7. Das Boot (1981) The Boat
8. The Keep (1983)
9. Passion and Valor aka Love is Forever (1983)
10. Dune (1984)
11. Forbidden (1984)
12. Der Bulle und das Mädchen (de) (1985)
13. Killing Cars (de) (1986)
14. Beverly Hills Cop II (1987)
15. Des Teufels Paradies (Devil’s Paradise) (1987)
16. Terminus (1987)
17. The Seventh Sign (1988)
18. Kill Cruise (1990)
19. The Fourth War (1990)
20. A Dry White Season (1989)
21. The Man Inside (1990)
22. Robin Hood (1991)
23. Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me (1992)
24. Jewels (1992)
25. Hurricane Smith (1992)
26. Interceptor (1992)
27. Body of Evidence (1993)
28. In the Mouth of Madness (1995)
29. Judge Dredd (1995)
30. On Dangerous Ground 1995
31. The English Patient (1996)
32. The Human Bomb (1996)
33. DNA (1997)
34. Der Schrei Der Liebe (1997) The Cry of Love
35. Air Force One (1997)
36. The Replacement Killers (1998)
37. Esther (1998)
38. The Fall (1998)
39. Wing Commander (1999)
40. Elite (2000)
41. Padre Pio: Miracle Man (2000)
42. Ripper (2001)
43. Jack the Dog (2001)
44. Dark Asylum (2001)
45. Heart of America (2002)
46. House of the Dead (2003)
47. Baltic Storm (2003)
48. See Arnold Run (2005) (TV)
49. The Da Vinci Code (2006)
50. Beerfest (2006)
51. The Celestine Prophecy (2006)
52. Primeval (2007)
53. Nanking (2007)
54. Dark Sector (2008) (Video Game)
55. La Conjura de El Escorial (2008)
56. Merlin and the War of the Dragons (2008)
57. Sinners & Saints (2009)
58. 24 (2010)
59. NCIS: Los Angeles (2010)
60. Tatort Schlafende Hunde (2010) – trans.: Sleeping Dogs
61. Company of Heroes (2013)
62. Remember (2015)
63. Tatort Borowski und das verlorene Mädchen (2016) – trans.: Borowski and the sleeping girl

Jürgen Prochnow  TV shows

• Jewels
• The Fire Next Time
• Das Boot
• Julie
• chevalier de Maupin

Jürgen Prochnow Video

Jürgen Prochnow News

Jürgen Prochnow: In retrospect, not proud of all films

Updated On: 14th May 2018
Source: www.rtl.de

Actor Jürgen Prochnow (“The Boat”) has also starred in films he is “not quite so proud” in retrospect. “There are definitely some,” said the 76-year-old German press agency in Worms. The Hollywood star, who is a member of the ensemble of the Worms Festival, did not want to name examples. Basically he tries to play each role as well as he can. Sometimes, however, the prerequisites were missing, sometimes the script did not agree. “But I honestly admit: I’m free, I can choose whether I want it or not, it does not force me”.

Sometimes he refused a script, “and then somebody persuaded me to do it, and then I did it, and then it turned out that my first approach to the project was the right one.” Experiences in dealing with scripts could help one with a decision: For example, “who the producer is and how much money is available for the film, whether you can do that in the time and in the time”.

His rise to become an international star he sees in connection with the movie “The Boat” from 1981. He had “the right time to get the right role with the right people in the right film.” The war film with fellow actors Martin Semmelrogge, Herbert Grönemeyer and Uwe Ochsenknecht shows the fate of a German U-boat crew in 1941 in the Atlantic. He was nominated for six Oscars.