Biography: Christoph Waltz

 

The year was 2009 and Quentin Taratino had a problem. In his upcoming film “Inglourious Basterds” Nazi officer SS-Standartenführer Hans Landa, also known as “The Jew Hunter” was a character that that Tarantino said might have been a part that was “un-playable". The character being clever, courteous, multilingual and yet self serving, cunning, implacable and murderous. A character that was going to be difficult to fill. Christoph Waltz, however, seemed perfect for the role. HIs past full of talent and experiences that molded him to the man he was and the man he is today.

Waltz was born on October 4 1956 in Vienna. The son of a German set designer and an Austrian costume designer. He was born into a family of theatrical heritage. His maternal grandmother was the silent film actress Maria Mayen and his step-grandfather, Emmerich Reimers, and his great-grandfather, Georg Reimers, were both stage actors who also appeared in silent films. Waltz maternal grandfather, Rudolf von Urban was a psychiatrist who was a student of Sigmund Freud.

Waltz’s father died when he was seven and his mother later married composer and conductor  Alexander Steinbrecher who was previously married to the mother of director Michael Haneke who, as a result shared the same stepfather as Waltz.

As a youth, Waltz had a passion for opera. Having seen his first opera around the age of ten, he would attend the opera at least twice a week. In his early years, however, he had no interest in theater and instead wanted to be an opera singer. After graduation from Theresianum, a private school in Vienna he studied acting at the renowned Max Reinhardt Seminar while also studying singing and opera at the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna. But, after coming to the conclusion that his voice was not good enough for a career in opera he decided to focus on acting.  In the late 1970s, he spent time in New York City where he trained with Lee Strasberg and Stella Adler. He also studied script interpretation and credits his analytical approach to Addler’s teaching.

On returning to Europe, Waltz worked as a stage actor making his debut at the Schauspielhaus
In Zürich. He also performed in Vienna, Salzburg, Cologne and Hamburg. From 1980 to 2000 he was a prolific television actor before making his directorial debut in 2000 with the German television production Wenn man sich traut. In 1990 he appeared in the British TV series “The Gravy Train.” The show a story of both intrigue and misdeeds set in the offices of the European Union in Brussels.

In 2009 Waltz was in Tarantino’s work “Inglourious Basterds” which earned him the Best Actor Award along with receiving acclaim from both the public and critics. He won Best Supporting Actor from the New York Film Critics Circle, the Boston Society of Film Critics, the Los Angeles Film Critics Association and for Best Supporting Actor at the 67th Golden Globe Awards and the 16th Screen Actors Guild Awards in January of 2010. The following month he won the BAFTA for best supporting actor as well as winning Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor.

Tarantino went on to say "I think that Landa is one of the best characters I've ever written and ever will write, and Christoph played it to a tee. It's true that if I couldn't have found someone as good as Christoph I might not have made Inglourious Basterds"

In 2011s “The Green Hornet” Waltz played gangster Benjamin Chudnofsky and that same year he starred in “Water for Elephants” as well as Roman Polanski work “Carnage.” Then in 2012 Waltz joined Quentin Tarantino again as King Schultz, a German Bounty Hunter in “Django Unchained” a role specifically written by Tarantino for Waltz. During which, in a training accident, he injured his pelvis. His role, though, once again gaining him acclaim, winning him another Golden Globe, the BAFTA as well as ultimately the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor.

In 2013, at the Cannes Film Festival he was selected as a member of the main competition jury. Also in that same year he directed a production for the opera “Der Rosenkavalier” at the Vlaamse Opera in Antwerp and then in Ghent in early 2014. He was then selected as a jury member for the 64th Berlin International Film Festival.

Starring in Tim Burton’s film “Big Eyes” which opened in december of 2014, he played Walter Keane. He also appeared as Ernst Stavro Blofeld in the 24th James Bond film: “Spectre.”  In July of 2016 he was villain Captain Leon Rom, a corrupt Belgian captain in “The Legend of Tarzan”.

In 2017 he directed the production of the opera “Falstaff” again at the Vlaamse Opera in Antwerp and then in Ghent in early 2018. In the film adaptation of of the novel “The Nazi and the Barber” he played the leading role. Describing the role of mass murderer Max Schulz as a “juicy role.”

In 2019 Waltz both starred and made his directorial film debut in the crime film Georgetown, a film about a man suspected of murdering his wife. The film premiering in 2019s Tribeca Film Festival and later released to cinemas on May 14 2021.

Waltz, with his former wife, Jacqueline (née Rauch),  lived in London with their four children. Their marriage lasted 17 years. He then went on to marry his second wife, German costume designer Judith Holste with whom they share a daughter.

Waltz speaks German, English and French in “Django Unchained” and also Italian in “Inglourious Basterds.” In 2010 Waltz received Austrian citizenship thus holding citizenships in both Austria and Germany. After being asked whether he felt Viennese he responded: "I was born in Vienna, grew up in Vienna, went to school in Vienna, graduated in Vienna, studied in Vienna, started acting in Vienna – and there would be a few further Viennese links. How much more Austrian do you want it?"

Christoph Waltz has a very colorful and interesting history. Coming from a heritage of theater his future was written in stone and he was destined for greatness. You don’t find too many actors of his talent and caliber. Cristoph Waltz is really a man in a league of his own.