Klaus Kinski

Klaus Kinski (October 18, 1926 in Sopot – November 23, 1991 in Lagunitas, California) was a German actor of partly Polish descent, famous for his ability to project on-screen intensity, and for his explosive temperament. Although he acted in over 180 films, his international reputation is built on five collaborations with German director Werner Herzog, including the films The Wrath of God (1972), Phantom der Nacht (1979), and Fitzcarraldo (1982).

Life

Kinski was born Nikolaus Karl Günther Nakszyński in Zoppot (today Sopot), West Prussia (today Poland), to a Polish-German father, Bruno Nakszyński, a pharmacist, and a German pastor's daughter from Danzig, named Susanne Lutze. At the time, Zoppot was located within the territory of the Free City of Danzig. In 1930/31, the family moved to Berlin and Kinski attended the Prinz-Heinrich-Gymnasium in Schöneberg.

As World War II engulfed Europe, Kinski was drafted into the German Army and served in the Netherlands. Kinski reputedly went AWOL and surrendered to the British forces, spending most of his time during the war as a POW. Whilst in a POW camp near Colchester he discovered his acting talent, performing for fellow prisoners.

After the war, he returned to West Germany. He began acting and changed his name to Klaus Kinski. He started on stage in Germany, became a legend as a monologist (presenting the prose and verse of William Shakespeare and François Villon, among others), and soon moved, pragmatically, to film, where the money was better. His last stage appearances were in November 1971, part of his "Jesus Tour", a one-man show in which Kinski reinterpreted the Gospels with Jesus as a ranting psychopath.

Off-screen, Kinski often appeared as a wild-eyed, sex-crazed maniac, chronicling his exploits in an autobiography—Kinski: All I Need Is Love or Kinski Uncut. He was married three times and had (according to his autobiography) at least five children, three of whom he regarded as such: two daughters (Nastassja Kinski and Pola Kinski), and a son (Nanhoï Kinski), all of them actors. His brother Arne lives in Berlin, still bitter about the way Klaus portrayed him in his autobiography. He alienated his family with claims of incest with his sister.

When he died of a heart attack in Lagunitas, California, United States at age 65, only his son Nanhoï attended the funeral (his ashes were strewn in the Pacific Ocean).

Reputation

His international reputation is built on five collaborations with director Werner Herzog, in the films The Wrath of God (1972), Woyzeck (based on the play by Georg Büchner) (1979), Nosferatu the Vampyre (1979), Fitzcarraldo (1982), and finally Cobra Verde (1987). Several of these collaborations are now recognised as considerable masterpieces of European cinema, but the two men's working relationship proved to be a volatile and explosive one. Some of Kinski and Herzog's arguments during these productions have been preserved on both tape and film, with both apparently threatening to even kill each other during one heated dispute. The love-hate relationship between the two obsessive men drove them to creative heights, but eventually to a final split in 1987. Herzog's retrospective on his work with Kinski was released in the United States as My Best Fiend (1999).

Kinski was an extremely hard worker and strove for perfection, but was frequently at odds with collaborators and directors, and rarely a team player. On one infamous occasion Kinski hurled a lit candelabra from the stage at an audience deemed insufficiently appreciative, almost burning the theatre down. On another, whilst filming Aguirre: The Wrath of God, irritated by the noise from a hut where cast and crew were playing cards, Kinski fired three shots at it, blowing the top joint off one extra's finger. Subsequently Kinski started leaving the jungle location (over Herzog's refusal to fire a sound assistant), only changing his mind after Herzog threatened to shoot Kinski and then himself.

Often referred to as a crazy genius, Werner Herzog described him as "an outright egomaniac". Herzog also once said, "People like Brando are just kindergarten compared to Kinski". His behaviour may have been influenced by the German theatre directors of his early career, some of whom would frequently scream and shout abuse during rehearsals. Karl Paryla, for example, saw it as part of his methodology to drive his actors close to a nervous breakdown, on the basis that they would then perform better. Fritz Kortner (whom Kinski mentions in his autobiography) was also famous for being very harsh and brutal during rehearsals.

With his fluency in English, his unique appearance, and his ability to project on-screen intensity, Kinski was always able to get roles, although the quality of the productions varied wildly, most of them considered "junk" (Schrott) by Kinski himself. When Steven Spielberg offered him the part of one of the German villains in Raiders of the Lost Ark, he turned it down, stating: "^* as much as I'd like to do a movie with Spielberg, the script is as moronically shitty as so many other flicks of this ilk.", preferring a part in Venom (1982), reportedly because the money was better. Of his film choices he once said "So I sell myself, for the highest price. Exactly like a prostitute. There is no difference."

Kinski's last film (which he also wrote and directed) was Kinski Paganini (1989) in which he played the legendary violinist Niccolo Paganini. His earlier film roles include - as well as the Edgar Wallace movies - Decision Before Dawn (1950), A Time to Love and a Time to Die (1958), The Counterfeit Traitor (1962), Doctor Zhivago (1965), Winnetou 2. Teil (Last of the Renegades) (1964), dir.: Dr. Harald Reinl, For a Few Dollars More (1965), Grand Slam (1967), The Great Silence (1969).

Recently he was honoured by his city of birth, Sopot.

Books

Kinski, K: All I Need Is Love (1988), ISBN 0394549163, re-titled Kinski Uncut: The Autobiography of Klaus Kinski (1997), ISBN 0140255362.

External links

http://www.hatii.arts.gla.ac.uk/MultimediaStudentProjects/00-01/0009135b/fruits/html/Kinski/kinski-bio.htm a segment of Guido Bãhm’s 2001 Multimedia Analysis and Design project at the Humanities Advanced Technology and Information Institute (HATII) at the University of Glasgow.
http://www.walther-nienburg.de/Kinski/Post/katovsky.html (on Kinski's final interview)
http://www.klaus-kinski.de/ (Kinski Fanpage in German)
http://dantenet.com/er/Kinski/k2contents.html (Guide to Kinski)
http://thekinskifiles.blogspot.com (Kinski Blog)

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Life

Reputation

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External links