Karl Michael Vogler

A familiar face in several noted Hollywood movies of the late 20th century, Karl Michael Vogler was a German character actor who often played roles calling for that nationality. He got his start in theater, making his stage debut in Innsbruck, Austria in 1950 while still in his very early 20s. He first appeared before the cameras in a 1958 German TV movie adaptation of a Jean Anouilh play, "Romeo and Jeanette," and worked steadily in domestic TV and film productions over the next few decades. He started appearing in foreign productions in the 1960s, and had a small part in Richard Lester's surreal pacifist comedy "How I Won the War" in 1967. Two years later, Vogler had a key role in a Hollywood production -- unfortunately, it was in the skiing-themed flop "Downhill Racer" starring Robert Redford. More successful projects were ahead for the actor, though, particularly when he was tapped to play wily German Field Marshal Erwin Rommel, the rival and chief gadfly of the subject of the World War II biopic "Patton." The movie was considered a classic of its genre and it won a shelf's worth of Academy Awards, including Best Picture. After this, Vogler largely concentrated on German productions, although he'd play the occasional English-speaking role in efforts such as the 1976 World War I Africa-set action film "Shout at the Devil."