Udo Samel

The long, steady career of German actor Udo Samel is framed in one respect by two awards from his country's Theater heute magazine. He was voted Younger Actor of the Year in 1979, largely for his part in the acclaimed youth drama "The End of the Rainbow." Then, in 1991, he scored the Actor of the Year prize from the same publication, a nod to several TV productions that year. Samel earned a Best Supporting Actor nomination from the 2005 German Film Awards, thanks to the family comedy "Go for Zucker," set against the backdrop of a family matriarch's funeral. The 2011 drama "The Blood Countess" marks one of the biggest international production opportunities of Samel's long career. The drama stars Tilda Swinton as a mass murderer and also features name-brand actors Isabelle Huppert and Udo Kier. Certainly one of Samel's strangest efforts was the 1996 horror comedy "Killer Condom," in which he played the lead alongside a lethal prophylactic.