Klaus Kinski (October 18, 1926 – November 23, 1991) was a German actor, famous for his ability to project onscreen intensity, and for his explosive temperament. He acted in over 130 films.
Kinski was born Nikolaus Karl Günther Nakszynski in Zoppot, Free City of Danzig (today Sopot in Poland). His parents were Bruno Nakszynski, a German pharmacist of Polish origin, and Susanne Lutze, a German pastor's daughter from Danzig. In 1930/31, the family moved to Berlin and Kinski attended the Prinz-Heinrich-Gymnasium in Schöneberg.
Kinski was drafted into the German Army in 1944 and served in the Netherlands. He reportedly deserted and surrendered to the British forces, spending the rest of the wartime as a prisoner of war. Whilst in a POW camp near Colchester he discovered his acting talent, performing for fellow prisoners.
After the war, he returned to Germany. He began acting and changed his name to Klaus Kinski. He started on stage in Germany, became a legend as a monologist (presenting as a spoken word artist the prose and verse of William Shakespeare and François Villon, among others), and soon moved to films, where financial prospects were 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.
He appeared in several German Edgar Wallace movies. His collaborations with director Werner Herzog brought him international recognition. In all they made five films together; Aguirre: The Wrath of God (1972), Woyzeck (1978), Nosferatu the Vampyre (1978), Fitzcarraldo (1982), and finally Cobra Verde (1987). In 1977 he starred as terrorist Wilfried Böse in the Israeli movie Operation Thunderbolt, based on the events of the 1976 Operation Entebbe. His last film (which he also wrote and directed) was Kinski Paganini (1989), in which he played the legendary violinist Niccolò Paganini.
Off-screen, Kinski often appeared as a wild-eyed, sex-crazed maniac. He chronicled his exploits in the autobiography—Kinski: All I Need Is Love, which, according to Werner Herzog's My Best Fiend, a documentary about the pair's experiences working together, was largely fabricated to generate sales. (A libel suit from Marlene Dietrich due to Kinski depicting her as a lesbian resulted in the book being withdrawn from circulation until her death).
He was married three times and had (according to his autobiography) at least five children, three of whom he acknowledged as such: the two daughters Nastassja and Pola and the son Nikolai, who would all become actors as well. 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 and his mother.
Kinski died of a heart attack in Lagunitas, California, U.S.A. at age 65. His ashes were strewn in the Pacific Ocean at a funeral attended by his son Nikolai and director Werner Herzog.
His city of birth, Sopot, gave him honorary citizenship .
His international reputation is built on five collaborations with director Werner Herzog, which are now recognised as masterpieces of European cinema, but the two men's working relationship proved to be a volatile and explosive one. Some of Kinski's 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. 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, while 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.
Often referred to as a mad genius, Kinski was described by Werner Herzog as "an outright egomaniac." 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, German, Italian and French, his unique appearance, and his ability to project onscreen 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 Nazi 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 (1981), 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."
For many years Kinski's own writings were the only source for facts about his life, especially his 1988 autobiography All I Need Is Love. In 2006 Viennese film director and scholar Christian David published a comprehensive biography based on interviews with Kinski's friends or colleagues and personal letters. David uncovered formerly unknown facts about Kinski's life and corrected the actor's public image. This publication was followed by a paperback book by Peter Geyer containing essays on Kinski's life and work.
Kinski released nearly 25 spoken word records, some of them were re-released on CDs.
