Christoph Waltz filmography and biography
Date of birth: 4 October 1956, Vienna, Austria
Christoph Waltz biography
Christoph Waltz was born to Elisabeth Urbancic, a costume designer, and
Johannes Waltz, a stage builder. He has 3 siblings. He was born into a
theater family. His grandmother was the Viennese Burgtheater actress
Maria Mayen, and his step-grandfather was fellow Burgtheater actor
Emmerich Reimers.
Christoph attended the Theresianium and Billrothstrasse in Vienna. Upon
graduation, he attended the Max-Reinhardt-Seminar before going to New
York to the Lee Strasberg Institute. While in New York, Christoph met
his first wife, and moved back to Vienna, then to London.
During the 80s, Christoph worked primarily in theater, commuting from
his home in London to Germany. Slowly he began to work in TV, taking
one-off roles on series, and TV movies. Film roles soon followed,
however, attempts to break into English-speaking film and TV were
unsuccessful. Christoph has stated he is grateful to have made a living
and supported his family through acting. For thirty years he worked
steadily, tirelessly, in this manner.
It was not until he met Quentin Tarantino that his career in Hollywood
took off. The role of Colonel Hans Landa in Inglourious Basterds
catapulted Christoph from a lifetime working in German TV/film to the
new life of an international superstar, Academy Award winning actor. He
won 27 awards for his performance as Hans Landa, including the Cannes
prix d'interpretation Masculin for 2009, the Golden Globe for Best
Supporting Actor and the BAFTA Best Supporting Actor award.
Christoph resides in Berlin and Los Angeles. His partner is the costume
builder Judith Holste.
Christoph Waltz trivia
- Is fluent in German, English, and French. Is skilled at mimicking
Italian speech.
- Made his stage debut at the Schauspielhaus in Zurich (1982).
- Is divorced from his first wife. They have three adult children.
- Studied acting at the Max Reinhardt-Seminar in Vienna and the
'Lee Strasberg' Theater Institute in New York.
- Son of set designers Elisabeth Urbancic and
Johannes Waltz.
- His grandparents were actors.
- His son from his first marriage is a rabbi, his daughter from his first
marriage is an architect.
- Lives in London, but his longtime companion, costume designer 'Judith
Holste', and their daughter live in Berlin.
- Is one of 8 actors to have won the Academy Award, BAFTA Award, Critics'
Choice Award, Golden Globe Award and SAG Award for the same
performance. The others in chronological order are Geoffrey Rush
for Shine, Jamie Foxx for Ray (2004/I),
Philip Seymour Hoffman for Capote,
Forest Whitaker for The Last King of Scotland,
Javier Bardem for No Country for Old Men,
Daniel Day-Lewis for There Will Be Blood, and
Heath Ledger for The Dark Knight.
- Was originally cast as Sigmund Freud in
A Dangerous Method, but dropped out of the project in
order to film Water for Elephants. Viggo Mortensen
was later cast instead.
- The first and, thus far, only actor to win in Oscar for acting in a
Quentin Tarantino film.
- His first wife was from New York and Jewish.
- Despite being born in Austria, he was born with German citizenship (and
kept it all his life) since his father was German.
Christoph Waltz quotes
- In Europe, everybody would say, 'Well, they just want to squeeze you
like a lemon.' Well, yeah! But, you know, if I have the juice, why
shouldn't they? -- on hoping to continue to work in Hollywood
- Nobody's talking about that. I get interest coming my way from many
different directions. I'd hate to pigeon-hole myself. The variety is
what's interesting. -- on being typecast.
- I know what I can contribute. And that's a very limited, very specific
unit, whether it's a big movie, a small movie, a German movie, an
American movie. That's the advantage I have over a 25-year-old. I've
had the chance to understand what it is I do.
- The one advantage of having grown up in the business is that you don't
romanticize it. 'Oh, isn't it wonderful?' Blah, blah, blah. No, it
isn't! I've never romanticized it. But on the other hand, the
conviction, the dedication that you see here, is tremendous. It would
be awful if the whole business consisted of grouchy farts like me.
- The better the dog, the busier you have to keep him. I'm arrogant and
blase enough to consider myself a very good dog. You take pride in what
you're doing, in your craft, and all of that, but -- I wouldn't say I
resigned myself to mediocrity, not at all, but I started to accept that
there might be an ideal you strive for (and) never realize. -- on
advice a dog trainer once gave him that can apply to him as well.
- To put aside what I know about the topic. Because it was irrelevant.
Growing up in that area, you don't hear much about the French
Revolution or the Egyptians or the Seven Year War. You hear about the
Nazi era. But it was irrelevant to the part and unnecessary and would
have been a bad obstacle. -- on the toughest aspect of preparing for
"Inglourious Basterds"
- It's frustrating. Even though I agree with all of you [other actors
being interviewed], I have a less romantic and idealistic approach to
acting. Over there (in Germany), the business is based on mediocrity.
On a high level, admittedly, but mediocrity. You reach a certain level,
beyond which you will not go. Not just in career but in challenges and
opportunity. It's interesting for the specific issue of how to cope
with an actor's life. To lead an actor's life. What do you do if you
have a stretch of five years where you only get mediocre offers and
nothing to sink your teeth into? That's where it is difficult. Becoming
an actor is one thing. Being an actor is entirely different.
- It's the result that makes the art, not necessarily the process that
leads to it. So when Hilary plays Bach, that's the music (but) what you
perceive is the art. Is she considering herself as an artist? I don't
think so. I think she just puts herself into the craft, into each
individual note and ties them together in order to arrive at what the
emotion might be. That's one of the biggest problems with the actor.
The piece of art -- the person, the performance, everything that leads
up to it -- is so difficult to separate from each other.
- (His Oscar acceptance speech for "Inglourious Basterds") Oscar and
Penélope [Cruz], that's an über bingo! I always wanted to discover some
new continent and I thought I had to go this way, and then I was
introduced to Quentin Tarantino, who was putting together an expedition
that was equipped by Harvey Weinstein and Lawrence Bender and David
Linde, and he put this script in front of me and he said, "This is
where we're going, but we're going the other way." So Brad Pitt helped
me on board and Diane Kruger was there Melanie Laurent and Denis
Menochet and Bob Richardson and Sally Menke and Adam Schweitzer and
Lisa Kasteler. Everybody helped me find a place. Universal and The
Weinstein Company and ICM and Quentin, with his unorthodox methods of
navigation, this fearless explorer, took this ship across and brought
it in with flying colors and that's why I'm here. And this is your
welcoming embrace and there's no way I can ever thank you enough, but I
can start right now. Thank you.
- Becoming an actor is like becoming a father. It's not hard to become
one. Making a life of it is the challenge.
- If the advice to 'get out' is too late, then my advice would always be
read, go to museums, go to concerts. Don't learn life from movies or
television.