Hardy Krüger is dead. The actor and writer died in California on Wednesday at the age of 93, as his agency announced on Thursday in Hamburg.
He died suddenly and unexpectedly in Palm Springs. “His warmth of heart, his joie de vivre and his unshakable sense of justice will make him unforgettable,” it said.
The native of Berlin, who lived in California and Hamburg for a long time, played the leading role in around 75 films. After the war he was one of the few German actors to have an international career. Krüger made his breakthrough outside of Germany in the British war film One Came Through. He starred opposite John Wayne in Hatari!, along with James Stewart and Peter Finch in Flight of the Phoenix.
In 1963, the French drama film “Sundays with Sybill” received an Oscar – Krüger played a Vietnam veteran who blames himself for the death of a Vietnamese child. The actor himself has received various awards over the course of his career, including the Federal Film Prize and the Grand Cross of Merit.
Krüger was in front of the camera with stars like Claudia Cardinale, Sean Connery, Yul Brynner, Charles Aznavour, Cathérine Deneuve and Orson Welles. On television, he created a classic as a “globetrotter” in the ARD series of the same name. With his book “A Farm in Africa” Krüger also started a career as a writer.
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