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Reuters

Bruno Ganz, the Swiss actor who portrayed Adolf Hitler in Oscar-nominated film Downfall, died of cancer at his home in Zurich on Saturday aged 77, his agent said.
Ganz had been active in German language theatre, film and television for more than 50 years and was the holder of the Iffland-Ring, the most important award for German-speaking actors.
“One of the most important actors of our time goes, his brilliant work remains. We mourn with the family and friends of Bruno Ganz,” German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said in a tweet.
Born to a Swiss mechanic father and a northern Italian mother, Ganz grew up in Zurich and decided to become an actor after a friendly lighting technician allowed him into a local theatre.
It was not an easy path, with his family opposed to his career choice.
“As a boy I was morbidly shy,” he recalled in one interview.

As a teenager Ganz dropped out of school to attend evening acting classes in Zurich where he also worked as a bookseller and trained as a paramedic.
In the early 1960s Ganz left Switzerland to work in theatre in Germany, and from the 1970s onwards he acted at the Berlin-based Schaubuehne theatre.
He earned praise for his performances, while also branching out into cinema, where he worked with renowned German directors like Wim Wenders, Werner Herzog and Volker Schloendorff.
In 1987 Ganz played an angel called Damiel in Wenders’s film Wings of Desire, entitled “Sky Over Berlin” in German, who becomes mortal so he can experience earthly pleasures.
One of his most famous roles came when he played Hitler in the 2004 film Downfall, which dramatised the last days of the Nazi dictator in his Berlin bunker, one of Germany’s first attempts to characterise the Führer in film.


Ganz portrayed Hitler as a ranting and delusional madman, but also as a fatherly figure suffering from Parkinson’s disease who fussed about the welfare of his secretaries. Scenes of him ranting furiously at his staff spawned a wave of internet parodies and memes.
Immersing himself in that role affected the actor, who later admitted he had been haunted by his portrayal for a very long time.
“I tend to identify with my roles to such an extent that I appear to be totally convinced about certain statements that, in real life, I would never believe in,” Ganz said.
He also continued to work on the stage, playing classic roles like Faust and Hamlet, as well as appearing in films including The Reader, The Manchurian Candidate and The Tree of Life.

Intensely private, he largely shunned Hollywood. Married once, he separated from his wife with whom he had a son, and lived in Zurich, Berlin and Venice.
He was remembered on Saturday evening at the closing gala of the Berlin Film Festival, where much of the film world was gathered to hear which film would win this year’s coveted Golden Bear award.


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Obituaries

Bruno Ganz, who gave masterful performance as Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler in ‘Downfall’, dead at 77

Swiss actor Bruno Ganz (left), who played the role of Adolf Hitler. File photo: Handout

(FILES) In this file photo taken on February 12, 2009 Swiss actor Bruno Ganz poses during a photocall for the film "I Skoni Tou Chronou" (The Dust of Time) by Greek director Theo Angelopoulos presented in competition of the 59th Berlinale Film Festival in Berlin. - Bruno Ganz, the Swiss actor who gave a masterful performance as Adolf Hitler in "Downfall", has died aged 77, his agent said on February 16, 2019. Ganz, who died at his home in Zurich, had a distinguished career on screen and stage before his 2004 appearance in "Downfall", which unfolds over the final, suffocating days inside Hitler's bunker. (Photo by BRITTA PEDERSEN / POOL / AFP)

epa07375266 (FILE) Swiss actor and member of the jury Bruno Ganz smiles during a interview at San Sebastian Intenational Film Festival in the northern city of San Sebastian, Spain, 27 September 2006 (reissued 16 February 2019). Media reports on 16 February 2019 state that Swisss actor Bruno Ganz died at his home in Zurich, Switzerland, late 15 February at the age of 77. EPA-EFE/JUAN HERRERO

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For many critics, Ganz’s nuanced portrayal of the fascist tyrant that veers between explosive and sombre was unparalleled
Before the Oscar-nominated ‘Downfall’, he had already been acknowledged as one of the most important German-language actors



For many critics, Bruno Ganz’s nuanced portrayal of the fascist tyrant that veers between explosive and sombre was unparalleled.


Bruno Ganz, who gave masterful performance as Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler in ‘Downfall’, dead at 77

For many critics, Ganz’s nuanced portrayal of the fascist tyrant that veers between explosive and sombre was unparalleled Before the Oscar-nominated ‘Downfall’, he had already been acknowledged as one of the most important German-language actors

For many critics, Ganz’s nuanced portrayal of the fascist tyrant that veers between explosive and sombre was unparalleled

Before the Oscar-nominated ‘Downfall’, he had already been acknowledged as one of the most important German-language actors