Moritz Johann Bleibtreu (; was born in
Munich, Germany
Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the States of Germany, German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the List of cities in Germany by popu ...
on August 13, 1971. He has worked over the years as a film actor, voice actor, and film director. Bleibtreu has been a successful actor in many movies such as ''
Run Lola Run,
Das Experiment,
The Baader Meinhof Complex
''The Baader Meinhof Complex'' (german: Der Baader Meinhof Komplex, ) is a 2008 German drama film directed by Uli Edel. Written and produced by Bernd Eichinger, it stars Moritz Bleibtreu, Martina Gedeck, and Johanna Wokalek. The film is bas ...
'', and
''Elementary Particles''. His role in
''Knockin' on Heaven's Door'' was the one that set off his career back in 1997.
Life
Moritz Bleibtreu was born in 1971 and was raised in the St. Georg district of
Hamburg
(male), (female) en, Hamburger(s),
Hamburgian(s)
, timezone1 = Central (CET)
, utc_offset1 = +1
, timezone1_DST = Central (CEST)
, utc_offset1_DST = +2
, postal ...
. Moritz Bleibtreu's parents,
Monica Bleibtreu, (1944-2009) and,
Hans Brenner, (1938 - 1998) were both actors.
Renato Attilio Bleibtreu is Moritz's grandfather and is a well-known writer. Many of his ancestors were actors also, such as his great-grandmother
Maximiliane Bleibtreu, her sister
Hedwig Bleibtreu
Hedwig Bleibtreu (; 23 December 1868 – 24 January 1958) was an Austrian film actress. She appeared in more than thirty films from 1919 to 1952. Bleibtreu is perhaps best-known to international audiences as Alida Valli's furious landlady in ''Th ...
and their parents
Amalie and
Sigmund Bleibtreu. Actress
Cilli Drexel is the half-sister of Moritz Bleibtreu. The
Bleibtreustrasse, a street in
Berlin
Berlin ( , ) is the capital and List of cities in Germany by population, largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's List of cities in the European Union by population within ci ...
, was originally named after
Georg Bleibtreu
Georg Bleibtreu (27 March 1828 – 16 October 1892) was a German painter of military and historical scenes.
Biography
Born in Xanten on 27 March 1828, Bleibtreu was a painter, lithographer, designer and 'graveur sur bois'. He was a member of th ...
who was a battle painter and a distant ancestor of Moritz. Moritz as a child was already in the spotlight when he starred in ''
Neues aus Uhlenbusch'' (''News From Uhlenbusch).'' The children series was written by
Rainer Boldt
Rainer may refer to:
People
* Rainer (surname)
* Rainer (given name)
Other
* Rainer Island, an island in Franz Josef Land, Russia
* 16802 Rainer, an asteroid
* Rainer Foundation, British charitable organisation
See also
* Rainier (disambigua ...
,
Monica Bleibtreu, and
Hans Peter Korff
Hans Peter Korff (born 24 August 1942) is a German actor.
Life
Korff studied at Hochschule für Musik und Theater Hamburg. In Germany Korff works as an actor in cinema-, tv-films and tv-series. Since 1992 Korff is married with German actress ...
. Monica and Hans were married at the time this series was produced. Bleibtreu's career continued to grow as he got a role in Boldt's, ''I Had a Dream'', and then in 1986 in, ''
With My Hot Tears
With or WITH may refer to:
* With, a preposition
Prepositions and postpositions, together called adpositions (or broadly, in traditional grammar, simply prepositions), are a class of words used to express spatial or temporal relations (''in'', ...
'', a television series that he acted in with his mother.
Moritz Bleibtreu grew up attending the Jahnschule, which is now known as the Ida-Ehre-School in Hamburg-Harvestehude. He obtained his secondary school certificate in the eleventh grade while attending the school. He then began to not attend the school anymore after obtaining his certificate. Bleibtreu then moved to
Paris
Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), ma ...
to work as an Au-Pair for almost two years. While working this job, he was also able to learn French. He then moved to
Italy
Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...
afterwards for a year and then on to
New York. In New York, he attended acting school. He was not offered a job in his audition at the Actors Studio, but he was able to get on as a factotum, which let him observe the actors' rehearsals.
Moritz Bleibtreu had a son in November 2008 with his now ex-wife Annika in
Reinbek, Germany.
He married
Saskia de Tschaschell in
Reinbeck at the
Maria-Magdelenen Church on July 21, 2022.
Acting Career
At the age of 21 and after 4 years of studying abroad, Bleibtreu continued his career by working at the
Thalia Theater and the
Schauspielhaus in
Hamburg, Germany. After this, he began getting smaller roles in television series. Moritz Bleibtreu began his television acting career with a role in the series ''
Schulz & Schulz.'' Bleibtreu took a role as a gay bartender named Thorsten who lives in the Hamburg prostitute scene. In the show, he helps a 16-year-old boy with a predicament with his father. They seek to prove his father's innocence after he is convicted of killing a young man who resided in the red-light district in Hamburg. Bleibtreu also starred in a romantic comedy called ''
Stadtsprach''. He played the role of Karl, a homosexual naive carpenter.
In 1998, Moritz began to step away from acting in T.V. series and began to work on more movies. He said, "cinema is an active form of watching, while television is a passive one". Bleibtreu has worked in many well-known films such as ''
Run Lola Run'', ''
Knockin' on Heaven's Door
"Knockin' on Heaven's Door" is a song by American singer-songwriter Bob Dylan, written for the soundtrack of the 1973 film '' Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid''. Released as a single two months after the film's premiere, it became a worldwide hit, ...
'', ''
The Baader Meinhof Complex
''The Baader Meinhof Complex'' (german: Der Baader Meinhof Komplex, ) is a 2008 German drama film directed by Uli Edel. Written and produced by Bernd Eichinger, it stars Moritz Bleibtreu, Martina Gedeck, and Johanna Wokalek. The film is bas ...
'', and ''
The Experiment''. He also worked on many other films such as ''
Solino
''Solino'' is a 2002 Italian-German movie directed by Fatih Akın and starring Moritz Bleibtreu
Moritz Johann Bleibtreu (; was born in Munich, Munich, Germany on August 13, 1971. He has worked over the years as a film actor, voice actor, and f ...
'', ''
im Juli'', ''
Chiko'', and ''
Soul Kitchen'' in which he worked with filmmaker
Fatih Akin
Fatih Akin (Turkish: Fatih Akın, born 25 August 1973) is a German film director, screenwriter and producer of Turkish descent. He has won numerous awards for his films, including the Golden Bear at the Berlin Film Festival for his film '' Head- ...
. Moritz won the German Film Award for best leading actor in the films ''
im Juli'' and ''The Experiment''. In 2003, he was a member of the jury at the
25th Moscow International Film Festival
The 25th Moscow International Film Festival was held from 20 to 29 June 2003. The Golden St. George was awarded to the Italian-Spanish film ''The End of a Mystery'' directed by Miguel Hermoso.
Jury
* Sergei Bodrov (Russia – President of the J ...
.
Bleibtreu also worked in many films as a voice actor. In 2004 and 2006, he was a voice actor in the film ''
Brother Bear
''Brother Bear'' is a 2003 American animated musical fantasy comedy-drama film produced by Walt Disney Feature Animation and released by Walt Disney Pictures. The 44th Disney animated feature film, it was directed by Aaron Blaise and Robert ...
'' and ''
Brother Bear 2
''Brother Bear 2'' is a 2006 American animated direct-to-video musical fantasy comedy-drama film and the sequel to the animated feature ''Brother Bear'', which was released on August 29, 2006. Melissa Etheridge contributed three songs to the fil ...
'' which were both produced by
Walt Disney Studios. He was also awarded the Silver Bear for Best Actor in 2006 for his role in ''
Elementary Particles
In particle physics, an elementary particle or fundamental particle is a subatomic particle that is not composed of other particles. Particles currently thought to be elementary include electrons, the fundamental fermions (quarks, leptons, anti ...
'' directed by
Oskar Roehler
Oskar Roehler (born 21 January 1959) is a German film director, screenwriter and journalist. He was born in Starnberg, the son of writers Gisela Elsner and Klaus Roehler. Since the mid-1980s, he has been working as a screenwriter, for, among ot ...
. He also enjoys taking smaller supporting roles in international co-productions. One movie that he worked in was
Sam Barbarski's ''
Vijay and I: My Wife Cheats on Me''. Bleibtreu, back in 2004, played a role in the Danish film ''Der Fakir'' and then in 2016 in Wilhelm Hauff's film adaptation of
Johannes Naber's ''The Cold Heart''. Finally, in February 2015, he stepped back into the TV production spotlight after 17 years. He started acting in the ZDF crime series called SCHULD. The TV series was based on Ferdinand von Schriach. Bleibtreu played the role of Friedrich Kronberg, a criminal defense lawyer, for three seasons. Following wide positive feedback by fans on his Facebook page whether there should be a sequel to the 2001 classic German stoner film ''
Lammbock'', Bleibtreu announced in November 2015 that the sequel would be titled ''
Lommbock
''Lommbock'' is a 2017 German comedy film directed by Christian Zübert. It is a sequel to the 2001 film '' Lammbock''.
Cast
* Lucas Gregorowicz - Stefan Becker
* Moritz Bleibtreu - Kai
* Louis Hofmann - Jonathan
* Mavie Hörbiger - Sabine
* ...
''. Filming began in summer 2016 and the film premiered in 2017. He played a main role in the musical adaptation, "I've Never Been to New York", which was first shown in cinemas in
Germany
Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...
in October 2019. He worked alongside a couple other famous actors and actresses such as
Katharina Thalbach
Katharina Thalbach (; actually ''Katharina Joachim genannt Thalbach''; born 19 January 1954) is a German actress and stage director. She played theatre at the Berliner Ensemble and at the Volksbühne Berlin, and was actress in the film ''The T ...
,
Heike Makatsch
Heike Makatsch (; born 13 August 1971) is a German actress. She is known for her roles as Lisa Addison in ''Resident Evil'' (2002), Mia in ''Love Actually'' (2003), and as Liesel's mother in ''The Book Thief'' (2013).
Early life
Makatsch was bo ...
, and
Uwe Ochsenknecht
Uwe Adam Ochsenknecht (; born 7 January 1956) is a German actor and singer.
Career
Films Ochsenknecht has starred in include '' Das Boot'' (1981), ''Schtonk!'' (1992), and the TV miniseries '' Frank Herbert's Dune'' (2000).
In the early 1990 ...
in movies such as I've Never Been to New York and Love Your Neighbour. Bleibtreu then began his journey as a director in September 2020 with his film "
''Cortex''". He premiered his film at the
Hamburg Film Festival in October 2020. The next year he worked in a six-part RTL and drama series called "''
Faking Hitler''".
Selected filmography
Awards
Directing Career
Moritz Bleibtreu began his career in directing in 2019 with his film
Cortex
Cortex or cortical may refer to:
Biology
* Cortex (anatomy), the outermost layer of an organ
** Cerebral cortex, the outer layer of the vertebrate cerebrum, part of which is the ''forebrain''
*** Motor cortex, the regions of the cerebral cortex i ...
which released in theaters on October 22, 2020. He said in an interview with the
German Films Quarterly that the film was "very personal to him" as he directed the psychological thriller. Bleibtreu exclaimed that the motivation behind him directing his film was that "... he believed he wanted to watch like this himself". He also said that "directing was not an escape from acting, but rather just another challenge for his journey". Not only did Bleibtreu direct the film, but he also played the lead role of a security officer named Hagen. According to
IMDb
IMDb (an abbreviation of Internet Movie Database) is an online database of information related to films, television series, home videos, video games, and streaming content online – including cast, production crew and personal biographies, ...
with 540 viewer ratings, Cortex received a 5.3 out of 10 stars. German film critic,
Christopher Diekhaus, said in a review that "Bleibtreu finds his own way to challenge and captivate the audience". He also says it "creates an abysmal pull and makes you want to watch it several times to better understand the dance between dream and reality".
Controversy
Moritz Bleibtreu, in 2013, did a commercial for a popular fast-food chain with actors and actresses including
Christian Ulmen,
Elyas M'Barek
Elyas M'Barek (born 29 May 1982) is an Austrian actor based in Germany. He gained recognition for his roles in the comedy television series ''Türkisch für Anfänger'' and the 2013 comedy film ''Fack ju Göhte.''
Early life
M'Barek was born ...
,
Alexandra Maria Lara
Alexandra Maria Lara (''née'' Plătăreanu; 12 November 1978) is a Romanian-German actress who has appeared in '' Downfall'' (2004), ''Control'' (2007), '' Youth Without Youth'' (2007), ''The Reader'' (2008), '' Rush'' (2013), and ''Geostorm' ...
, and many others. He said that the reason that he did the commercial for the fast-food chain was because it allowed him to "make small budget films" and he also enjoyed eating at the fast-food chain itself.
Bleibtreu decided in April 2021 to join the #allesdichtmachen campaign.
This campaign was meant for people to give advice or measures that they would take to stop COVID-19 from spreading. There were about 50 other actors along with Bleibtreu that joined in on this movement. When an advertising partner decided to step in and talk to him about how this could affect his career and future, he decided it was best to not send out the video that he made for the campaign.
References
External links
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bleibtreu, Moritz
1971 births
Living people
German people of Austrian descent
German male film actors
German male television actors
Male actors from Munich
Silver Bear for Best Actor winners
20th-century German male actors
21st-century German male actors