Wolfgang Kieling

Wolfgang Kieling (16 March 1924 – 7 October 1985) was a German actor.
Biography
In films since childhood in his native Germany, Kieling appeared in a few American films, notably in Alfred Hitchcock's Torn Curtain (1966), where he played Gromek, an East German agent brutally slain by Paul Newman's character. He also played Gromek's brother in a scene that was deleted from the final print.
Kieling had a small role in $ (aka, The Heist, 1971), starring Warren Beatty. In a British film, Amsterdam Affair (1968), he portrayed the fictional Dutch detective Van der Valk several years before Barry Foster (another Hitchcock alumnus) was cast in the same role for the British TV series. He did much work on West German TV, including the first episode of Derrick ("Waldweg", 1974).
The best of his later roles was in the film Out of Order (1984), originally titled Abwärts. In the German-language version of Disneys Alice in Wonderland he dubbed the Mad Hatter.
Early on, Kieling also became a dubbing actor for West German dubs of foreign films, serving as the standard dubbing voice of Glenn Ford, Frank Sinatra (in his 1950s films), and he also dubbed Charlton Heston in the first part of the Planet of the Apes franchise. Thanks to his voice's similarity to that of Gert Günther Hoffmann, he would also replace Hoffmann as the dubbing voice of Paul Newman when Hoffmann was not available. On TV, he was especially known as the German voice of Bert (see Bert and Ernie) from Sesame Street up until his death in 1985.
In October 1952 his wife Jola Jobst (ex-wife of German Luftwaffe ace Hermann Graf), whom he had married in 1950, committed suicide.
In March 1968 he moved from West Germany to East Germany because of West German support for the United States, which he became disillusioned with after witnessing the Watts riots firsthand during the filming of Torn Curtain. After defecting he called the United States "the most dangerous enemy of humanity in the world today" with its "crimes against the Negro and the people of Vietnam."
Kieling moved back to West Germany in 1971.
Selected filmography
Child actor
Die lustigen Weiber (1936) - Bit Part (uncredited)
Maria the Maid (1936) - Christoph - Marias little brother
Die Kreutzersonate (1937) - Wassja
Heimweh (1937) - Robby, Sohn des Bankpräsidenten
Women for Golden Hill (1938) - Pat
(1938, released 1947) - Der Solist im Schulchor
The Journey to Tilsit (1939) - Klein Franz
Seitensprünge (1940) - Hotelboy
Falstaff in Vienna (1940) - Loisl - Lehrling bei Meister Sturm
Herz geht vor Anker (1940) - Schiffsjunge
Somewhere in Berlin (1941) - Bürolehrling bei Dr. Horn
(1941) - Hotelpage im "Tivoli" (uncredited)
Actor
Genesung (1956) - Friedel Walter
Damals in Paris (1956) - René
Duped Till Doomsday (1957) - Gefreiter Lick
The Man Who Couldn't Say No (1958) - Untersuchungsrichter
(1959) - Dr. Stein
Agatha, Stop That Murdering! (1960) - Philip
(1961) - Dr. Salbach
The Marriage of Mr. Mississippi (1961) - Narrator (voice, uncredited)
The Last of Mrs. Cheyney (1961) - Dimanche
(1961) - Kriminalinspektor Arnold
(1963) - Schwarzkopf
Time of the Innocent (1964)
(1964) - Hauptwachtmeister Glantz
(1964, TV film) - Möbius
The House in Karp Lane (1965) - Karl Marek
Hotel der toten Gäste (1965) - Jack Courtney
The Bandits of the Rio Grande (1965) - Barran
Our Man in Jamaica (1965) - Elmer Hayes / Nick
Duel at Sundown (1965) - Punch
(1966) - Napoleon's double
Torn Curtain (1966) - Hermann Gromek
(1966, TV film) - George Rogers
Hotel Clausewitz (1967) - Stemmka
The Vengeance of Fu Manchu (1967) - Dr. Lieberson
Dead Run (1967) - Wolfgang
The House of 1,000 Dolls (1967) - Inspector Emil
Operazione San Pietro (1967) - Poulain
Im Banne des Unheimlichen (1968) - Sir Cecil
Tevye and His Seven Daughters (1968) - Poperilli
Amsterdam Affair (1968) - Van Der Valk
Das siebente Jahr (1969) - Günter Heim
Jungfer, Sie gefällt mir (1969) - Adam
(1970) - Böttcher (segment "Das Duell")
Goya or the Hard Way to Enlightenment (1971) - Godoy
$ (1971) - Granich
Tatort: (1972, TV series episode) - Dr. Rudolf Kühne
Sonderdezernat K1: Vier Schüsse auf den Mörder (1972, TV series episode) - Siegfried Kalweit
(1972) - Ferencz
(1972, TV film) - Mr. Timm
(1973, TV miniseries) - Gebhardt
(1973, TV film) - Alfred Bergmann
Vreemde Wêreld (1974) - Iwan Elzer
Derrick: Waldweg (1974, TV series episode) - Rudolf Manger
(1974, TV miniseries) - Martin Melchior
(1976, TV film) - Anselm Kiwitt
(1977, TV film) - Heaton
Der Geist der Mirabelle (1978, TV film) - Harms
(1979) - Edmund Gabriel
Die Stühle des Herrn Szmil (1979, TV film) - Kasch
Tatort: Schweigegeld (1979, TV series episode) - Helmuth Klaven
A Guru Comes (1980, TV film) - Lawyer / Narrator
Exil (1981, TV miniseries) - Gingold
(1981, TV film) - Prof. Jacob Paul von Gundling
(1981, TV film) - Ingelmann
(1983, TV film) - Martin Oppermann
The Old Fox: Der vierte Mann (1983, TV series episode) - Helmut Schäffert
Satan ist auf Gottes Seite (1983, TV film) - Carow
The Heart of the Matter (1983, TV film) - Yusef
Man Under Suspicion (1984) - Reporter 'Watergate'
Out of Order (1984) - Gössmann
The Old Fox: Der Klassenkamerad (1984, TV series episode) - Walter Nolle
Patrik Pacard (1984, TV miniseries) - Professor Olaf Gunström
Der Schiedsrichter (1985, TV film) - Karl Bisst
(1985) - Notar Prätorius
The Black Forest Clinic (1985–1986, TV series, 4 episodes) - Dr. Ignaz Marker
References
External links
1924 births
1985 deaths
German prisoners of war in World War II
German male film actors
German male television actors
German male child actors
Male actors from Berlin
20th-century German male actors
German Film Award winners
Burials at the Ohlsdorf Cemetery
German expatriate male actors in the United States