Biography:

Ernst-Georg Schwill was born on March 30, 1939 in Berlin. When he was fourteen, director Gerhard Klein discovered him and cast him in his crime drama, Alarm im Zirkus. While he began an apprenticeship as a photographer, Schwill took on roles in Klein's following films, Eine Berliner Romanze and Berlin – Ecke Schönhauser as well.

From 1957 to 1960, Schwill studied acting at the Academy for Film and Television in Potsdam-Babelsberg, playing in important East German films while still a student. Highlights include his vivid performance in the title role in Heiner Carow's antifascist children’s film, Sie nannten ihn Amigo, and his performance as Willi—the single German in a team of five volunteers in the International Brigade during the Spanish Civil War—in Frank Beyer's Fünf Patronenhülsen.

Schwill also performed on stage at the Berliner Ensemble and the Deutsches Theater and joined the East German television ensemble in 1970. Since then, Schwill has played mostly supporting roles in a range of television and film productions, including Good Bye, Lenin! He took over the role of detective Weber in the popular German crime series Tatort in 1999.

In 2008, Ernst-Georg Schwill published a memoir, entitled Is doch keene Frage nich – Erinnerungen eines Schauspielers.

Bibliography & More:

Schwill, Ernst-Georg. Is doch keene Frage nich – Erinnerungen eines Schauspielers. (trans. It Ain't Even a Question: Memories of an Actor). Berlin: Das Neue Berlin, 2008.