Biography:

Werner Dissel was born on August 26, 1912 in Cologne. As a young man, he was a photojournalist. After the Nazis came to power in 1933, he became part of the anti-Nazi resistance, first working alongside Franz Jung and Harro Schulze-Boysen on a paper called Der Gegner, and as of 1935 alongside Walter Küchenmeister on the paper Wille zum Riech. He was arrested and imprisoned from 1937 to 1939, after which he was put on "front probation"—i.e., sent to the front with the Wehrmacht.

After WWII, Dissel joined the KPD (German Communist Party) and worked as a cabaret artist and set builder at the theater in Wiesbaden. He moved to East Germany in 1950 and became an actor and director. From 1960 to 1979, he appeared on stage in productions of the Berliner Ensemble. 

Dissel appeared in many East German films starting in the 1950s. including Der Fall Gleiwitz, Rotkäppchen, Till Eulenspiegel, Der Traum vom Elch and Die Architekten. His cameo as Walter, an old man who tells the story of being imprisoned by the Nazis for his homosexuality, is a high point in Heiner Carow's Coming Out.

After German unification in 1990, Dissel appeared in television series including Polizeiruf 100 and Für alle Fälle Stefanie. In 1993, he took on the leading part in the series Immenhof after the death of his colleague Wolfried Lier.

Werner Dissel died near Potsdam in 2003.