Biography:

Paul Klinger was born in Essen, Germany on June 14, 1907. After dropping out of architecture and, later, theater studies in Munich, he began performing on stage. In 1933, he signed a contract with the Deutsches Theater in Berlin and also performed at the Komische Oper and Hebbeltheater. After his 1933 film debut, Du sollst nicht begehren (dir. Richard Schneider-Edenkoben), he received major contracts with leading German film production companies, including the Ufa Film Studio. The handsome actor soon became a German film star and worked with many important German directors during the Nazi era, including Arthur Maria Rabenalt (Das Leben ruft, Zirkus Renz), Boleslaw Barlog (Der grüne Salon), Hans Deppen (Das schöne Fräulein Schragg) and Veit Harlan (Die goldene Stadt, Immensee).   

One of Klinger’s first roles after WWII was as Hans Wieland in Kurt Maetzig’s DEFA film, Ehe im Schatten. In the film, his character is based on the story of actor Joachim Gottschalk—whose professional life had been very similar to Klinger’s: both were celebrated young German film and theater stars in Berlin at the same time. Gottschalk was called the “German Cary Grant,” while Klinger gave Grant his German-dubbed voice. Both were also cast by Veit Harlan in Die goldene Stadt … and might have performed together, had Gottschalk not been banned from performing by Nazi Propaganda Minister Goebbels.

In addition to his theater and film roles, Klinger also performed in radio productions and dubbed over 160 films starting in the 1940s. He gave many international stars—including Jean Gabin, Humphrey Bogart and Charlton Heston—their German voices. As of the early 1960s, he was seen more and more on television and became widely known as the detective in the crime series Kommissar Brahm. Paul Klinger, who acted in over 100 films, died on November 14, 1971 in Munich.