But it were the memes that made Ganz famous.
Posted on 02/16/2019 6:23:16 AM PST by Drew68
The Swiss actor died at home in Zurich on Friday night, his management said.
Ganz was well-known in German-language cinema and theatre and also had roles in English-language films including The Reader and The Manchurian Candidate.
His most famous role, however, was as Adolf Hitler in Downfall. One particular scene depicting Hitler in apoplectic fury became a meme and spawned thousands of parodies online.
The film, called Der Untergang in German, told the story of Hitler's final days in his Berlin bunker. It grossed $92m (£71.3m) at box offices around the world when it was released.
t was named winner of the BBC Four World Cinema Award and was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, but since then it has become almost as famous for a wave of internet parodies of its final scene, poking fun at numerous news events.
A New York Times reviewer called Ganz's performance "intriguing" and "creepily charismatic".
In 2005 Ganz told The Guardian newspaper that he spent four months preparing for the role, studying historical records including a secretly-recorded tape of Hitler and observing people with Parkinson's disease, which he came to believe the dictator had.
But he said: "I cannot claim to understand Hitler. Even the witnesses who had been in the bunker with him were not really able to describe the essence of the man.
"He had no pity, no compassion, no understanding of what the victims of war suffered."
Ganz, the most famous Swiss actor, had a rich and varied career. He played a vampire in Werner Herzog's Nosferatu the Vampyre (1979) and an angel in Wim Wenders' Wings of Desire (1987) and its sequel Faraway, So Close! (1993).
(Excerpt) Read more at bbc.com ...
But it were the memes that made Ganz famous.
https://youtu.be/4zpYQJkBQp0
Simply an excellent movie. Ganz will live forever, though probably not as he would have preferred.
Thanks
Countdown to the “Hitler finds out Ganz is dead” video.
"Hitler learns that Bruno Ganz has died."
RIP.
RIP
Winner. Thank you. Laugh of the day!
So where is the meme about Hitler finding out that Bruno Ganz is dead?
Downfall was a spectacular movie. After seeing it, my high school aged son said ‘I can’t believe the secretary was supportive of him’. I could only say that she was likely unaware of what he actually was like and that he treated her well. That movie has stuck with me for years.
Doing the math, Bruno Ganz was 62 when Der Untergang was filmed, depicting Hitler who was 56 just before committing suicide.
They even did a parody of Ganz the actor reminiscing about his Hitler role.
But those rant parodies are priceless. My favorite is Hitler in helium voice & slowed down shouting “Fegelein, Fegelein, FEGELEIN!!!”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4YLqC3DIgjY
An interview on Youtube with the actor Bruno Ganz talking about Downfall and the parodies, and it takes awhile but it eventually becomes apparent that the English subtitles to the interview are also totally made up and just as silly as the Downfall parodies themselves.
RIP Ganz
RIP to an awesome actor in one of the best historical films ever made.
“Countdown to the “Hitler finds out Ganz is dead” video”
LOL!
Haven’t seen Downfall, but have seen Bruno in other things, and he will be an immortal actor for me for having played an angel in one of the greatest films of the 20th Century, Wings of Desire.
That one threw me for a bit of a loop before I realized that... good acting job by him...great movie.
Did a good job of portraying the madness as the walls closed in on the Nazis.
Yes, they were parodied but that is because they are so moving.
To the Ganz family: Condolences, sorry for your loss.
OMG, I had no idea that existed.
From Wiki:
“To Be or Not to Be” (also known as “The Hitler Rap”) is a song recorded by Mel Brooks in 1983 for Island Records. The song appeared on the soundtrack album for the movie with the same name. It was derived from the burlesque show within the film but did not appear within it.[1] It also echoes Brooks’ 1967 film The Producers, with the lines “Don’t be stupid, be a smarty. Come and join the Nazi Party” taken from the song “Springtime for Hitler”.
In the accompanying music video, Mel Brooks is dressed like Adolf Hitler and raps about the key events in Hitler’s life in Third Reich.
While having limited success in the United States, the song managed to chart high in Australia and the United Kingdom, peaking at number three in the former country and number 12 on the UK Singles Chart. It also reached number one in Norway and number two in Sweden.
He was also a scientist in the 1978 movie Boys from Brazil
Cloning - The Boys from Brazil
(A movie, which was not so ironically about Cloning Hitler)
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