Biography for
Gert Fröbe More at IMDbPro »

Date of Birth

25 February 1912, Oberplanitz [now Zwickau] , Saxony, Germany

Date of Death

5 September 1988, Munich, Bavaria, Germany (heart attack)

Birth Name

Karl-Gerhart Froeber

Height

6' 1" (1.85 m)

Mini Biography

Tall, portly built German born actor (and talented violinist) who notched up over 100 film appearances, predominantly in German-language productions. He will forever be remembered by Western audiences as the bombastic megalomaniac "Auric Goldfinger" trying to kill Sean Connery and irradiate the vast US gold reserves within Fort Knox in the spectacular "James Bond" film Goldfinger (1964). However, due to Fröbe's thick German accent, his voice was actually dubbed by English actor, Michael Collins.

Whilst commonly perceived as cold hearted & humourless from his Goldfinger (1964) portrayal, quite to the contrary, Fröbe was a jovial man and a wonderful comedic performer. His light hearted talents can be best viewed in Berliner Ballade (1948), Der Tag vor der Hochzeit (1952), Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (1968), and Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines or How I Flew from London to Paris in 25 hours 11 minutes (1965). Fröbe also portrayed dogged detective Kriminalkommissar Kras/Lohmann pursuing the evil Dr. Mabuse in Die 1000 Augen des Dr. Mabuse (1960), Im Stahlnetz des Dr. Mabuse (1961) and Das Testament des Dr. Mabuse (1962).

IMDb Mini Biography By: firehouse44@hotmail.com

Spouse

Karin Kuderer-Pistorius	(1970 - ?)
Beate Bach	(1962 - 1968) (divorced)
Hannelore Görtz	(1953 - 1959) (divorced)
Tatjana Iwanow	(? - ?) (divorced) 1 child
Clara Peter	(? - ?) (divorced) 1 child

Trivia

Received much criticism throughout his postwar career for having been a member of the Nazi party in Germany during World War II, although it was later revealed that he was using his membership as a cover to hide Jews from the Gestapo in order to smuggle them out of Germany.

His voice was dubbed in Goldfinger (1964) by Michael Collins.

Was a noted reciter of poetry, especially of Christian Morgenstern' and Joachim Ringelnatz.

Due to his past membership in the Nazi party, Goldfinger (1964) had been banned in Israel until a Jewish family thanked him publicly for helping them.

Son of Karl-Otto Fröbe, a shoemaker, and his wife Alma.

Is buried in the Waldfriedhof cemetery in Icking.

Had two sons, Utz and Andreas.

Pictured on a 3 DM commemorative postage stamp by the German post.

Personal Quotes

I am a big man, and I have a laugh to match my size. The ridiculous thing is that since I played "Goldfinger" in the James Bond film (Goldfinger (1964)) there are some people who still insist on seeing me as a cold, ruthless villain - a man without laughs.

I am a tall man, 6 feet and 1 1/4, and I am born in 1913, that's all.

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