Biography
Curd Jurgens, widely recognized in the United States as Curt Jurgens, ranked among the earliest German performers to attain Hollywood prominence after World War II. Munich was his birthplace, and until his first wife—an actress—encouraged him to pursue the stage, his ambitions had centered exclusively on journalism. A steady ascent on both stage and screen began in the mid-1930s, only to be halted when propaganda minister Dr. Joseph Goebbels ordered his arrest for dissenting political opinions, resulting in internment at a concentration camp toward the war’s close. After liberation he secured Austrian citizenship and resumed his screen work, which gained fresh visibility in 1955 through his contribution to The Devil’s General.
Two years later he delivered a breakthrough portrayal of a principled yet tormented U-boat officer engaged in a tense duel with Robert Mitchum’s destroyer captain in The Enemy Below. He next assumed the leading part of the ill-fated instructor—originally identified with Emil Jannings—in a sincere yet unsuccessful remake of The Blue Angel, while achieving greater success as rocket scientist Werner Von Braun in the biographical drama I Aim at the Stars. Over the following twenty years he appeared in numerous international productions, among them a single James Bond feature, and took occasional part in musical projects, most notably a spoken role in the filmed adaptation of Kurt Weill’s Threepenny Opera. He also supplied the narration for the German edition of Jeff Wayne’s late-1970s concept album The War of the Worlds; on the German-CBS pressing Der Kriege der Welten he replaced Richard Burton, while the recording retained contributions from Justin Hayward, Phil Lynott, David Essex, and others.
Two years later he delivered a breakthrough portrayal of a principled yet tormented U-boat officer engaged in a tense duel with Robert Mitchum’s destroyer captain in The Enemy Below. He next assumed the leading part of the ill-fated instructor—originally identified with Emil Jannings—in a sincere yet unsuccessful remake of The Blue Angel, while achieving greater success as rocket scientist Werner Von Braun in the biographical drama I Aim at the Stars. Over the following twenty years he appeared in numerous international productions, among them a single James Bond feature, and took occasional part in musical projects, most notably a spoken role in the filmed adaptation of Kurt Weill’s Threepenny Opera. He also supplied the narration for the German edition of Jeff Wayne’s late-1970s concept album The War of the Worlds; on the German-CBS pressing Der Kriege der Welten he replaced Richard Burton, while the recording retained contributions from Justin Hayward, Phil Lynott, David Essex, and others.