Hartmut Becker was a renowned German stage and film actor, who had been active in the theatre since 1962. Throughout his illustrious career, he appeared in numerous plays and international and national film and television productions.
His film debut was in 1970 with the main role of Clark in Michael Verhoeven's feature film "o.k.", which was the official German contribution to the Film Festival Berlin 1970. The film's bold political statements caused a sensation at the festival and earned Becker critical acclaim.
Following "o.k.", Becker became one of Germany's busiest actors in film and theatre, performing leading characters in plays at the State Theatres of Munich and Berlin. He went on to appear in notable films such as Verhoeven's "Who lives in the Glass House" (Film Festival Berlin 1971),"Als Mutter streikte", "John Ralling" (tv),"Mitgift", "Audienz" (tv),and "Sonntagskinder".
His first leading role in an English language production was in the BBC-film "Forgive Our Foolish Ways", where he played a German prisoner of war alongside Kate Nelligan. The television film was a global success.
Becker's subsequent international films included the American-English production "Jenny's War" (Columbia Pictures),where he portrayed the main character Karl Koenig, and the American production "Escape From Sobibor" (director: Jack Gold).
In 1989, he appeared in the Festival-Film "Il Decimo Clandestino" (Festival International du Film Cannes) alongside director Lina Wertmueller and actress Dominique Sanda.
After the success of "Il Decimo Clandestino", Becker went on to land dream roles, including Niels Jost in "A Silent Conspiracy", Rauscher in the American Film "Triumph of the Spirit", Lutz in the English-French Television Film "Free Frenchmen", Moritz in the English-Austrian feature film "Gave Princip", King Christian in "Young Catherine", Rusty in the Italian tv-movie "Requiem Per Voce e Pianoforte", and Dieter Krause in the English TV-thriller "The Waiting Time".
His last leading role in a German feature was Goran in "The Unforgotten" (2005),followed by the part Kardinal Schoeller in the German cinema film "Verfehlung" (The Transgression) (2015) and Lenz Senior in "Liebesfilm" (2018).
From 2007 to 2012, Becker was a member of the committee of the German Academy of Film (Deutsche Filmakademie). He passed away in 2022.
