Christoph Waltz

Early life and education

Waltz was born on 4 October 1956 in Vienna, the son of Johannes Waltz, a German set designer, and Elisabeth Urbancic, an Austrian costume designer of Austrian and Slovenian descent. Waltz comes from a family of theatrical heritage: his maternal grandmother was Burgtheater and silent film actress Maria Mayen, and his step-grandfather, Emmerich Reimers, and his great-grandfather, Georg Reimers, were both stage actors who also appeared in silent films. Waltz's maternal grandfather, Rudolf von Urban, was a psychiatrist of Slovene descent Through Alojz, Waltz is related to Josipina Urbančič, Alojz's first cousin, and one of the first Slovene female poets and composers.}} and a student of Sigmund Freud. Waltz's father died when he was seven years old Steinbrecher was previously married to the mother of director Michael Haneke; as a result, Waltz and Haneke shared the same stepfather.

Waltz had a passion for opera as a youth, having seen his first opera (Turandot with Birgit Nilsson in the title role) at around the age of ten. As a teenager, Waltz would visit the opera twice a week. At the same time, he also studied singing and opera at the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna, but eventually decided that his voice was not good enough for an opera career. In the late 1970s, Waltz spent some time in New York City where he trained with Lee Strasberg and Stella Adler. He studied script interpretation under Adler and credits his analytical approach to her teaching.

Career

On his return to Europe, Waltz found work as a stage actor, making his debut at the Schauspielhaus Zürich. He also performed in Vienna, Salzburg, Cologne and Hamburg. In 1990, he played Dr. Hans-Joachim Dorfmann in the British TV series The Gravy Train opposite Ian Richardson. The show is a story of intrigue and misdeeds set in the offices of the European Union in Brussels. In 2007, Waltz narrated the audiobook of Robert Sapolsky's German version of A Primate's Memoir, Mein Leben als Pavian.

In Quentin Tarantino's 2009 film Inglourious Basterds, Waltz portrayed SS-Standartenführer Hans Landa, also known as "The Jew Hunter". Clever, courteous, multilingual—but also self-serving, implacable and murderous—the character of Landa was such that Tarantino feared he "might have written a part that was un-playable". Waltz received the Best Actor Award for the performance at the 2009 Cannes Film Festival and received acclaim from critics and the public. In 2009, he began sweeping critics' awards circuits, receiving awards for Best Supporting Actor from the New York Film Critics Circle, the Boston Society of Film Critics, Los Angeles Film Critics Association, as well as Best Supporting Actor awards at the Golden Globes and the Screen Actors Guild Awards.

The following month, he won the BAFTA for Best Supporting Actor, and won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. Tarantino acknowledged the importance of Waltz to his film by stating: "I think that Landa is one of the best characters I've ever written and ever will write, and Christoph played it to a tee. It's true that if I couldn't have found someone as good as Christoph I might not have made Inglourious Basterds".

Waltz played gangster Benjamin Chudnofsky in The Green Hornet (2011); that same year, he starred in Water for Elephants and Roman Polanski's Carnage. He played German bounty hunter King Schultz in Quentin Tarantino's Django Unchained (2012), a role Tarantino wrote specifically for Waltz. During a training accident prior to filming, Waltz injured his pelvis, though it did not impact his role in the film. His role garnered him acclaim once again, with Waltz winning the Golden Globe, the BAFTA, and ultimately the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor.

In April 2013, he was selected as a member of the main competition jury at the 2013 Cannes Film Festival. He directed a production of the opera Der Rosenkavalier at the Vlaamse Opera in Antwerp in late 2013, and in Ghent in early 2014. In 2014, he was selected as a member of the jury for the 64th Berlin International Film Festival. He starred as Walter Keane in Tim Burton's Big Eyes, which opened on 25 December 2014, and appeared as Ernst Stavro Blofeld in Spectre, the 24th film in the James Bond franchise.

In July 2016, he portrayed lead villain Captain Leon Rom, a corrupt Belgian captain, in The Legend of Tarzan.

In 2017, Waltz appeared in the films Tulip Fever and Downsizing. In 2019, Waltz appeared in the action fantasy Alita: Battle Angel. He directed a production of the opera Falstaff, again at the Vlaamse Opera in Antwerp in late 2017, and in Ghent in early 2018.

In 2018, Waltz agreed to play the leading role in a film adaptation of the novel The Nazi and the Barber. He described the main role, that of mass murderer Max Schulz, as a "juicy role".

In 2019, Waltz directed and starred in the crime film Georgetown, in which he portrays a man suspected of murdering his wife in order to raise his social status. The film premiered at the 2019 Tribeca Film Festival and was released to cinemas on 14 May 2021.

In 2020, Waltz starred in the web series Most Dangerous Game, receiving his first Primetime Emmy Award nomination.

In 2021, he reprised the role of Ernst Stavro Blofeld in the James Bond film No Time to Die.

He starred in the Amazon Prime series The Consultant in 2023.

Waltz received an Icon award at the Newport Beach Film Festival on 17 October 2024, in recognition of his career. The festival opened with the premiere of the movie Old Guy, starring Waltz.

In March 2025, it was announced he would join Season 5 of Only Murders in the Building on Disney+. It was later confirmed that he would portray the recurring character of Bash Steed, an artificial intelligence tycoon and murder suspect.

Personal life

Waltz was born in Vienna to an Austrian mother and German father. Upon his birth his German father only requested a citizenship certificate of Germany. Being born to an Austrian mother, Waltz was Austrian by birthright, and requested his Austrian citizenship certificate in 2010, thus holding citizenships of both Austria and Germany, but considers that he also has a German passport a "legal, citizenship law banality". Asked whether he felt Viennese, he responded: "I was born in Vienna, grew up in Vienna, went to school in Vienna, graduated in Vienna, studied in Vienna, started acting in Vienna — and there would be a few further Viennese links. How much more Austrian do you want it?" He received American citizenship by naturalization in 2020 noting that he strongly believed "in this old dictum of no taxation without representation" as he had been living in Los Angeles since 2010.

Waltz has three children with his former wife, Jacqueline (), a dance therapist originally from New York. The two lived in London and their marriage lasted 17 years.

Filmography

Main article: Christoph Waltz filmography

Selected filmography

• Inglourious Basterds (2009) as Hans Landa
• The Green Hornet (2011) as Chudnofsky
• Water for Elephants (2011) as August
• The Three Musketeers (2011) as Cardinal Richelieu
• Carnage (2011) as Alan Cowen
• Django Unchained (2012) as Dr. King Schultz
• Epic (2013) as Mandrake (voice)
• The Zero Theorem (2013) as Qohen Leth
• Big Eyes (2014) as Walter Keane
• Spectre (2015) as Ernst Stavro Blofeld
• The Legend of Tarzan (2016) as Léon Rom
• Tulip Fever (2017) as Cornelis Sandvoort
• Downsizing (2017) as Dusan Mirkovic
• Alita: Battle Angel (2019) as Dr. Dyson Ido
• Georgetown (2019) as Ulrich Mott
• Rifkin's Festival (2020) as Death
• No Time to Die (2021) as Ernst Stavro Blofeld
• Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio (2022) as Count Volpe (voice)
• Dead for a Dollar (2022) as Max Borlund
• The Portable Door (2023) as Humphrey Wells
• Frankenstein (2025) as Heinrich Harlander
• Dracula: A Love Tale (2025) as the Priest
• Only Murders in the Building (2025) as Sebastian "Bash" Steed

Notes

References

References

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2. Rosen, Lisa. (16 November 2017). "'Downsizing' actor Christoph Waltz thinks the world needs to downsize its hubris to move forward". [[Los Angeles Times]].
3. (9 December 2014). "M: Good Day, Christoph Waltz". [[Women's Wear Daily]].
4. Chalmers, Robert. (15 May 2015). "We've been expecting you, Mr Waltz". [[GQ]].
5. Lim, Dennis. (12 August 2009). "'Inglourious' Actor Tastes the Glory". [[The New York Times]].
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7. Kurillo, Jurij. (2020). "Preddvorski graščaki Urbančiči". Isis.
8. Rafanelli, Stephanie. (21 December 2017). "A Merry Dance With Mr Christoph Waltz". [[YOOX Net-a-Porter Group.
9. da Fonseca-Wollheim, Corinna. (11 December 2017). "Christoph Waltz, Directing Opera, Moves From Tarantino to Verdi". [[The New York Times]].
10. Rose, Steve. (13 March 2014). "Zero Theorem: the world according to Christoph Waltz". [[The Guardian]].
11. Hitz, Julia. (4 October 2016). "Hollywood's favorite bad guy Christoph Waltz turns 60". [[Deutsche Welle]].
12. Gross, Terry. (18 December 2012). "'Unchained' Admiration Between Actor And Director". [[NPR]].
13. (27 September 2015). "Christoph Waltz und der Sprayer von Zürich". [[Neue Zürcher Zeitung]].
14. (25 February 2013). "Oscars 2013 – The rise of Christoph Waltz". [[Mint (newspaper).
15. Calum Russell. (4 October 2021). "Six definitive films: The ultimate beginner's guide to Christoph Waltz".
16. [[Robert M. Sapolsky]]. (2007). "Mein Leben als Pavian". [[Random House Audio]].
17. Fleming, Michael. (17 May 2009). "Tarantino Reflects On 'Basterds'". [[Variety (magazine).
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22. (27 August 2009). "Inglorious Basterds feature". The National Post.
23. Ordoña, Michael. (27 December 2012). "Christoph Waltz admires Tarantino's to-the-heart style". [[Los Angeles Times]].
24. Borys Kit. (30 September 2011). "Christoph Waltz Dislocates Pelvic Bone During 'Django Unchained' Training". [[The Hollywood Reporter]].
25. Saperstein, Pat. (23 April 2013). "Nicole Kidman, Christoph Waltz, Ang Lee Among Cannes Jury Members". [[Variety (magazine).
26. (15 January 2015). "Vlaamse Opera | Vlaamse Opera". Vlaamseopera.be.
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31. "On the life and work of Edgar Hilsenrath. Obituary on the occasion of his death on December 30, 2018".
32. "Georgetown". Tribeca.
33. Truitt, Brian. (18 April 2021). "''Georgetown'': Christoph Waltz gets twisty with Washington drama". [[USA Today]].
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35. . (26 February 2020). ["New 'No Time To Die' Trailer Features Christoph Waltz as Bond Villain Ernst Blofeld"](https://www.maxim.com/entertainment/no-time-to-die-trailer-waltz-blofeld-2020-2/).
36. (24 February 2023). "The Consultant review – Christoph Waltz really is immaculate in this drama". [[The Guardian]].
37. (9 September 2024). "Simon West's 'Old Guy' to World Premiere at Newport Beach Film Festival".
38. Otterson, Joe. (21 March 2025). "‘Only Murders in the Building’ Season 5 Casts Christoph Waltz".
39. Schwartz, Ryan. (12 August 2025). "Only Murders In The Building Season 5 Trailer Reveals Roles For 8 New Guest Stars — Get Premiere Date".
40. (21 January 2011). "Waltz fühlt sich definitiv als Österreicher – Boulevard". Focus.de.
41. (26 August 2010). "Waltz to become Austrian citizen". [[Wiener Zeitung]] Online.
42. Vincentelli, Elisabeth. (23 February 2023). ""Christoph Waltz Has Some Thoughts". The New York Times.". The New York Times.
43. Husband, Stuart. (28 October 2015). "Christoph Waltz: 'Facebook is a step toward fascism'". [[The Daily Telegraph]].
44. Freydkin, Donna. (26 January 2010). "At long last, movie stardom shines on Christoph Waltz". [[USA Today]].
45. (8 March 2013). "Waltz unchained for Jerusalem wedding". [[The Times of Israel]].