Karl Stepanek
Actor
Biography
Though born in Czechoslovakia, actor Karel Stepanek was generally regarded as a German actor due to his extensive film work in Germany (as Karl Stepanek) in the years before World War II. Stepanek fled to England in 1940, where, like many European refugee actors, he specialized in portraying Teutonic villains. He tried to stay away from out-and-out Nazi roles, but his predilection for wearing black uniforms and barking out guttural commands left little doubt as to the political preferences of Stepanek's screen characters. One of his most typical characterizations could be found in the 1946 POW drama, The Captive Heart; Stepanek also registered well as a friendlier foreigner in The Fallen Idol (1949). Commuting between London and Hollywood, Karel Stepanek continued to fight World War II, usually on the wrong side, into such '60s films as Sink the Bismarck! (1960), I Aim at the Stars (1960) and Operation Crossbow (1965).
Filmography
The Fallen Idol
as First Secretary 1948
Anastasia
as Mikhail Vlados 1956
The Heroes of Telemark
as Hartmuller 1965
Our Man in Havana
as Dr. Braun 1960
Operation Crossbow
as Prof. Hoffer 1965
Sink the Bismarck!
as Admiral Lutjens - 'Bismarck' 1960
No Highway in the Sky
1951
Affair in Trinidad
as Walters 1952
Devil Doll
as Dr. Heller 1964
The Cockleshell Heroes
as Assistant Gestapo Officer 1955
The Frozen Dead
as General Lubeck 1966
The Captive Heart
as Forster 1946
Conspirator
as Radek 1949
Berlin-Alexanderplatz: The Story of Franz Biberkopf
1931
City Beneath the Sea
as Dwight Trevor 1953
Walk East on Beacon
as Alexi Laschenkov / Gregory Anders 1952