Daniel Brühl facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Daniel Brühl
Brühl in 2020
Born	Daniel César Martín Brühl González (1978-06-16) 16 June 1978 (age 46) Barcelona, Spain
Nationality	German Spanish
Occupation	Actor film producer
Years active	1995–present
Spouse(s)	Felicitas Rombold ​ (m. 2017)​
Partner(s)	Jessica Schwarz (2001–2006)
Children	2

Daniel César Martín Brühl González (German: [ˈdaːni̯eːl ˈbʁyːl, -ni̯ɛl -]; Spanish: [daˈnjel ˈbɾul ɡonˈθaleθ]; born 16 June 1978) is a German-Spanish actor. He has received various accolades, including three European Film Awards and three German Film Awards, along with nominations for two Golden Globe Awards and a BAFTA Award. He received his first German Film Award for Best Actor for his roles in Das Weisse Rauschen (2001), Nichts Bereuen (2001), and Vaya con Dios (2002). His starring role in the German film Good Bye, Lenin! (2003) received widespread recognition and critical acclaim, and garnered him the European Film Award for Best Actor and another German Film Award for Best Actor.

He was introduced to mainstream international audiences through his breakthrough performance as Fredrick Zoller, a Nazi German war hero in Quentin Tarantino's Inglourious Basterds (2009), and appearances in films like The Bourne Ultimatum (2007), The Fifth Estate (2013), and A Most Wanted Man (2014). Brühl received widespread critical acclaim and further recognition for his portrayal of former Formula 1 driver Niki Lauda in the biographical film Rush (2013), for which he earned nominations including the Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor, the Critic's Choice Award for Best Supporting Actor, the Screen Actors Guild Award for Best Supporting Actor and the BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role.

In the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Brühl portrays Helmut Zemo in Captain America: Civil War (2016) and the Disney+ series The Falcon and the Winter Soldier (2021). He also starred as Dr. László Kreizler in the Emmy- and Golden Globe-nominated period drama television series The Alienist (2018–2020), for which he earned a nomination for the Golden Globe Award as Best Actor in a Television Motion Picture at the 76th Golden Globe Awards in 2018.

Early life

Daniel César Martín Brühl González was born on 16 June 1978 in Barcelona. His father was German TV director and documentalist Hanno Brühl, who was born in São Paulo, Brazil. His mother is Marisa González Domingo, a Spanish teacher. He was born in Spain because his mother did not trust German doctors. Shortly after his birth, the family moved to Cologne, Germany, where he grew up. He has a brother, Oliver, and a sister, Miriam. They were raised speaking Spanish, German, Catalan, and French. He attended secondary school at the Dreikönigsgymnasium, the oldest school in Cologne.

Career

1995–2002: Early work

Brühl began acting at a young age despite not having any formal training as an actor. He participated in children's theater at school and first earned money at age 8 doing radio plays, followed by work in a dubbing studio leading to one of the dubbing actors to recommend the teenager to a talent agency. At age 15, Brühl landed a small part in the TV film Svens Geheimnis, played the street kid Benji in the soap opera Verbotene Liebe (Forbidden Love)(1995), and continued to feature in television series in the following years. In 1999, he appeared in his film debut as Checo in Paradise Mall (Schlaraffenland) and voiced Kom in the German version of Le château des singes. In 2000, he starred in his first main role as Markus Baasweiler in No More School [de] (Schule) and was cast as Jay in Deeply.

In 2001, he continued to play main roles as the schizophrenic Lukas in Hans Weingartner's critically acclaimed debut film Das Weisse Rauschen (The White Sound), as Daniel in Nichts Bereuen (No Regrets), and as Marek in Honolulu. In 2002, he starred as Arbo in Vaya con Dios and as boxer Marko Stemper in Elefantenherz (Elephant Heart). He won the German Film Award (2002) for Best Actor, the Bavarian Film Award (2001) for Best New Actor, and the New Faces Award (2002) for Best Actor for his performance in Das Weisse Rauschen, Nichts Bereuen, and Vaya con Dios. He won the German Film Critics Award (2003) for Best Actor for Das Weisse Rauschen and Vaya con Dios. For Das Weisse Rauschen, Brühl insisted on meeting someone with paranoid schizophrenia to avoid the risk of making the character look clichéd. Two decades later, he still considers it his most difficult character to portray and comments that "It was important for me to explore my own madness, to believe in what I was doing and to convince myself that I was suffering from that disease, so it was quite difficult." The film has been widely cited by the academic community in discussing and understanding schizophrenia due to its realistic portrayal.

2003–2008: Breakthrough and early success

Brühl in 2004

Brühl's international breakthrough role came in 2003 as Alex Kerner in Wolfgang Becker's German tragicomedy Good Bye, Lenin! which tells about a German family that lived during the unification of Germany. The film became one of the most successful German films to date, receiving nominations at the Golden Globe Awards and the BAFTA Awards and winning at the European Film Awards, German Film Awards, Cesar Awards, and London Film Critics' Circle among others. It was sold to more than 65 countries, reaching an estimated six million cinema-goers worldwide. In that year, Brühl won awards including the European Film Awards Peoples's Choice Award for Best European Actor and the European Film Award for Best Actor for the role. He also won his second German Film Award as Best Actor for both his performance in the film and in Elefantenherz. He then voiced Kenai in the German version of Brother Bear.

Brühl reached further recognition in 2004 reuniting with filmmaker Hans Weingartner and starring as the anti-capitalist activist Jan in the internationally successful film The Edukators (Die Fetten Jahre sind vorbei). The film became a cult film as part of a "German New Wave" and received a 10-minute standing ovation at its premier at the 2004 Cannes Film Festival where it was nominated for the Palme d'Or. Brühl earned a nomination for the European Film Award for Best Actor for his role. .....

In the same year, Brühl made his English-speaking film debut in Ladies in Lavender, starring alongside English actresses Judi Dench and Maggie Smith as Andrea Marowski, and met Queen Elizabeth II who attended its premiere. He also played Frank in Farland. Brühl featured as Lieutenant Horstmayer of the German 93rd Infantry Regiment, a central character in the 2005 film Joyeux Noël, a trilingual World War I film based on the experiences of French, German and Scottish soldiers during the Christmas truce of 1914. The film shows Brühl's linguistic ability as he ably communicates in German, French and English throughout.

In 2006, he was invited to be part of the short film and Cinéfondation juries of the Cannes Film Festival. He starred as Chris in Cargo and Karl in A Friend of Mine, voiced Lightning McQueen in the German version of Cars and reprised his voice-over role as Kenai in the German version of Brother Bear 2. In Cannes-nominated film Salvador (Puig Antich), he played Salvador Puig Antich, a Spanish anarchist executed during the Franco era, marking his first time acting in his second language. In 2007, Brühl made a cameo appearance in 2 Days in Paris, a romantic comedy film directed by French actress Julie Delpy. He appeared in a small role as Martin Kreutz in the film The Bourne Ultimatum. In 2008, he starred in the British-Russian production In Transit, in which he played a young Nazi soldier named Klaus opposite John Malkovich. He also played Tonda in Krabat, which was based on a popular German children's story, and Marcos in A Bit of Chocolate.

2009–2015: Worldwide recognition and critical acclaim

In 2009, Brühl starred as Dr. Georg Rosen, a notable member of the International Safety Zone Committee in Nanking, China, in the German-Chinese-French biographical film John Rabe. He played Amaro in Las madres de Elna, István Thurzó in Julie Delpy's third directorial film The Countess, Tobias Hardmann in Dinosaurier, and David Kern in Lila, Lila. He was introduced to mainstream U.S. audiences in the role of Fredrick Zoller, a German war hero in Quentin Tarantino's Inglourious Basterds, starring Brad Pitt, which premiered at the 2009 Cannes Film Festival to widespread acclaim. The film won multiple awards and nominations, among them 8 Academy Award nominations including Best Picture. He and his co-stars won ensemble cast awards including the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture. In May, Brühl decided to become active in a different field of filmmaking by launching the production company Fouronfilm together with Film1.

In 2010, he starred as Rupert in King's Road (Kóngavegur 7) and as Hans Krämer in The Coming Days (Die kommenden Tage). In 2011, he starred as cybernetics engineer Álex Garel employed by his former university to design robot software in Eva, a science fiction film set in the year 2041. He portrayed English teacher Konrad Koch who introduced Britain's football to his students in late 19th century Germany in Lessons of a Dream (Der ganz große Traum). He played the Oak Fairy in 2 Days in New York and starred as ethnology student Dirk whose thesis is on the aging population in All Together (Et si on vivait tous ensemble?) alongside Jane Fonda and Geraldine Chaplin. He also co-starred as Father Antonio with Clive Owen in the horror thriller Intruders. In 2012, he starred as Iván Pelayo in Winning Streak (The Pelayos) and as Leonardo in 7 Days in Havana.

Brühl at the Berlin Embassy of the United States in 2015

In 2013, he co-starred in The Fifth Estate, a film based on the founding of WikiLeaks in which Brühl played co-founder Daniel Domscheit-Berg alongside Benedict Cumberbatch as Julian Assange. In the same year, Brühl portrayed former Formula 1 driver Niki Lauda in the Ron Howard biographical film Rush opposite Chris Hemsworth. After he was cast, he took Formula Three lessons and later more lessons with Hemsworth. He came to Vienna to meet Lauda who also flew him to the Brazilian Grand Prix to feel the racing atmosphere where he watched in the pit with the Mercedes team, putting on an earpiece to listen to conversations, and spoke to Formula 1 drivers. He had to endure seven hours of prosthetics daily during taping as his face structure was altered to take on Lauda's features. Brühl added layers that are different from Lauda to find the right balance of not just imitating the person, but also being creative. The film was a commercial and critical success. For his authentic portrayal of Lauda in terms of accent and mannerisms, he received multiple award nominations including the Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor, the Critic's Choice Award for Best Supporting Actor, the Screen Actors Guild Award for Best Supporting Actor and the BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role.

In 2014, he starred in A Most Wanted Man as Maximilian alongside Philip Seymour Hoffman and Rachel McAdams, in The Face of an Angel as Thomas, and in the series The Trip as a patron at Terrace Bar. In 2015, Brühl was part of the Berlinale jury along with Darren Aronofsky, Audrey Tautou, and Bong Joon-ho among others. He reunited with director Wolfang Becker in one of his best performances as young writer Sebastian Zöllner in Me and Kaminski and played Austrian investigative journalist Hubertus Czernin in the biographical drama Woman in Gold alongside Helen Mirren and Ryan Reynolds. He co-starred with Emma Watson and Michael Nyqvist in Colonia. He also played maître d'hôtel Tony Balerdi in Burnt alongside Bradley Cooper. In preparation for the role, he was trained as a maître d' in Marcus Wareing's Michelin-star restaurant in London. Brühl said that since he has done the film, he has much more respect and appreciation for food, taking his time while eating and tasting, imagining the incredible effort behind it. In the same year, Brühl became a partner at Berlin- and Hamburg-based production company Amusement Park Film as a producer.

2016–present: Marvel Cinematic Universe and continued acclaim

In 2016, Brühl starred as Escherich in Alone in Berlin, and convicted murderer Jens Söring in Killing for Love. Brühl played the Marvel Comics supervillain Helmut Zemo alongside Chris Evans and Robert Downey Jr. in one of the most critically acclaimed films in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Captain America: Civil War (2016). In Niki Caro's World War II film The Zookeeper's Wife (2017) about a married couple who saved hundreds of Jews, Brühl played Nazi zoologist Lutz Heck, who forced Jan and Antonina Żabiński to abandon the Warsaw Zoo. He starred as Ernst Schmidt in The Cloverfield Paradox, an installment in the Cloverfield franchise, and as Wilfried Böse, a founding member of the German organization Revolutionary Cells, in the action thriller Entebbe (7 Days in Entebbe) which recounts the story of Operation Entebbe.

From 2018 to 2020, he played the title role as Dr. Laszlo Kreizler in The Alienist, an American period crime drama series based on the 1994 novel by Caleb Carr, alongside Luke Evans and Dakota Fanning. In his preparation, Brühl read about famous pioneering psychologists of the time (Sigmund Freud, Josef Breuer, and Carl Jung) and went to psychotherapy in Budapest just to get an understanding of the way they worked and thought. His wife Felicitas, a practicing psychotherapist, also put him in touch with criminal psychologists. In 2019, he received nominations for the Golden Globe Award as Best Actor in a Television Motion Picture and the Satellite Award for Best Actor in a Miniseries or Television Film for his role in the series which was nominated at the Primetime Emmy Awards as Outstanding Limited Series and the Golden Globe Awards as Best Television Motion Picture. In the same year, he played fertility physician Thomas in My Zoe (2019) which was his first foray into executive production.

2021 marked Brühl's directorial debut through his dark comedy film Next Door (Nebenan), which premiered in the Berlinale Competition section at the Berlin International Film Festival as a Golden Bear nominee, wherein he also acted as Daniel, a vain and mean version of himself. The film won as Best Film and Brühl won as Best Actor in the Taormina Film Festival. He reprised his role as Helmut Zemo in the Disney+ series The Falcon and the Winter Soldier. His dancing which he improvised in The Falcon and the Winter Soldier became viral and was released in the Zemo Cut. He also starred in the Academy Award-nominated Netflix film All Quiet on the Western Front in which he played Matthias Erzberger.

Personal life

Brühl with his wife Felicitas Rombold at the 2018 Berlin International Film Festival

In 2006, Brühl separated from his longtime girlfriend and later fiancée, actress Jessica Schwarz, whom he had met on the set of the 2001 film No Regrets. Since 2010, he has been in a relationship with practising psychotherapist and former model-actress Felicitas Rombold. Their first son was born in October 2016. The couple had a second son in 2020.

Brühl's hobbies include running and hiking, and playing and watching tennis. His favourite player is Rafael Nadal; they are both left handed.

Philanthropy

Since 2017, Brühl has been campaigning for the United Nations World Food Programme, the 2020 Nobel Peace Prize winner. In 2019, he supported the "Do something for Europe!" initiative to foster solidarity in Europe and The Global Fund's Step Up The Fight initiative to end AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria. In the same year, he campaigned for Earth Alliance's emergency Amazon Forest Fund to support partners working on the ground to protect the Amazon. In 2020, he was one of the 25 personalities to donate a personal item for the Los Fuer Lesbos (Win for Lesvos) Leave No One Behind campaign in support of refugees, donating his antique walking stick from the set of The Alienist.

Writing

Brühl's book Ein Tag in Barcelona follows him on a one-day journey through Barcelona. His book Tapas!, co-authored with Atilano González, recreates the best dishes served at the Bar Raval in Berlin.

Other ventures

Since 2011, Brühl has been the joint operator of a tapas bar named Bar Raval, located in the Kreuzberg district of Berlin. It opened during the first weekend of the 2011 Berlinale. From February to October 2017, he was joint operator of a similar bar in Prenzlauer Berg named Bar Gracia after Barcelona's nightlife district Gràcia, which closed due to lack of financial success.

Filmography

Film

Key

Denotes works that have not yet been released

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1999	Paradise Mall [de] (Schlaraffenland)	Checo
	Le château des singes	Kom	German version, voice
2000	A Handful of Grass	Bernd
	Deeply	Jay
	Stundenhotel
	No More School [de] (Schule)	Markus Baasweiler
2001	The White Sound	Lukas
	Honolulu	Marek
	No Regrets [de] (Nichts bereuen)	Daniel
2002	Elephant Heart	Marko Stemper
	Vaya con Dios	Arbo
2003	Good Bye, Lenin!	Alexander Kerner
	Die Klasse von '99 [de]	Schnubbi
	Der letzte Flug	Uffz. Barthel	Short film
	Brother Bear	Kenai	German version, voice
2004	Love in Thoughts (Was nützt die Liebe in Gedanken)	Paul Krantz
	The Edukators (Die fetten Jahre sind vorbei)	Jan
	Ladies in Lavender	Andrea Marowski
	Farland [de]	Frank
2005	Merry Christmas (Joyeux Noël)	Le Lieutenant Horstmayer
2006	Cargo	Chris
	Cars	Lightning McQueen	German version, voice
	Salvador (Puig Antich)	Salvador Puig Antich
	A Friend of Mine (Ein Freund von mir)	Karl
	Brother Bear 2	Kenai	German version, voice
2007	2 Days in Paris	Lukas
	The Bourne Ultimatum	Martin Kreutz
2008	In Transit (In Tranzit)	Klaus
	A Bit of Chocolate (Un poco de chocolate)	Marcos
	Krabat	Tonda
2009	John Rabe	Dr. Georg Rosen
	Las madres de Elna	Amaro
	The Countess	István Thurzó
	Inglourious Basterds	Fredrick Zoller
	Lila, Lila	David Kern
	Inglorious Basterds: Stolz der Nation	Friedrich (as Fredrick Zoller)	Video short
	Dinosaurier – Gegen uns seht ihr alt aus! [de]	Tobias Hardmann
2010	King's Road (Kóngavegur 7)	Rupert
	The Coming Days (Die kommenden Tage)	Hans Krämer
2011	Lessons of a Dream (Der ganz große Traum)	Konrad Koch
	All Together (Et si on vivait tous ensemble?)	Dirk
	Eva	Álex Garel
	Intruders	Father Antonio
	2 Days in New York	The Oak Fairy
2012	Winning Streak (The Pelayos)	Iván Pelayo
	7 Days in Havana	Leonardo (segment "La tentación de Cecilia)
2013	Rush	Niki Lauda
	The Fifth Estate	Daniel Domscheit-Berg
2014	A Most Wanted Man	Maximilian
	The Face of an Angel	Thomas
2015	Woman in Gold	Hubertus Czernin
	Colonia	Daniel
	Me and Kaminski	Sebastian Zöllner
	Burnt	Tony Balerdi
2016	Alone in Berlin	Escherich
	Captain America: Civil War	Helmut Zemo
	Killing for Love	Jens Söring	Documentary, voice
2017	The Zookeeper's Wife	Lutz Heck
2018	The Cloverfield Paradox	Ernst Schmidt
	Entebbe	Wilfried Böse
2019	My Zoe	Thomas Fischer	Also executive producer
2021	Next Door (Nebenan)	Daniel Weltz	Also director and producer
	The King's Man	Erik Jan Hanussen
2022	All Quiet on the Western Front	Matthias Erzberger	Also executive producer
2023	The Movie Teller	Nansen
2024	Race for Glory: Audi vs. Lancia	Roland Gumpert
	Eden	TBA
TBA	The Collaboration	Bruno Bischofberger	Post-production
	The Gallerist		Filming

Television

Filmmaking

Key

Denotes works that have not yet been released

Year	Title	Credited as			Notes	Distributor
		Director	Writer	Producer
2019	My Zoe	No	No	Yes	Feature film, Executive producer	Warner Bros Pictures, BAC Films, et al.
2021	Next Door (Nebenan)	Yes	No	Yes	Feature film	Curzon, Warner Bros Pictures
2022	All Quiet on the Western Front	No	No	Yes	Executive producer	Netflix
TBA	Munich Match	No	No	Yes	Pre-production, Executive producer	Sky

Awards and nominations

See also

In Spanish: Daniel Brühl para niños