Personal Info
Birth date
1899-10-27 (125 Years)
Day of death
1980-12-25
Gender
Male
Known for
Acting
Place of birth
Brünn, Moravia, Austria-Hungary [now Brno, Czech Republic]
Also known as
Karl Stepanek
Karel Štěpánek
Karel Stepanek
Karl Stepanek
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
Das Kriminalmuseum
8.5
Overview:
Das Kriminalmuseum was a German television series. It ran from 1963 to 1970 on ZDF and was one of its first programs. Each episode began with a tracking shot through an unspecified crime museum, stopping at one of the displays, whose story was then told. Each episode was between 60 and 75 minutes long and featured different actors as the criminal commissioner. The best known was Erik Ode, who in 1969 moved to Der Kommissar, appearing in 97 episodes. The theme music of the series was written by German composer Martin Böttcher, who also composed the complete scores for five episodes.The Third Man
7.916
Overview:
In postwar Vienna, Austria, Holly Martins, a writer of pulp Westerns, arrives penniless as a guest of his childhood chum Harry Lime, only to learn he has died. Martins develops a conspiracy theory after learning of a "third man" present at the time of Harry's death, running into interference from British officer Major Calloway, and falling head-over-heels for Harry's grief-stricken lover, Anna.The Heroes of Telemark
6.93
Overview:
Set in German-occupied Norway, resistance fighter Knut Straud enlists the reluctant physicist Rolf Pedersen in an effort to destroy the German heavy water production plant in rural Telemark.Operation Crossbow
6.757
Overview:
Allied agents infiltrate the Nazi rocket complex at Peenemunde in order to obtain their secrets and sabotage the plant. The film alternates between German developments of the V-1 missile and V-2 rocket (with a German cast speaking their own language) and discovery by British Intelligence of the weapon.Sink the Bismarck!
6.807
Overview:
The story of the breakout of the German battleship Bismarck—accompanied by the heavy cruiser Prinz Eugen—during the early days of World War II. The Bismarck and her sister ship, Tirpitz, were the most powerful battleships in the European theater of World War II. The British Navy must find and destroy Bismarck before it can escape into the convoy lanes to inflict severe damage on the cargo shipping which was the lifeblood of the British Isles. With eight 15 inch guns, it was capable of destroying every ship in a convoy while remaining beyond the range of all Royal Navy warships.Anastasia
6.8
Overview:
Russian exiles in Paris plot to collect ten million pounds from the Bank of England by grooming a destitute, suicidal girl to pose as heir to the Russian throne. While Bounin is coaching her, he comes to believe that she is really Anastasia. In the end, the Empress must decide her claim.The Cockleshell Heroes
6
Overview:
During WW2, German ships are "safely" docked upriver at Bordeaux, but the British send a team of kayakers to attack them.The Fallen Idol
7.159
Overview:
Phillipe, the son of an ambassador in London, idolizes Baines, his father's butler, a kind of hero in the eyes of the child, whose perception changes when he accidentally discovers the secret that Baines keeps and witnesses the consequences that adults' lies can cause.Affair in Trinidad
6.3
Overview:
A nightclub singer enlists her brother-in-law to track down her husband's killer.No Highway in the Sky
6.931
Overview:
James Stewart plays aeronautical engineer Theodore Honey, the quintessential absent-minded professor: eccentric, forgetful, but brilliant. His studies show that the aircraft being manufactured by his employer has a subtle but deadly design flaw that manifests itself only after the aircraft has flown a certain number of hours. En route to a crash site to prove his theory, Honey discovers that he is aboard a plane rapidly approaching his predicted deadline.Our Man in Havana
6.7
Overview:
Jim Wormold is an expatriate Englishman living in pre-revolutionary Havana with his teenage daughter Milly. He owns a vacuum cleaner shop but isn’t very successful so he accepts an offer from Hawthorne of the British Secret Service to recruit a network of agents in Cuba.State Secret
6.5
Overview:
While working in England, an American surgeon Dr. John Marlowe is invited to Vosnia (a fictitious East-European country) to receive an award and demonstrate his life-saving surgery. Unwittingly caught in the middle of a dangerous and corrupt series of political events, Marlowe then becomes the object of a shoot-to-kill, vicious pursuit. Fleeing, he seeks help from an English-speaking actress, Lisa Robinson, and the two attempt to escape across the treacherous mountains of Vosnia.The File of the Golden Goose
5.5
Overview:
U.S. Secret Service agent Peter Novak goes undercover with Scotland Yard officer Thompson to halt a murderous gang of counterfeiters known as the Golden Goose. Although Peter is unsure about John's loyalties, the two infiltrate the gang and win the trust of thug Nick "The Owl" Harrison before enduring a series of double-crosses.A Prize of Gold
5.4
Overview:
A U.S. sergeant, a British sergeant and a British pilot hijack gold for a German refugee's war orphans.Before Winter Comes
5.923
Overview:
Drama/Comedy set in a refugee camp in occupied Austria after World War II. A shrewd multi-lingual interpreter who mediates between Russian and British military brass enters into a friendly rivalry with British Major Giles Burnside, who is in charge of assigning the displaced persons into either the American or Russian zones.Secret Mission
4.273
Overview:
World War II drama in which a member of the French Resistance and three British agents undertake a hazardous mission to infiltrate a German HQ in search of vital information that could lead to the overthrow of the Nazis.The Games
7.1
Overview:
From Great Britain, the United States, France, Italy, Australia and behind the Iron Curtain. They are the most superbly conditioned animals in the world. They are also the pawns of powerful nations, the victims of dangerous drugs and the object of many men's ambitions. Once every four years they come together... for the Olympic Games.The Captive Heart
6.4
Overview:
A series of stories about the lives and loves of men in a Prisoner of War camp over five years. The main story is of Hasek (Redgrave) a Czech soldier who needs to keep his identity a secret from the Nazis. To do this, he poses as a dead English Officer and corresponds with the man's wife. Other inmates’ stories are also revealed. Location shooting in the British occupied part of Germany adds believability.Operation Amsterdam
5.8
Overview:
When Germany invades Holland in 1940, a British intelligence officer and two Dutch diamond merchants go to Amsterdam to persuade the Dutch diamond merchants to evacuate their diamond supplies to England.Dangerous Cargo
5.2
Overview:
Inspired by the real events of the attempted heist at Heathrow Airport in 1952, a criminal tricks an old friend into giving away the location of a shipment of gold bullion so he and his gang can steal it.Give Us This Day
5.9
Overview:
Exiled from Hollywood due to the blacklist, director Edward Dmytryk briefly operated in England in the late 1940s. Though filmed in its entirety in London, Dmytryk's Give Us This Day is set in New York during the depression. Fellow blacklistee Sam Wanamaker is starred as the head of an Italian immigrant family struggling to survive the economic crisis.Tomorrow We Live
6
Overview:
British World War II film set in occupied France, portraying the activities of members of the French Resistance and the Nazi tactic of taking and shooting innocent hostages in reprisal for acts of sabotage. The opening credits acknowledge "the official co-operation of General de Gaulle and the French National Committee". It was released as "At Dawn We Die" in the US.The Traitor
7
Overview:
One time members of a resistance group come together every year to remember their dead leader, betrayed to and executed by the Nazis. When it seems that they might finally know the name of the traitor - and that he or she comes from within their own unit - their annual gathering becomes a deadly trial...Walk East on Beacon
5.158
Overview:
An FBI agent works with a refugee scientist and the Coast Guard to crack a Soviet spy ring in Boston.Murderers Club of Brooklyn
8.7
Overview:
Fifth Jerry Cotton Movie. A rich capitalist is blackmailed and threatened with the murder of his daughter.Broken Journey
6
Overview:
A plane flying over the Swiss Alps develops engine trouble and is forced to crash-land on a glacier. Unable to radio for help because of damaged batteries and with limited food supplies, the survivors must come to a decision -- whether to stay and wait for help they believe is coming or to leave the shelter of the wrecked plane and set out in bad weather to try to reach civilization.Acting
2003The Heroes of Telemark: Location report from Norway as Unknown
1970The Games as Kubitsek
1969The File of the Golden Goose as Mueller
1969Before Winter Comes as Count Kerassy
1967Murderers Club of Brooklyn as Dyers
1966The Frozen Dead as General Lubeck
1966Sperrbezirk as Inspector Wagner
1965The Heroes of Telemark as Hartmuller
1965Licensed to Kill as Henrik Jacobsen
1965Operation Crossbow as Prof. Hoffer
1964Devil Doll as Dr. Heller
1963Aufstand der Gehorsamen as Jawor Stranski
1963Das Kriminalmuseum (1 Episode) as Dr. Robert Großmann
1960Brainwashed as Baranow
1960Sink the Bismarck! as Admiral Lutjens - 'Bismarck'
1960Our Man in Havana as Dr. Braun
1959Operation Amsterdam as Diamond Merchant
1957West of Suez as Langford
1957The Traitor as Friederich Suderman
1956Anastasia as Mikhail Vlados
1956The Man in the Road as Dmitri Balinkev
1955The Cockleshell Heroes as Assistant Gestapo Officer
1955Secret Venture as Zelinsky
1955A Prize of Gold as Dr. Zachmann
1955Man of the Moment as Lom
1954Dangerous Cargo as Pliny
1954Tale of Three Women as Alfred Dykemann (segment "Final Twist' story)
1953City Beneath the Sea as Dwight Trevor
1953Rough Shoot as Diss
1953Never Let Me Go as Commissar
1952Affair in Trinidad as Walters
1952Walk East on Beacon as Alexi Laschenkov / Gregory Anders
1951No Highway in the Sky as Unknown
1951The Third Visitor as Richard Carling
1950State Secret as Dr. Revo
1950Cairo Road as Edouardo Pavlis
1949Golden Arrow as Schroeder
1949Give Us This Day as Jaroslav
1949The Third Man as Actor at Josefstadt Theater (uncredited)
1949Conspirator as Radek
1948The Fallen Idol as First Secretary
1948Counterblast as Professor Inman
1948Broken Journey as Swiss Officer (uncredited)
1946The Captive Heart as Forster
1943Escape to Danger as Franz von Brinkman
1943They Met in the Dark as Riccardo
1943Tomorrow We Live as Seitz
1942Secret Mission as Major Lang
1942Our Film as Soviet Visitor
1939The Leghorn Hat as Felix, Diener bei Farina
1939Hotel Sacher as Franz
1939War es der im 3. Stock? as Georg Kilby
1938Narren im Schnee as Rolf Pinkenkötter
1938Klatovští dragouni as Unknown
1937Die Fledermaus as Attaché Baranoff / Orlovsky
1936The Unknown as Manager at Regina's
1935Der Außenseiter as Otto Burian
1935Pozdní láska as Unknown
1935Na růžích ustláno as Unknown
1935Hermine and the Seven Upright Men as Ruckstuhl
1933Waltz War as Kellner Leopold
1933A Song for You as Theo Bruckner
1932Spione im Savoy-Hotel as Jackson
1932Five from the Jazzband as Jean
1932Here's Berlin as Max
1931Berlin-Alexanderplatz: The Story of Franz Biberkopf as Unknown