Biography
Gottfried John (German: [ˈjoːn];[1] 29 August 1942 – 1 September 2014) was a German stage, screen, and voice actor. A long-time collaborator of Rainer Werner Fassbinder, John appeared in many of the filmmaker's projects between 1975 and his death in 1982, including Mother Küsters Goes to Heaven, Despair, The Marriage of Maria Braun , and Berlin Alexanderplatz. His distinctive, gaunt appearance saw him he frequently cast as villains, and he is best known to audiences for his role as the corrupt G...
Known For
Complete Filmography

Emerald Green
2016
as Dr. White (archive footage)
Emerald Green is the stunning conclusion to Kerstin Gier's Ruby Red Trilogy, picking up where Sapphire Blue left off, reaching new heights of intrigue...

A World Beyond
2013
as Dr. Jan Kersebohm
Hans and Fridel are a marriage that come to Java fleeing of the pursuit Nazi just before the Second World war comes untied. In this paradise Hans find...

Ruby Red
2013
as Dr. White
On her 16th birthday, Gwendolyn Shepherd finds out that instead of her cousin, she has inherited a rare gene that allows her to travel through time.

Die Löwin
2012
as Jo
After many years in Germany, the young doctor Lena returns to South Africa, the place of her childhood, for the first time. Her grandfather Jo, on who...

Life Is Too Long
2010
as Georg Maria Stahl
No crisis is as disastrous, overwhelming and unjust as that of Alfi Seliger. The Jewish filmmaker, hypochondriac and family man is up to his neck in p...

Aghet
2010
as Friedrich Kress von Kressenstein
2010 documentary film on the Armenian Genocide by the Young Turk government of the Ottoman Empire during World War I. It is based on eyewitness report...

Rumpelstilzchen
2009
as König Gustav
The king locks the miller’s daughter, Lisa, in a room full of straw to turn into gold in just one night. If she doesn’t succeed she would be executed.

Black Flowers
2009
as Curtis
Following the failure of his last mission, RFG spy Michael Roddick decides to disappear, taking along Elena, the daughter of a Russian spy who died un...

John Rabe
2009
as Dr. Oskar Trautmann
A true-story account of a German businessman who saved more than 200,000 Chinese during the Nanjing massacre in 1937-38.

The Papal Council
2008
as Paolo Naldini
An assassination attempt on the highest dignitary of the Catholic Church? According to providence, this is exactly what is supposed to happen on a cer...

Fassbinder's Berlin Alexanderplatz: A Mega Movie and Its Story
2007
as Self
A documentary about the making of the television mini-series by Rainer Werner Fassbinder, including interviewees with the principal actors.

Flood
2007
as Arthur Moyes
Timely yet terrifying, The Flood predicts the unthinkable. When a raging storm coincides with high seas it unleashes a colossal tidal surge, which tra...
Das zweite Leben
2007
as Robert Kreutzer

A Pirate's Heart
2006
as Konrad von Wallenrod
The end of the 14th century. Parents send the eldest son Jan to study in Hamburg, and the youngest - Klaus - to the monastery. No sooner had the child...

The Piano Tuner of Earthquakes
2005
as Dr. Emmanuel Droz
Dark fairytale about a demonic doctor who abducts a beautiful opera singer with designs on transforming her into a mechanical nightingale.

Julie, chevalier de Maupin
2005
as Henri, duc d'Armagnac
Agnès Dormes, a famous opera singer, saves Julie, a baby girl who was about to be sacrificed during a black mass. Twenty years later, the baby has tur...

Cowgirl
2004
as Hans Krahl
Dreamy Paula and her husband Edgar, an insurance salesman, lead a dull, middle-class life in Struvensiel, a fictitious suburb of Hamburg. Paula runs i...

Die schöne Braut in Schwarz
2004
as Aldo Caldini
Sylvia Rosch is a woman with dangerous obsessions. Camouflaged by perfectly rehearsed masquerades, she wages a merciless campaign of revenge. Anyone w...

Renzo e Lucia
2004
as Innominato
Loose adaptation of Italy's national epic, Alessandro Manzoni's “The Betrothed”. In war-torn 17th century Italy, shady feudal lord Don Rodrigo eyes yo...

Augustus: The First Emperor
2003
as Cicero
Old and ill, Augustus, the man who changed the fortunes and destiny of an empire by completing Julius Caesar's project, recounts the two most importan...

Sams in Gefahr
2003
as School Inspector
Sams in danger, it is said, when Mr. Taschenbier's son Martin brings the Sams back into the household, which, however, is kidnapped shortly afterwards...

Entrusted
2003
as Thomas von Gall - grandfather
Hoping to entrap Maria von Gall, who runs a courageous underground railroad for Jews in France, the Nazis kidnap her son Thomas, a brilliant 11-year-o...
Best Ever Bond
2002
as Self (archive footage) (uncredited)
Roger Moore presents the ten best sequences ever to have appeared in the James Bond series, and cast members recall their favourite moments.

The Gathering Storm
2002
as Friedrich von Schroder
A love story offering an intimate look inside the marriage of Winston and Clementine Churchill during a particularly troubled, though little-known, mo...
Der Solist - In eigener Sache
2002
as Martin Krohn

Proof of Life
2000
as Eric Kessler
When American engineer Peter Bowman is kidnapped while working in South America, his wife Alice enlists special agent Terry Thorne to help free him. H...

Mary Magdalene
2000
as Erode Antipa
Employed as a spy and given the task of investigating the threat posed by John the Baptist, Mary Magdalene is overwhelmed by John's powerful message o...

Balzac: A Life of Passion
1999
as Count Hanska
This is the sprawling saga of Honoré de Balzac, a man who created a great literary oeuvre from the dramas and adventures of his own life - a life that...
Beckmann und Markowski: Gehetzt
1999
as Max Beckmann

Asterix & Obelix Take on Caesar
1999
as Jules César
Set in 50 B.C., Asterix and Obelix are living in a small but well-protected village in Gaul, where a magic potion concocted by Druids turns the townsf...
Die Fremde in meiner Brust
1998
as Richard Keller

Am I Beautiful?
1998
as Herbert
Between Munich and Seville, the destinies of sixteen characters intertwine and intersect, missing each other or colliding head-on. They are all, witho...
Life, Love & Celluloid
1998
as Self
Documentary musing upon the work of German filmmaker Rainer Werner Fassbinder.
Glatteis
1998
as Kurt Wallmann
Mein zweites Leben
1998
as Richard Keller

La casa dove abitava Corinne
1996
as Michele Wolf
The story of Doriana, a young lawyer, who moves to Rome, because a criminal she convicted has escaped prison and threatens to kill her. But the flat s...
Beckmann und Markowski: Im Zwiespalt der Gefühle
1996
as Kommissar Beckmann

The Ogre
1996
as Chief Forester
Frenchman Abel Tiffauges is a naive man who lives a simple life working as a mechanic. Falsely accused of being a child abuser, he is recruited as a s...

GoldenEye
1995
as Colonel Ourumov
When a powerful satellite system falls into the hands of Alec Trevelyan, AKA Agent 006, a former ally-turned-enemy, only James Bond can save the world...

Institute Benjamenta, or This Dream People Call Human Life
1995
as Herr Benjamenta
Jakob arrives at the Institute Benjamenta (run by brother and sister Johannes and Lisa Benjamenta) to learn to become a servant. With seven other men,...
Brüder auf Leben und Tod
1995
as Renato Calvi
Die Zeit danach
1994
as man from Klagenfurt
An economics expert from the West is contracted by a large firm to assist in the reorganization of a debt-ridden steel plant in the former Eastern Blo...
Deadly Web
1994
as Kommissar Max Beckmann
Ein letzter Wille
1994
as Paul Elling

Abraham
1993
as Eliezer
Rather than choosing a great leader or king, God chooses Abraham, an elderly shepherd from Mesopotamia, as the way to establish his Covenant with mank...
Das Sahara-Projekt
1993
as Collani
Greenhouse effect, ozone alarm, climate catastrophe: Scientist Altenburg and his team want to stop this development with a bold solar energy project. ...

Novalis - Die blaue Blume
1993
as Sophies Vater
A romantic fairy tale about love.

The Mistake
1992
as Jacob Alain
It is 1988. Jacob, from Hamburg in West Germany, falls in love with Elisabeth in East Germany. When they secretly meet in East Berlin, it seems the St...
Ich schenk’ Dir die Sterne
1991
as Robert Dallburg
An eccentric pop singer from a dreary social background in a Munich suburb turns men's heads by the dozen and makes an unexpected career when a seriou...
Elfenbein
1991
as Nicholas Messier

Night of the Fox
1990
as Hofer
This classic war mini-series stars George Peppard and Michael York in a gripping tale of danger, intrigue, and a deadly secret that could determine th...

Wings of Fame
1990
as Zlatogorski
A famous movie actor claims that he has written a book. As result, a real author, not a very well known writer, vengefully kills him but then dies as ...

Death Has A Bad Reputation
1990
as Rodimstev
A British agent is chasing after famous terrorist Carlos when he resurfaces in Europe.

Schön war die Zeit
1988
as Franz Bauer
Pattberg's Legacy
1987
as Ulrich Vogtmann
Der Fall Franza
1987
as Captain

Of Pure Blood
1986
as Paul Bergmann
A mother investigating her son's mysterious death finds much more than she bargained for. Casting director Alicia Browning (Remick) takes leave of her...

Mata Hari
1985
as Wolff
Based loosely on the real-life story of the World War I spy. The exotic dancer uses her contacts in European high society, along with her seductive ch...

Otto - The Movie
1985
as Sonnemann
East Friesian Otto moves to the big city Hamburg. There he gets into trouble with a loan shark and needs to find a way to impress his love interest Si...

Die Mitläufer
1985
as Brocke
Verworrene Bilanzen
1985
as Karl M. Kronen

Bartolome oder Die Rückkehr der weißen Götter
1985
as Bartolomé de las Casas

Chinese Boxes
1984
as Zwemmer
An American in West Berlin finds himself caught up in murder and intrigue after his associate is killed and a diplomat's daughter is found dead in his...

Super
1984
The Earth shortly before its end. The houses in the cities are deserted, the streets smashed. The sky shimmers dark gray.
Die Matrosen von Kronstadt
1983
as Petritschenko

Lili Marleen
1981
as Aaron
The story of a German singer named Willie who while working in Switzerland falls in love with a Jewish composer named Robert whose family is helping p...
Theodor Chindler - Die Geschichte einer deutschen Familie
1979
as Clemens Koch

The Marriage of Maria Braun
1979
as Willi Klenze
Maria marries a young soldier in the last days of World War II, only for him to go missing in the war. She must rely on her beauty and ambition to nav...
Die Ratten
1979
as Bruno Mechelke
Wo die Liebe hinfällt
1979

In a Year with 13 Moons
1978
as Anton Saitz
Elvira Weishaupt, once a burly working-class butcher, has made an enormous sacrifice for love. She has undergone a sex change for a romantic interest ...
1982: Gutenbach
1978
as Peter Kessel
After many years away, development aid worker Peter Kessel returns to his home town of Gutenbach in 1982. He is astonished to discover that a lot has ...

Despair
1978
as Perebrodov
Berlin, 1930, during the rise of Nazism. Hermann Hermann, a Russian emigrant and chocolate manufacturer, married to the capricious Lydia, loses his te...
Marija
1978
as Filipp

Fedora
1978
as Kritos
An ambitious Hollywood hustler becomes involved with a reclusive female star, whom he tries to lure out of retirement.

The Stationmaster’s Wife
1977
as Finkelberger
The lackluster and plodding Bolweiser has the (mis)fortune to be married to the town’s siren; his trusting nature leads him into serious trouble when ...

The Stationmaster’s Wife
1977
The lackluster and plodding Bolweiser has the (mis)fortune to be married to the town’s siren; his trusting nature leads him into serious trouble when ...

Mother Küsters Goes to Heaven
1975
as Jörg Niemeyer
After a worker kills a superior and commits suicide, each of his family members attempts to forge a path forward in life.

Carlos
1971
as Carlos
In the Southwest of 1915 Carlos backs an intended uprising of the common countymen against his father Phillip, a despotic landowner who exploits the r...

Jaider, the Lonely Hunter
1971
as Jaider
When Jaider has to illegally poach in order to feed the citizens of a poor Alpine town, he gets into a blood-soaked conflict with the German authoriti...
Café Oriental
1962