Actor Bruno Ganz dies at the age of 77

He played an angel who wanted to be human in Wings of Desire by Wim Wenders, and Hitler in Downfall, roles that show the range of actor Bruno Ganz, who died yesterday aged 77. Considered one of the great European actors, Ganz was awarded the Iffland-Ring in 1996, recognising him as the best German language actor.

The actor died of intestinal cancer. Yet undergoing chemotherapy did not stop him from narrating Mozart’s The Magic Flute in the latest edition of the Salzburg festival, which would be his final role.

The child of a Swiss father and an Italian mother, Ganz wanted to be an actor from an early age, and at 19 he made his film debut in the 1960 production, The Man in the Black Derby. Yet, it was his work with Wenders, which included The American Friend and Faraway, So Close!, that stick out, although he also worked with filmmakers, such as Werner Herzog, Éric Rohmer and Francis Ford Coppola.