Gottfried John (August 29, 1942 – September 1, 2014) was a German actor.
He worked a lot with filmmaker Rainer Werner Fassbinder until the latter's death in 1982. His distinctive face and overall gaunt appearance got him typecast as villains quite frequently later on, perhaps most famously for international audiences as General Ourumov in the James Bond film GoldenEye.
He passed away from cancer at the age of 72.
Selected filmography:
- Derrick: Das Superding (1976) as Krummbach
- Despair (1978) as Perebrodov
- Fedora (1978) as Kritos
- The Marriage of Maria Braun (1979) as Willi Klenze
- Berlin Alexanderplatz (1980) as Reinhold
- Lili Marleen (1981) as Aaron
- Otto – Der Film (1985) as Sonnemann
- Space Rangers (1993) as Colonel Erich Weiss
- Tatort (1995) as Harry Mucher
- GoldenEye (1995) as Colonel/General Arkady Grigorovich Ourumov
- Millennium (1996) (1997, episode "The Hand of St. Sebastian") as Josef Heim
- Asterix & Obelix Take on Caesar (1999) as Julius Caesar
- Mary Magdalene (2000, TV film) as Herod Antipas
- Proof of Life (2000) as Eric Kessler
- The Gathering Storm (2002, TV film) as Friedrich von Schroder
- Imperium: Augustus (2003, TV film) as Cicero
- The Piano Tuner of Earthquakes (2005) as Dr. Emmanuel Droz
- John Rabe (2009) as Oskar Trautmann
