"I just fooled around in front of the camera and earned money for it. Every policeman, every soldier, every nurse - they all do more for society. I just rent my face."
Tilman Valentin Schweiger (born December 19, 1963 in Freiburg im Breisgau, then-West Germany), shortened to Til Schweiger, is probably Germany's best-known modern actor internationally, as well as a director and producer.
He is the most commercially successful director on the nation's movie market. With over 51 million admissions and counting, no other German filmmaker has put more butts in theater seats in his native country than him. He runs his own production company, Barefoot Films, based in Berlin.
Interestingly, as an actor he is more internationally known for his "tough guy" action roles, whereas at home he's best known for playing in comedies and dramas.
His works include:
- Knockin' on Heaven's Door (1997) as Martin Brest
- Hercules (1997) as Hercules (German dub)
- Judas Kiss (1998) as Ruben Rubenbauer
- SLC Punk! (1998) as Mark
- The Replacement Killers (1998) as Ryker
- Bang Boom Bang (1999) as Brown
- Driven (2001) as as Beau Brandenburg
- Lara Croft: Tomb Raider - The Cradle of Life (2003) as Sean
- In Enemy Hands (2004) as Capt. Jonas Herdt
- King Arthur (2004) as Cynric
- Lucky Luke and the Daltons (2004) as Lucky Luke
- Agnes and His Brothers (2004) as the library girl's boyfriend
- Red Baron (2008) as Leutnant Werner Voss
- Far Cry (2008) as Jack Carver
- Inglourious Basterds (2009) as Sgt. Hugo Stiglitz
- New Year's Eve (2011) as James Schwab
- The Three Musketeers (2011) as Cagliostro
- This Means War (2012) as Karl Heinrich
- Tatort (since 2013) as Kriminalhauptkommissare Nikolas "Nick" Tschiller
- Muppets Most Wanted (2014) as the German cop
- Four Against the Bank (2016) as Chris Hoffman
- Atomic Blonde (2017) as the Watchmaker
- Medieval (2022) as Henry III of Rosenberg
- The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare (2024) as Heinrich Luhr
Tropes and trivia in his works:
- The Cameo: He has made very short appearances in a number of films (such as Agnes and his Brothers, Bang Boom Bang and Atomic Blonde).
- Contractual Purity: He's made it a point of his career to refuse any role in which he would be wearing a Nazi/World War II German uniform. He agreed to appear in Inglourious Basterds and wear such a uniform because the character, Hugo Stiglitz, is a rebellious German soldier who kills plenty of his own kind and joins the Allies.
- Directed by Cast Member: Starred in and directed The Polar Bear, Barfuss, Rabbit Without Ears, Rabbit Without Ears 2, 1½ Knights – In Search of the Ravishing Princess Herzelinde, Kokowääh, Kokowääh 2, Schutzengel and Head Full of Honey.
- The Quiet One: One of his most notable traits is his hard to understand voice that always sounds as if he were barely opening his mouth while speaking.
- Stage Dad: His three daughters have all been acting since childhood, almost exclusively in his own projects, and it's hard to find a Schweiger film that doesn't star at least one of them.
- Those Two Actors: He has frequently starred alongside Matthias Schweighöfer.
- The Unintelligible: His mumbling delivery is often parodied in German comedy.
