In 1953 he was able to get a small film role next to Romy Schneider in When the White Lilacs Bloom Again.
In the same year he played, as he would often do from then on, next to his mother in Shakespeare's Richard III.
After small movie parts during the 1950s, Götz George broke through with audiences and critics in the film Jacqueline (1959).
George was awarded the Bundesfilmpreis and the Preis der Filmkritik for his role.
In 1962 he received the Bambi Award as the most popular actor.

In the sixties, George got the chance to show that he is able to do more than playing sappy peasants, through roles in movies such as Kirmes, playing a desperate Wehrmacht deserter, and Herrenpartie.
More often, though, he performed in comedies and action-oriented movies which benefited from his physical presence.
He became well known to a broad audience when, during his theater tour in Göttingen, Horst Wendlandt persuaded him to play in one of the Karl May series of films, which he started in 1962 with Der Schatz im Silbersee.
It was originally planned to give him the lead role, but this plan was abandoned when Lex Barker was hired to play the role of Old Shatterhand, so George played the farmer son Fred Engel.
George performed all stunts himself, even in his lead role as sheriff in Sie nannten ihn Gringo.

In the 1970s he turned primarily to stage roles and to television, including the many episodes of Der Kommissar, Tatort, Derrick, and The Old Fox for which he would become famous.
It was not until 1977 that he was cast in a prominent role again, playing Franz Lang in Death is My Trade, a character modeled after Auschwitz commander Rudolf Höß.

George probably had his greatest popular success in the eighties on TV: in Tatort episodes of the WDR, broadcast from 1981 to 1991, he portrayed proletarian police officer Horst Schimanski, who eventually became a cult figure in Germany.
In 1984 and 1987 he again won the Bambi Award as the most popular actor.
The series of Schulz & Schulz movies, starting in 1989 and dealing with the issue of the German reunification, gave him the opportunity to show his talents as a comedian in a double role, as did the role of the industry consultant Morlock in the series of the same name, which is rather far removed from the roughneck charm of senior commissar Schimanski.

Among George's most impressive roles in the nineties were his appearances in the television movie Der Sandmann, in which he portrayed the alleged serial killer and writer Henry Kupfer as a cold, calculating and manipulative intellectual, the movie Deathmaker (Der Totmacher), in which he portrayed Fritz Haarmann (The Butcher of Hanover), and in the television movie Die Bubi-Scholz-Story (based on Bubi Scholz), the trauma of an aged, broken boxer.
In 1953 he was able to get a small film role next to Romy Schneider in When the White Lilacs Bloom Again. In the same year he played, as he would often do from then on, next to his mother in Shakespeare's Richard III. After small movie parts during the 1950s, Götz George broke through with audiences and critics in the film Jacqueline (1959). George was awarded the Bundesfilmpreis and the Preis der Filmkritik for his role. In 1962 he received the Bambi Award as the most popular actor.
In the sixties, George got the chance to show that he is able to do more than playing sappy peasants, through roles in movies such as Kirmes, playing a desperate Wehrmacht deserter, and Herrenpartie. More often, though, he performed in comedies and action-oriented movies which benefited from his physical presence. He became well known to a broad audience when, during his theater tour in Göttingen, Horst Wendlandt persuaded him to play in one of the Karl May series of films, which he started in 1962 with Der Schatz im Silbersee. It was originally planned to give him the lead role, but this plan was abandoned when Lex Barker was hired to play the role of Old Shatterhand, so George played the farmer son Fred Engel. George performed all stunts himself, even in his lead role as sheriff in Sie nannten ihn Gringo.
In the 1970s he turned primarily to stage roles and to television, including the many episodes of Der Kommissar, Tatort, Derrick, and The Old Fox for which he would become famous. It was not until 1977 that he was cast in a prominent role again, playing Franz Lang in Death is My Trade, a character modeled after Auschwitz commander Rudolf Höß.
George probably had his greatest popular success in the eighties on TV: in Tatort episodes of the WDR, broadcast from 1981 to 1991, he portrayed proletarian police officer Horst Schimanski, who eventually became a cult figure in Germany. In 1984 and 1987 he again won the Bambi Award as the most popular actor. The series of Schulz & Schulz movies, starting in 1989 and dealing with the issue of the German reunification, gave him the opportunity to show his talents as a comedian in a double role, as did the role of the industry consultant Morlock in the series of the same name, which is rather far removed from the roughneck charm of senior commissar Schimanski.
Among George's most impressive roles in the nineties were his appearances in the television movie Der Sandmann, in which he portrayed the alleged serial killer and writer Henry Kupfer as a cold, calculating and manipulative intellectual, the movie Deathmaker (Der Totmacher), in which he portrayed Fritz Haarmann (The Butcher of Hanover), and in the television movie Die Bubi-Scholz-Story (based on Bubi Scholz), the trauma of an aged, broken boxer.
Götz George