
Werner Herzog
Werner Herzog (German: [ˈvɛɐ̯nɐ ˈhɛɐ̯tsoːk]; born 5 September 1942) is a German film director, screenwriter, author, actor, and opera director, regarded as a pioneer of New German Cinema. His films often feature ambitious protagonists with impossible dreams, people with unique talents in obscure fields, or individuals in conflict with nature. He is known for his unique filmmaking process, such as disregarding storyboards, emphasizing improvisation, and placing the cast and crew into similar situations as characters in his films. Herzog started work on his first film Herakles in 1961, when he was nineteen. Since then he has produced, written, and directed more than sixty feature films and documentaries, such as Aguirre, the Wrath of God (1972), The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser (1974), Heart of Glass (1976), Stroszek (1977), Nosferatu the Vampyre (1979), Fitzcarraldo (1982), Cobra Verde (1987), Lessons of Darkness (1992), Little Dieter Needs to Fly (1997), My Best Fiend (1999), Invincible (2000), Grizzly Man (2005), Encounters at the End of the World (2007), Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans (2009), and Cave of Forgotten Dreams (2010). He has published more than a dozen books of prose, and directed as many operas. French filmmaker François Truffaut once called Herzog "the most important film director alive." American film critic Roger Ebert said that Herzog "has never created a single film that is compromised, shameful, made for pragmatic reasons, or uninteresting. Even his failures are spectacular." He was named one of the world's 100 most influential people by Time magazine in 2009. Description above from the Wikipedia article Werner Herzog, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.
Known For
Credits
- 2025 · The AGFA Mystery Mixtape Vault as Self
- 2025 · Was Ist Kino ? as Self (Archive Footage)
- 2024 · About a Hero as
- 2024 · The Fire Within: Requiem for Katia and Maurice Krafft as Narrator (voice)
- 2024 · Kinski as Self (Archive Footage)
- 2022 · Last Exit: Space as Narrator (voice)
- 2021 · The Extravagant Little Life of Jean-Claude D. Dreyfus as Self (archive footage)
- 2021 · A Life for Movies: Lotte Eisner as Self
- 2020 · AGFA Mystery Mixtape #2: Later in L.A. as Self
- 2019 · 90 Years of the Music Box Theatre as Self
- 2019 · Tattoo Uprising as Self
- 2019 · Jihad in Hollywood as Self
- 2018 · Manaslu: Mountain of Souls as Self
- 2018 · Paradox Bullets as Narrator (voice)
- 2017 · The Man Who Killed John Wayne as Self (archive footage)
- 2014 · Werner Herzog: On Death Row and Life as a Director as Self
- 2013 · Werner Herzog and Errol Morris on 'The Act of Killing' as Self
- 2013 · Home from Home – Chronicle of a Vision as Alexander von Humboldt
- 2012 · The Killers: Unstaged as Self
- 2011 · Dubai Winter Diary VI: Light and Reflections as Self
- 2011 · I, I, I José Lewgoy as Self
- 2011 · On Borrowed Time as Self
- 2011 · Hans Zimmer: The Sound of Hollywood as Self
- 2010 · Anyone who dares will take the cold off their horse as Self
- 2010 · I am My Films, Part 2... 30 Years Later as Self
- 2009 · Plastic Bag as Plastic Bag (voice)
- 2009 · The Lonely as
- 2008 · 40 x 15: The Forty Years of the Directors' Fortnight as Self
- 2008 · Back to Room 666 as Self (archive footage)
- 2007 · Making of a True Story: Rescue Dawn as Self
- 2007 · Munich (Filmfest) Stories - 25 years of Munich Filmfest as Self
- 2007 · All In This Tea as
- 2006 · 50 Films to See Before You Die as Self
- 2004 · The White Diamond as Narrator (voice)
- 2004 · Dribble as Self (voice)
- 1999 · In the Footsteps of Bruce Chatwin as Self
- 1990 · Echoes from a Sombre Empire as Self
- 1990 · Russian adventure. Peter Fleischmann is filming "It's not easy to be a god." as Self
- 1989 · Bride of the Orient as Businger
- 1987 · Location Africa as Self
- 1986 · Portrait: Werner Herzog as Self
- 1984 · Ballad of the Little Soldier as Self (voice)
- 1983 · Man of Flowers as The Father
- 1981 · God's Angry Man as Narrator (voice)
- 1979 · I Am My Films: A Portrait of Werner Herzog as Self
- 1979 · Scénario de 'Sauve qui peut la vie' as Self (archive footage) (uncredited)
- 1977 · Journey Through History as Self
- 1967 · Neuer Deutscher Film Report as
- Future · The Valley as
- 2024 · Celebrating the Rice Media Center as Self (archival footage)
- 2024 · Orion and the Dark as Narrator (voice)
- 2023 · The Arc of Oblivion as Narrator (voice)
- 2022 · Werner Herzog: Radical Dreamer as Self
- 2022 · Tegoyo as Self (Voice)
- 2022 · The U.S. and the Holocaust as Hermann Göring
- 2022 · Nosferatu: A Film Like a Vampire as Self (archive footage)
- 2021 · Hannelore Elsner: More Than One Life as Self (archive footage)
- 2021 · Meteor: Sohrab Shahid Saless as Self
- 2020 · Wim Wenders - Von Filmen und Träumen as Self
- 2020 · The Andinist as The Painter (Narrator)
- 2020 · Dear Werner (Walking on Cinema) as Narrator (voice)
- 2020 · Fireball: Visitors from Darker Worlds as Self - Narrator (voice)
- 2020 · Wim Wenders, Desperado as Self
- 2020 · Disney Gallery / Star Wars: The Mandalorian as Self - The Client
- 2019 · The Mandalorian as The Client
- 2019 · Meeting Gorbachev as Self
- 2019 · Nomad: In the Footsteps of Bruce Chatwin as Self - Interviewer and Narrator (voice)
- 2018 · The Great Buster: A Celebration as Self
- 2018 · I'm a Soldier as Self
- 2018 · Film Beyond Cinema: The Dumpster Kid Experiment and Other Utopias as Self
- 2017 · One Hundred Years with Juan Rulfo as Self
- 2017 · Ballad of a Righteous Merchant as Self
- 2016 · Salt and Fire as Man with One Story (uncredited)
- 2016 · Into the Inferno as Narrator (voice)
- 2016 · Lo and Behold: Reveries of the Connected World as Self
- 2016 · Jihad in Hollywood as Self
- 2015 · Freaks of Nature as Perfect Being (voice)
- 2015 · The Late Show with Stephen Colbert as Self
- 2015 · Close Up with The Hollywood Reporter as Self
- 2014 · Penguins of Madagascar as Documentary Filmmaker (voice)
- 2014 · Atari: Game Over as Self (archival)
- 2014 · Lemonade War as Neighborhood Hero
- 2014 · Alfonso Sansone: Producer by Chance as Self (archive footage)
- 2014 · Life Itself as Self - Filmmaker
- 2014 · Late Night with Seth Meyers as Self
- 2013 · The Unbelievers as Self
- 2013 · Rick and Morty as Shrimply Pibbles (voice)
- 2013 · An Appreciation of Les Blank by Werner Herzog as Self
- 2013 · Mistaken for Strangers as Self (uncredited)
- 2013 · Jack Reacher: When the Man Comes Around as Self
- 2012 · Jack Reacher as Zec Chelovek
- 2012 · Strawberryland as Turnlehrer
- 2012 · Close Up as Self (archive footage)
- 2012 · 10 Questions for Werner Herzog as Self
- 2012 · Dinotasia as Narrator (voice)
- 2012 · On Death Row as Werner Herzog
- 2011 · Into the Abyss as Narrator (voice)
- 2011 · Champions: A Comic Tale as Self
- 2010 · Werner Herzog Defends Dade as Self
- 2010 · Cave of Forgotten Dreams as Narrator (voice)
- 2010 · When Herzog Rescued Phoenix as Narrator (voice)
- 2010 · Happy People: A Year in the Taiga as Narrator (voice)
- 2010 · Behind the Madness: The Making of My Son, My Son as Self
- 2010 · The Making of Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans as Himself
- 2010 · Future States as Plastic Bag (voice)
- 2009 · Parks and Recreation as Keg Jennings
- 2008 · Capturing Reality as Self
- 2008 · BLAST! as Narrator (voice)
- 2008 · Bierbichler as Self
- 2008 · Counter Shot: Departure of the Filmmakers as Self
- 2008 · Mister Lonely as Father Umbrillo
- 2007 · Pierre Rissient: Man of Cinema as Self
- 2007 · Encounters at the End of the World as Narrator (voice)
- 2007 · The Grand as The German
- 2006 · Walking to Werner as Self (voice)
- 2006 · The Henry Rollins Show as
- 2005 · In the Edges: The 'Grizzly Man' Session as Self
- 2005 · Q & A with Jana Sevcikova and Werner Herzog as Self
- 2005 · The Colbert Report as
- 2005 · Perpetuum Mobile: Voices in the Blue Space as Self
- 2005 · Grizzly Man as Self / Narrator (voice)
- 2005 · Dreams and Burdens as Self
- 2005 · American Dad! as Werner Herzog (voice)
- 2004 · Incident at Loch Ness as Self
- 2004 · Kulturplatz as Self
- 2004 · The Best of Tromadance Film Festival: Volume 3 as Self (voice) ("Dribble" short)
- 2003 · Wheel of Time as Narrator (voice)
- 2002 · The Boxing Prince as Self
- 2001 · The 100 Greatest Films as Self
- 2000 · The Last Documentary as Self
- 2000 · Klaus Kinski: I'm not an actor as Self
- 2000 · The Ball Is a Scumbag as Self
- 1999 · Wings of Hope as Self
- 1999 · Julien Donkey-Boy as Father
- 1999 · A Brief History of Errol Morris as Self
- 1999 · My Best Fiend as Self
- 1998 · What Dreams May Come as Face
- 1997 · Little Dieter Needs to Fly as Narrator (voice)
- 1996 · Stardust Stricken: Mohsen Makhmalbaf, A Portrait as Self
- 1996 · The Transformation of the World Into Music as Self
- 1995 · Die Harald Schmidt Show as Self
- 1995 · Gesualdo: Death for Five Voices as Narrator (voice)
- 1995 · Burning Heart as
- 1993 · Dangerous Game as Self (archive footage) (uncredited)
- 1993 · Bells from the Deep as Narrator (voice)
- 1992 · Lessons of Darkness as Narrator (voice)
- 1991 · Film Hour as Self
- 1991 · Jag Mandir: The Eccentric Private Theatre of the Maharaja of Udaipur as Narrator (voice)
- 1991 · SnowwhiteRosered as Self
- 1991 · Scream of Stone as TV-Regisseur
- 1990 · Hard to Be a God as Mita / Richard
- 1989 · The Simpsons as Walter Hotenhoffer (voice)
- 1989 · The Simpsons as Werner Herzog (voice)
- 1989 · The Simpsons as Dr. Lund (voice)
- 1989 · Wodaabe: Herdsmen of the Sun as Narrator (voice)
- 1989 · The Heart and the Legs as Self
- 1989 · To the End of the World... and Then a Little Bit Further as Self
- 1985 · Tokyo-Ga as Self
- 1985 · The Dark Glow of the Mountain as Self (voice)
- 1985 · Sonntagsgespräch as Self
- 1984 · Where the Green Ants Dream as Lawyer (uncredited)
- 1982 · Burden of Dreams as Self - Filmmaker
- 1982 · Room 666 as Self
- 1982 · The South Bank Show: Werner Herzog as Self
- 1980 · Werner Herzog Eats His Shoe as Self
- 1980 · Garlic Is as Good as Ten Mothers as Self - Film Director: Nosferatu
- 1979 · Bavarian Film Award as Self
- 1979 · Okay as Self
- 1979 · The Making of 'Nosferatu' as Self
- 1979 · Nosferatu the Vampyre as Hand and Feet in Box with Rats (uncredited)
- 1977 · La Soufrière: Waiting for an Inevitable Catastrophe as Narrator (voice)
- 1976 · Signs of Vigorous Life: The New German Cinema as Self
- 1976 · Heart of Glass as Glass Transporter
- 1976 · How Much Wood Would a Woodchuck Chuck as Self
- 1975 · Lost in the Garden of the World as Self
- 1975 · Midi Première as Self
- 1974 · Spécial cinéma as Self
- 1974 · The Great Ecstasy of Woodcarver Steiner as Self
- Future · Shards of Cinema and Philosophy as Self
- 1971 · Tales of the Dumpster Kid as Hurenmörder
- 1968 · Signs of Life as Soldier (uncredited)
- 1968 · Die Erben von Papas Kino as
- 1964 · Grimme Awards Ceremony as Self
- 1951 · Deutscher Filmpreis as Self
- Future · Tales from the Opera as Director
- Future · No Mr. Werner Herzog, this isn't your Cinématon as Self
- Future · Jösta Hagelbäck & Werner Herzog as Self