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
- 2027 · The Valley as
- 2025 · Ghost Elephants as Narrator (voice)
- 2024 · About a Hero as
- 2024 · Orion and the Dark as Narrator (voice)
- 2022 · Last Exit: Space as Narrator (voice)
- 2021 · The Extravagant Little Life of Jean-Claude D. Dreyfus as Self (archive footage)
- 2021 · Meteor: Sohrab Shahid Saless as Self
- 2020 · Wim Wenders, Desperado as Self
- 2020 · Disney Gallery / Star Wars: The Mandalorian as Self - The Client
- 2020 · The AGFA Mystery Mixtape Vault as (archive footage)
- 2019 · The Mandalorian as The Client
- 2019 · 90 Years of the Music Box Theatre as Self
- 2019 · Nomad: In the Footsteps of Bruce Chatwin as Self - Interviewer and Narrator (voice)
- 2018 · Manaslu: Mountain of Souls as Self
- 2018 · Paradox Bullets as Narrator (voice)
- 2017 · Ballad of a Righteous Merchant as Self
- 2016 · Salt and Fire as Man with One Story (uncredited)
- 2016 · Lo and Behold: Reveries of the Connected World 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 · Werner Herzog and Errol Morris on 'The Act of Killing' as Self
- 2013 · Home from Home – Chronicle of a Vision as Alexander von Humboldt
- 2013 · Jack Reacher: When the Man Comes Around as Self
- 2012 · Jack Reacher as Zec Chelovek
- 2012 · Dubai Winter Diary VI: Light and Reflections as Self
- 2011 · On Borrowed Time as Self
- 2010 · Cave of Forgotten Dreams as Narrator (voice)
- 2010 · Anyone who dares will take the cold off their horse as Self
- 2009 · Parks and Recreation as Keg Jennings
- 2008 · Capturing Reality as Self
- 2008 · 40 x 15: The Forty Years of the Directors' Fortnight as Self
- 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 · Munich (Filmfest) Stories - 25 years of Munich Filmfest as Self
- 2007 · The Grand as The German
- 2006 · Metalocalypse as
- 2005 · The Boondocks as Himself (voice)
- 2005 · The Colbert Report as
- 2005 · Grizzly Man as Self / Narrator (voice)
- 2005 · American Dad! as Werner Herzog (voice)
- 2004 · Incident at Loch Ness as Self
- 2004 · The White Diamond as Narrator (voice)
- 2004 · Kulturplatz as Self
- 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
- 1999 · Wings of Hope as Self
- 1999 · Julien Donkey-Boy as Father
- 1999 · My Best Fiend as Self
- 1998 · What Dreams May Come as Face
- 1995 · Die Harald Schmidt Show as Self
- 1995 · Gesualdo: Death for Five Voices as Narrator (voice)
- 1993 · Bells from the Deep as Narrator (voice)
- 1992 · Lessons of Darkness as Self - Narrator (voice)
- 1991 · Scream of Stone as TV-Regisseur
- 1989 · The Simpsons as Walter Hotenhoffer (voice)
- 1989 · The Simpsons as Werner Herzog (voice)
- 1989 · The Simpsons as Dr. Lund (voice)
- 1989 · The Heart and the Legs as Self
- 1987 · Location Africa as Self
- 1985 · Tokyo-Ga as Self
- 1985 · The Dark Glow of the Mountain as Self (voice)
- 1984 · Ballad of the Little Soldier as Self (voice)
- 1984 · Where the Green Ants Dream as Lawyer (uncredited)
- 1983 · Man of Flowers as The Father
- 1982 · Burden of Dreams as Self - Filmmaker
- 1981 · God's Angry Man as Narrator (voice)
- 1979 · Bavarian Film Awards as Self
- 1979 · Okay as Self
- 1979 · The Making of 'Nosferatu' as Self
- 1979 · I Am My Films: A Portrait of Werner Herzog as Self
- 1977 · Journey Through History as Self
- 1976 · Heart of Glass as Glass Transporter
- 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
- 1968 · Die Erben von Papas Kino as
- 1967 · Neuer Deutscher Film Report as
- 1964 · Grimme Award as Self
- 1951 · German Film Award as Self
- Future · Shards of Cinema and Philosophy as Self
- 2024 · The Fire Within: A Requiem for Katia and Maurice Krafft as Narrator (voice)
- 2024 · Celebrating the Rice Media Center as Self (archival footage)
- 2024 · Kinski as Self (archive footage)
- 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 · A Life for Movies: Lotte Eisner 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 · AGFA Mystery Mixtape #2: Later in L.A. as (archive footage)
- 2019 · Tattoo Uprising as Self
- 2019 · Meeting Gorbachev as Self
- 2019 · Jihad in Hollywood as Self
- 2018 · The Great Buster: A Celebration as Self
- 2018 · Black Baby as Self (archive footage)
- 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 · The Man Who Killed John Wayne as Self (archive footage)
- 2016 · Into the Inferno as Self
- 2016 · Jihad in Hollywood as Self
- 2014 · Werner Herzog: On Death Row and Life as a Director as Self
- 2013 · An Appreciation of Les Blank by Werner Herzog as Self
- 2013 · Mistaken for Strangers as Self (uncredited)
- 2012 · Strawberryland as Turnlehrer
- 2012 · Close Up as Self (archive footage)
- 2012 · 10 Questions for Werner Herzog as Self
- 2012 · The Killers: Unstaged as Self
- 2012 · Dinotasia as Narrator (voice)
- 2012 · On Death Row as Werner Herzog
- 2012 · No Mr. Werner Herzog, this isn't your Cinématon as Self
- 2011 · I, I, I José Lewgoy as Self
- 2011 · Into the Abyss as Narrator (voice)
- 2011 · Champions: A Comic Tale as Self
- 2011 · Hans Zimmer: The Sound of Hollywood as Self
- 2010 · Werner Herzog Defends Dade as Self
- 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 · I am My Films, Part 2... 30 Years Later as Self
- 2010 · The Making of Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans as Himself
- 2010 · Future States as Plastic Bag (voice)
- 2009 · Plastic Bag as Plastic Bag (voice)
- 2009 · The Lonely as
- 2008 · BLAST! as Narrator (voice)
- 2008 · Back to Room 666 as Self (archive footage)
- 2007 · Making of a True Story: Rescue Dawn as Self
- 2007 · All In This Tea as
- 2006 · 50 Films to See Before You Die as Self
- 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 · Perpetuum Mobile: Voices in the Blue Space as Self
- 2005 · Dreams and Burdens as Self
- 2004 · The Best of Tromadance Film Festival: Volume 3 as Self (voice) ("Dribble" short)
- 2004 · Dribble as Self (voice)
- 2000 · Klaus Kinski: I'm not an actor as Self
- 2000 · The Ball Is a Scumbag as Self
- 1999 · A Brief History of Errol Morris as Self
- 1999 · In the Footsteps of Bruce Chatwin as Self
- 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 · Burning Heart as
- 1994 · Tales from the Opera as Self - Director
- 1993 · Dangerous Game as Self (archive footage) (uncredited)
- 1991 · Film Hour as Self
- 1991 · Jag Mandir: The Eccentric Private Theatre of the Maharaja of Udaipur as Narrator (voice)
- 1991 · SnowwhiteRosered as Self
- 1990 · Echoes from a Sombre Empire as Self
- 1990 · Hard to Be a God as Mita / Richard
- 1990 · Russian Adventure. Peter Fleischmann is Filming "Hard to Be a God" as Self
- 1989 · Wodaabe: Herdsmen of the Sun as Narrator (voice)
- 1989 · Bride of the Orient as Businger
- 1989 · To the End of the World... and Then a Little Bit Further as Self
- 1988 · Werner Herzog Eats His Shoe as Self
- 1986 · Portrait: Werner Herzog as Self
- 1985 · Sonntagsgespräch as Self
- 1982 · Room 666 as Self
- 1980 · Garlic Is as Good as Ten Mothers as Self - Film Director: Nosferatu
- 1979 · Scénario de 'Sauve qui peut la vie' as Self (archive footage) (uncredited)
- 1977 · La Soufrière: Waiting for an Inevitable Catastrophe as Narrator (voice)
- 1976 · Signs of Vigorous Life: The New German Cinema as Self
- 1976 · How Much Wood Would a Woodchuck Chuck as Self
- 1971 · Tales of the Dumpster Kid as Hurenmörder
- 1968 · Signs of Life as Soldier (uncredited)
- Future · Jösta Hagelbäck & Werner Herzog as Self