Karl Stepanek

Known for ActingBorn 1899-10-27Died 1980-12-25Brünn, Moravia, Austria-Hungary [now Brno, Czech Republic]

Though born in Czechoslovakia, actor Karel Stepanek was generally regarded as a German actor due to his extensive film work in Germany (as Karl Stepanek) in the years before World War II. Stepanek fled to England in 1940, where, like many European refugee actors, he specialized in portraying Teutonic villains. He tried to stay away from out-and-out Nazi roles, but his predilection for wearing black uniforms and barking out guttural commands left little doubt as to the political preferences of Stepanek's screen characters. One of his most typical characterizations could be found in the 1946 POW drama, The Captive Heart; Stepanek also registered well as a friendlier foreigner in The Fallen Idol (1949). Commuting between London and Hollywood, Karel Stepanek continued to fight World War II, usually on the wrong side, into such '60s films as Sink the Bismarck! (1960), I Aim at the Stars (1960) and Operation Crossbow (1965).Read more

Movies & web series

Tale of Three Women

West of Suez

Overseas Press Club - Exclusive!

Murderers Club of Brooklyn

War es der im 3. Stock?

Here's Berlin

Pozdní láska

Das Kriminalmuseum

Waltz War

Escape to Danger

The Third Man

A Song for You

The Traitor

The Games

The Leghorn Hat

The Unknown

Five from the Jazzband

Spione im Savoy-Hotel

Brainwashed

The Fallen Idol

Licensed to Kill

The Man in the Road

The Heroes of Telemark

No Highway in the Sky

Sink the Bismarck!

Golden Arrow

State Secret

Alles Schwindel

Hotel Sacher

Another Experience

Narren im Schnee

Klatovští dragouni

Anastasia

Stronger Than Paragraphs

Operation Crossbow

Der Außenseiter

Na růžích ustláno

The Grey Pikes Wharf

Our Man in Havana

Rough Shoot

Man of the Moment

Secret Venture

Tomorrow We Live

Dangerous Cargo

Cairo Road

Affair in Trinidad

Hermine and the Seven Upright Men

The Captive Heart