Werner Herzog

81, from Munich, Bavaria, Germany

Artwork for Penguins of MadagascarImage of Werner Herzog

Biography

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.

Timeline

2024Aged 82

  • Poster for Orion and the Dark

    Narrator (voice)

  • Poster for Celebrating the Rice Media Center

    Self (archival footage)

  • Poster for The Fire Within: Requiem for Katia and Maurice Krafft

    Narrator (voice)

2023Aged 81

  • Poster for The Arc of Oblivion

    Narrator (voice)

2022Aged 80

  • Poster for Nosferatu: A Film Like a Vampire

    Self (archive footage)

  • Poster for Last Exit: Space

    Narrator (voice)

  • Poster for Tegoyo

    Self (Voice)

  • Poster for Werner Herzog: Radical Dreamer

    Self

  • Poster for El Poso

    Producer

  • Poster for Flores del precipicio

    Producer

  • Poster for Theatre of Thought

    Screenplay

  • Poster for Notes from a Dromedary

    Creative Consultant

2021Aged 79

  • Poster for Meteor: Sohrab Shahid Saless

    Self

  • Poster for Hannelore Elsner: More Than One Life

    Self (archive footage)

  • Poster for The Extravagant Little Life of Jean-Claude D. Dreyfus

    Self (archive footage)

  • Falling - Q&A

    Self - Host

2020Aged 78

  • Poster for AGFA Mystery Mixtape #2: Later in L.A.

    Self

  • Poster for Wim Wenders, Desperado

    Self

  • Poster for Fireball: Visitors from Darker Worlds

    Self - Narrator (voice)

  • Poster for A Life for Movies: Lotte Eisner

    Self

  • Poster for Dear Werner (Walking on Cinema)

    Narrator (voice)

  • Poster for The Andinist

    The Painter (Narrator)

2019Aged 77

2018Aged 76

2017Aged 75

  • Poster for The Man Who Killed John Wayne

    Self (archive footage)

  • Poster for Ballad of a Righteous Merchant

    Self

  • Poster for A Gray State

    Executive Producer

2016Aged 74

  • Poster for Jihad in Hollywood

    Self

  • Poster for Lo and Behold: Reveries of the Connected World

    Self

  • Poster for Into the Inferno

    Narrator (voice)

  • Poster for Salt and Fire

    Man with One Story (uncredited)

  • Poster for The Blimp-Maker

    Thanks

2015Aged 73

  • Poster for Freaks of Nature

    Perfect Being (voice)

  • Poster for The Look of Silence

    Executive Producer

  • Poster for Queen of the Desert

    Writer

2014Aged 72

2013Aged 71

2012Aged 70

  • Poster for Dinotasia

    Narrator (voice)

  • Poster for The Killers: Unstaged

    Self

  • Poster for 10 Questions for Werner Herzog

    Self

  • Poster for Close Up

    Self (archive footage)

  • Poster for Jack Reacher

    Zec Chelovek

  • Poster for The Act of Killing

    Executive Producer

2011Aged 69

2010Aged 68

2009Aged 67

  • The Lonely

    (Unknown)

  • Poster for Plastic Bag

    Plastic Bag (voice)

  • Poster for La Bohème

    Director

  • Poster for Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call - New Orleans

    Director

  • Poster for My Son, My Son, What Have Ye Done

    Screenplay

2008Aged 66

  • Back to Room 666

    Self (archive footage)

  • Poster for Mister Lonely

    Father Umbrillo

  • Poster for Counter Shot: Departure of the Filmmakers

    Self

  • Poster for Bierbichler

    Self

  • Poster for BLAST!

    Narrator (voice)

  • Poster for 40 x 15: The Forty Years of the Directors' Fortnight

    Self

  • Poster for Capturing Reality

    Self

  • Poster for Lohengrin: Bayreuth Festival Opera

    Stage Director

2007Aged 65

2006Aged 64

2004Aged 62

  • Dribble

    Self (voice)

  • Poster for The Best of Tromadance Film Festival: Volume 3

    Self (voice) ("Dribble" short)

  • Poster for The White Diamond

    Narrator (voice)

  • Poster for Incident at Loch Ness

    Self

2003Aged 61

  • Poster for Wheel of Time

    Narrator (voice)

2002Aged 60

  • Poster for The Boxing Prince

    Self

  • Poster for Strawberryland

    Turnlehrer

  • Poster for Ten Thousand Years Older

    Director

  • Poster for Ten Minutes Older: The Trumpet

    Writer

2001Aged 59

  • Poster for The 100 Greatest Films

    Self

  • Poster for Pilgrimage

    Director

  • Poster for Invincible

    Producer

2000Aged 58

1998Aged 56

  • Poster for What Dreams May Come

    Face

1997Aged 55

  • Poster for Little Dieter Needs to Fly

    Narrator (voice)

1996Aged 54

  • Poster for The Transformation of the World Into Music

    Self

  • Poster for Stardust Stricken: Mohsen Makhmalbaf, A Portrait

    Self

1995Aged 53

  • Poster for Burning Heart

    (Unknown)

  • Poster for Gesualdo: Death for Five Voices

    Narrator (voice)

1993Aged 51

  • Poster for Bells from the Deep

    Narrator (voice)

  • Poster for Dangerous Game

    Self (archive footage) (uncredited)

1992Aged 50

  • Poster for Lessons of Darkness

    Narrator (voice)

1991Aged 49

1989Aged 47

1988Aged 46

1987Aged 45

1986Aged 44

  • Poster for Portrait: Werner Herzog

    Self

1985Aged 43

  • Poster for The Dark Glow of the Mountain

    Self (voice)

  • Poster for Tokyo-Ga

    Self

1984Aged 42

  • Poster for Where the Green Ants Dream

    Lawyer (uncredited)

  • Poster for Ballad of the Little Soldier

    Self (voice)

1983Aged 41

  • Poster for Man of Flowers

    The Father

  • Poster for Huie's Sermon

    Director

1982Aged 40

  • Poster for The South Bank Show: Werner Herzog

    Self

  • Poster for Room 666

    Self

  • Poster for Burden of Dreams

    Self - Filmmaker

  • Poster for Fitzcarraldo

    Screenplay

1981Aged 39

  • Poster for God's Angry Man

    Narrator (voice)

1980Aged 38

  • Poster for Garlic Is as Good as Ten Mothers

    Self - Film Director: Nosferatu

  • Poster for Werner Herzog Eats His Shoe

    Self

1979Aged 37

  • Poster for Nosferatu the Vampyre

    Hand and Feet in Box with Rats (uncredited)

  • Poster for Scénario de 'Sauve qui peut la vie'

    Self (archive footage)

  • Poster for I Am My Films: A Portrait of Werner Herzog

    Self

  • Poster for The Making of 'Nosferatu'

    Self

  • Poster for Woyzeck

    Screenplay

1977Aged 35

  • Poster for Journey Through History

    Self

  • Poster for La Soufrière: Waiting for an Inevitable Catastrophe

    Narrator (voice)

  • Poster for Stroszek

    Screenplay

1976Aged 34

  • Poster for How Much Wood Would a Woodchuck Chuck

    Self

  • Poster for Heart of Glass

    Glass Transporter

  • Poster for Signs of Vigorous Life: The New German Cinema

    Self

  • Poster for No One Will Play with Me

    Writer

1975Aged 33

  • Poster for Lost in the Garden of the World

    Self

1974Aged 32

  • Poster for The Great Ecstasy of Woodcarver Steiner

    Self

  • Poster for The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser

    Producer

1972Aged 30

  • Poster for Aguirre, the Wrath of God

    Writer

1971Aged 29

  • Poster for Tales of the Dumpster Kid

    Hurenmörder

  • Poster for Handicapped Future

    Writer

  • Poster for Fata Morgana

    Screenplay

  • Poster for Land of Silence and Darkness

    Sound Recordist

1970Aged 28

  • Poster for The Flying Doctors of East Africa

    Sound Recordist

  • Poster for Even Dwarfs Started Small

    Producer

1969Aged 27

  • Poster for Precautions Against Fanatics

    Sound

1968Aged 26

  • Poster for Die Erben von Papas Kino

    (Unknown)

  • Poster for Signs of Life

    Soldier (uncredited)

  • Poster for Last Words

    Producer

1967Aged 25

  • Poster for Neuer Deutscher Film Report

    (Unknown)

  • Poster for The Unprecedented Defence of the Fortress Deutschkreuz

    Screenplay

1962Aged 20

  • Poster for Herakles

    Sound