Rudiger Vogler

A key figure in the stock company of gifted actors who came to prominence in the dynamic movement known as "New German Cinema" in the 1960s, 70s and 80s, Vogler is best known as a cinematic alter ego of filmmaker Wim Wenders. A slender man with wavy, dirty-blond hair, a long face and a somewhat glum expression, Vogler attended music school in Heidelberg but began as a film actor the year after his graduation. His second film credit, a small role in "The Goalie's Anxiety at the Penalty Kick" (1971), marked his first collaboration with Wenders, and several years later Vogler was playing leads for the director. In "Alice in the Cities" (1974), Vogler first personified the footloose Philip Winter, a role--or at least, a character name--he would essay for several other Wenders films over the next two decades.