Werner Hinz

Werner Hinz was a prolific German actor who worked extensively during the Third Reich, and also managed to continue working long after the end of World War II. He studied theater at the Academy of Dramatic Arts in Berlin in the 1920s, performing in a number of plays, including Frank Wederkind's satire "Spring Awakening." It was his work in motion pictures, however, where Hinz's star started to rise, although the actor was also swept up in the Third Reich's tumultuous rise to power. When the Nazis took over, they immediately latched on to the idea of using movies as their weapon of choice for propaganda. Hinz made his feature film debut in the 1935 historical propaganda picture "The Making of a King," about King Friedrich Wilhelm and his son Fritz, the heir to the throne. The film starred the legendary Emil Jannings in the lead role, and the two would re-team for one of the most notorious Nazi propaganda movies, "Ohm Krüger," which was set during the Boer War and portrayed England in a poor light regarding its own human rights past. In the years following the war, Hinz worked steadily and some of his most notable work can be seen in the 1952 film "No Greater Love," in the crime film "The Last Witness," and in the all-star World War II epic "The Longest Day," where he played Field Marshal Rommel. Hinz continued working until his death in 1985.