Werner Herzog
Born: 1942-09-05 in Munich, Bavaria, Germany
Known For: Directing
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.
Filmography
2026
- Hulk Hogan: Real American as Self
- Ghost Elephants as Narrator (voice)
2025
- Sirena
- Reeling ... (Executive Producer)
- Mi casa amarilla ... (Consulting Editor)
- Felicidad ... (Producer)
2024
- Orion and the Dark as Narrator (voice)
- The End ... (Executive Producer)
- The Fire Within: A Requiem for Katia and Maurice Krafft as Narrator (voice)
- Theater of Thought ... (Director)
- About a Hero
- Celebrating the Rice Media Center as Self (archival footage)
2023
- The Arc of Oblivion as Narrator (voice)
2022
- The U.S. and the Holocaust as Hermann Göring
- Werner Herzog: Radical Dreamer as Self
- Last Exit: Space as Narrator (voice)
- Nosferatu: A Film Like a Vampire as Self (archive footage)
- Tegoyo as Self (Voice)
- Notes from a Dromedary ... (Creative Consultant)
- El Poso ... (Producer)
- Flores del precipicio ... (Producer)
2021
- A Life for Movies: Lotte Eisner as Self
- Hannelore Elsner: More Than One Life as Self (archive footage)
- Meteor: Sohrab Shahid Saless as Self
- The Extravagant Little Life of Jean-Claude D. Dreyfus as Self (archive footage)
2020
- Disney Gallery / Star Wars: The Mandalorian as Self - The Client
- Wim Wenders - Von Filmen und Träumen as Self
- Wim Wenders, Desperado as Self
- Fireball: Visitors from Darker Worlds as Self - Narrator (voice)
- The AGFA Mystery Mixtape Vault as (archive footage)
- AGFA Mystery Mixtape #2: Later in L.A. as (archive footage)
- Dear Werner (Walking on Cinema) as Narrator (voice)
- The Andinist as The Painter (Narrator)
2019
- The Mandalorian as The Client
- Family Romance, LLC ... (Writer)
- Meeting Gorbachev as Self
- 90 Years of the Music Box Theatre as Self
- Nomad: In the Footsteps of Bruce Chatwin as Self - Interviewer and Narrator (voice)
- The Last Scene ... (Executive Producer)
- Love Birds ... (Consulting Producer)
- Tattoo Uprising as Self
- Jihad in Hollywood as Self
2018
- The Great Buster: A Celebration as Self
- Film Beyond Cinema: The Dumpster Kid Experiment and Other Utopias as Self
- The whole world is country ... (Consulting Producer)
- Manaslu: Mountain of Souls as Self
- Paradox Bullets as Narrator (voice)
- The Empty Goal ... (Thanks)
- I'm a Soldier as Self
- The Golden Gate ... (Executive Producer)
2017
- Ballad of a Righteous Merchant as Self
- A Gray State ... (Executive Producer)
- The Man Who Killed John Wayne as Self (archive footage)
- One Hundred Years with Juan Rulfo as Self
2016
- Salt and Fire as Man with One Story (uncredited)
- Into the Inferno as Self
- Lo and Behold: Reveries of the Connected World as Self
- The Blimp-Maker ... (Thanks)
- Jihad in Hollywood as Self
2015
- The Late Show with Stephen Colbert as Self - Guest
- Close Up with The Hollywood Reporter as Self
- Freaks of Nature as Perfect Being (voice)
- Queen of the Desert ... (Director)
- Red Army ... (Executive Producer)
2014
- Late Night with Seth Meyers as Self - Guest
- Penguins of Madagascar as Documentary Filmmaker (voice)
- The Look of Silence ... (Executive Producer)
- Life Itself as Self - Filmmaker
- Atari: Game Over as Self (archival)
- Alfonso Sansone: Producer by Chance as Self (archive footage)
- Lemonade War as Neighborhood Hero
- Werner Herzog: On Death Row and Life as a Director as Self
2013
- Rick and Morty as Shrimply Pibbles (voice)
- Jack Reacher: When the Man Comes Around as Self
- The Unbelievers as Self
- Home from Home – Chronicle of a Vision as Alexander von Humboldt
- From One Second to the Next ... (Director)
- Werner Herzog and Errol Morris on 'The Act of Killing' as Self
- An Appreciation of Les Blank by Werner Herzog as Self
- The Last Shepherd ... (Thanks)
- Mistaken for Strangers as Self (uncredited)
2012
- Jack Reacher as Zec Chelovek
- The Act of Killing ... (Executive Producer)
- On Death Row as Werner Herzog
- Close Up as Self (archive footage)
- Dinotasia as Narrator (voice)
- Dubai Winter Diary VI: Light and Reflections as Self
- 10 Questions for Werner Herzog as Self
- The Killers: Unstaged as Self
- Strawberryfields as Turnlehrer
- No Mr. Werner Herzog, this isn't your Cinématon as Self
2011
- Into the Abyss as Narrator (voice)
- On Borrowed Time as Self
- Champions: A Comic Tale as Self
- Ode to the Dawn of Man ... (Director)
- Hans Zimmer: The Sound of Hollywood as Self
- I, I, I José Lewgoy as Self
2010
- My Son, My Son, What Have Ye Done ... (Screenplay)
- Cave of Forgotten Dreams as Narrator (voice)
- Happy People: A Year in the Taiga as Narrator (voice)
- I am My Films, Part 2... 30 Years Later as Self
- Into the Night With Harmony Korine and Gaspar Noe as Self
- The Making of Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans as Himself
- Behind the Madness: The Making of My Son, My Son as Self
- A Night Out ... (Thanks)
- Werner Herzog Defends Dade as Self
- When Herzog Rescued Phoenix as Narrator (voice)
- Anyone who dares will take the cold off their horse as Self
2009
- Parks and Recreation as Keg Jennings
- Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans ... (Director)
- La Bohème ... (Director)
- Plastic Bag as Plastic Bag (voice)
- The Lonely
2008
- Mister Lonely as Father Umbrillo
- Counter Shot: Departure of the Filmmakers as Self
- Back to Room 666 as Self (archive footage)
- Capturing Reality as Self
- 40 x 15: The Forty Years of the Directors' Fortnight as Self
- BLAST! as Narrator (voice)
- Bierbichler as Self
- Lohengrin: Bayreuth Festival Opera ... (Stage Director)
2007
- Rescue Dawn ... (Director)
- The Grand as The German
- Encounters at the End of the World as Narrator (voice)
- Pierre Rissient: Man of Cinema as Self
- Making of a True Story: Rescue Dawn as Self
- The Devil's Muse ... (Creative Consultant)
- All In This Tea
- Munich (Filmfest) Stories - 25 years of Munich Filmfest as Self
2006
- Metalocalypse
- The Henry Rollins Show
- 50 Films to See Before You Die as Self
- Walking to Werner as Self (voice)
2005
- American Dad! as Werner Herzog (voice)
- The Colbert Report
- The Boondocks as Himself (voice)
- Grizzly Man as Self / Narrator (voice)
- The Wild Blue Yonder ... (Screenplay)
- What Is It? ... (Thanks)
- Q & A with Jana Sevcikova and Werner Herzog as Self
- In the Edges: The 'Grizzly Man' Session as Self
- Perpetuum Mobile: Voices in the Blue Space as Self
- Dreams and Burdens as Self
2004
- Kulturplatz as Self
- The White Diamond as Narrator (voice)
- Incident at Loch Ness as Self
- Dribble as Self (voice)
- The Best of Tromadance Film Festival: Volume 3 as Self (voice) ("Dribble" short)
2003
- Wheel of Time as Narrator (voice)
2002
- Ten Minutes Older: The Trumpet ... (Writer)
- The Boxing Prince as Self
- Ten Thousand Years Older ... (Director)
2001
- Invincible ... (Writer)
- The 100 Greatest Films as Self
- Pilgrimage ... (Director)
2000
- Klaus Kinski: I'm not an actor as Self
- Tannhäuser ... (Stage Director)
- The Last Documentary as Self
- The Ball Is a Scumbag as Self
1999
- 2000 Years of Christianity ... (Director)
- My Best Fiend as Self
- Wings of Hope as Self
- Julien Donkey-Boy as Father
- In the Footsteps of Bruce Chatwin as Self
- A Brief History of Errol Morris as Self
1998
- Sternstunde Philosophie as Self
- What Dreams May Come as Face
1997
- Little Dieter Needs to Fly as Narrator (voice)
1996
1995
- Die Harald Schmidt Show as Self
- Gesualdo: Death for Five Voices as Narrator (voice)
- Burning Heart
1994
- Placido Domingo's Tales from the Opera as Self - Director
1993
- Dangerous Game as Self (archive footage) (uncredited)
- Bells from the Deep as Narrator (voice)
1992
- Lessons of Darkness as Self - Narrator (voice)
- La Donna del Lago ... (Director)
1991
- Film Lesson as Self
- Scream of Stone as TV-Regisseur
- Jag Mandir: The Eccentric Private Theatre of the Maharaja of Udaipur as Narrator (voice)
- SnowwhiteRosered as Self
1990
- Hard to Be a God as Mita / Richard
- Echoes from a Sombre Empire as Self
- Russian Adventure. Peter Fleischmann is Filming "Hard to Be a God" as Self
1989
- The Simpsons as Walter Hotenhoffer (voice)
- Under the Sun ... (Director)
- Wodaabe: Herdsmen of the Sun as Narrator (voice)
- Bride of the Orient as Businger
- The Heart and the Legs as Self
- To the End of the World... and Then a Little Bit Further as Self
- Giovanna d'Arco ... (Director)
1988
- The French as Seen by… ... (Director)
- Werner Herzog Eats His Shoe as Self
- The Gauls ... (Director)
1987
- Cobra Verde ... (Director)
- Location Africa as Self
1986
- Portrait: Werner Herzog as Self
1985
- Room 666 as Self
- Tokyo-Ga as Self
- The Dark Glow of the Mountains as Self (voice)
- Sonntagsgespräch as Self
1984
- Where the Green Ants Dream as Lawyer (uncredited)
- Ballad of the Little Soldier as Self (voice)
1983
- God's Angry Man as Narrator (voice)
- Man of Flowers as The Father
- Huie's Sermon ... (Director)
1982
- Fitzcarraldo ... (Director)
- Burden of Dreams as Self - Filmmaker
1980
- Garlic Is as Good as Ten Mothers as Self - Film Director: Nosferatu
1979
- Bavarian Film Awards as Self
- Nosferatu the Vampyre ... (Director)
- Okay as Self
- Woyzeck ... (Screenplay)
- Scénario de 'Sauve qui peut la vie' as Self (archive footage) (uncredited)
- The Making of 'Nosferatu' as Self
- I Am My Films: A Portrait of Werner Herzog as Self
1977
- Stroszek ... (Director)
- La Soufrière: Waiting for an Inevitable Catastrophe as Narrator (voice)
- Journey Through History as Self
1976
- Heart of Glass as Glass Transporter
- How Much Wood Would a Woodchuck Chuck as Self
- No One Will Play with Me ... (Director)
- Signs of Vigorous Life: The New German Cinema as Self
1975
- Midi Première as Self
- Lost in the Garden of the World as Self
1974
- Spécial cinéma as Self
- The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser ... (Producer)
- Tales of the Dumpster Kid as Hurenmörder
- The Great Ecstasy of Woodcarver Steiner as Self
1972
- Aguirre, the Wrath of God ... (Producer)
- Fata Morgana ... (Director)
1971
- Handicapped Future as Interviewer (voice) (uncredited)
- Land of Silence and Darkness ... (Screenplay)
1970
- Even Dwarfs Started Small ... (Producer)
- The Flying Doctors of East Africa ... (Director)
1969
- Precautions Against Fanatics ... (Director)
1968
- 60 Minutes as Self
- Signs of Life as Soldier (uncredited)
- Last Words ... (Director)
- Die Erben von Papas Kino
1967
1964
- Grimme Award as Self
1962
- Herakles ... (Director)
1951
- German Film Award as Self