SANDER, OTTO

(1941- )

Actor. Sander is, along withGeorg Kaiser, one of the few personalities in the German theater to have worked as a merchant seaman before beginning an active artistic career. After completing studies at theOtto FalckenbergSchool inMunich, Sander began working professionally in 1965 in Düsseldorf for two years, then in Heidelberg, thenBerlin. In the early 1970s he joined the Schaubühne company there, working withKlaus-Michael Grüber, Claus Peymann, Luc Bondy, Peter Stein, and Robert Wilson. With Stein he did several productions, though many regarded his work inSummer Folkas being among the best performances of the 1970s.With Wilson in 1979, he got good notices as the Comedian inDeath, Destruction, and Detroit, which led to outstanding film work that established him internationally. He was particularly effective in leading roles for Völker Schlöndorff'sDie Blechtrommel(The Tin Drum, 1979), as the submarine captain in Wolfgang Petersen'sDas Boot(The Boat, 1981), as the toothsome Marxist Karl Liebknecht in Margarete von Trotta'sRosa Luxemburg(1986), in Wim Wenders'sHimmel über Berlin(Wings of Desire, 1987), andIn weiter Ferne so nah!(Far Away, So Close!, 1993). Sander continued working in Schaubühne productions in the 1980s, though not as a regular member of the company. His work in that decade included performances in Bondy's production ofBothoStrauss'sKalldewey Farce(1982), Stein's much-heralded production of Anton Chekhov'sThe Three Sisters(1984), and Grüber'sAmphytrionbyHeinrich von Kleist.

Sander is also a gifted comedian, singer, and voiceover artist; his manic performance in the cult classicKondom des Grauens(The Condom of Cruelty, also titledKiller Condom, 1996) is a good example of his comic gifts, while his narration forAus Liebe zu Deutschland(For the Love of Germany, 2003), the German television miniseriesDas Jahrhundert des Theaters(The Theater's Century, 2002), and the German version ofHow the Grinch Stole Christmas(2000) put his resonant baritone on full aural display. His performance in the 1994 Berlin staging of Ralph Benatzky's musical version ofOskarBlumenthal'sIm weiss'n Rossi(The White Horse Inn) was a masterpiece of comic understatement.