Happy 75th birthday, Bruno Ganz!

Student Bernard in "Der sanfte Lauf" (1967) was Bruno Ganz's first star role. The movie did not feature the conspicuous social upheaval of the 60s as such, but rather the smaller skirmishes in the background. It was an outspoken film produced in the spirit of the "Oberhausen Manifest," which challenged conservative post-war film production and aimed to usher in a new film era in Germany.

Following his major film debut, it took almost 10 years for Ganz to make his next big appearance on the screen. From the mid 1970s onwards, he was in high demand by the icons of German film, including Wim Wenders, Peter Handke, and Werner Herzog. In Herzog's"Nosferatu" (1979), Ganz starred opposite German actor Klaus Kinski.

In 1981, yet another German director, Volker Schlöndorff, was obviously impressed by Bruno Ganz's performances. In "Circle of Deceit," he played a West German journalist reporting on the civil war in Lebanon. Initially unscrupulous, he becomes embroiled in a work and life crisis. At this point, Ganz was already seen as one of the most outstanding actors of the New German Film movement.

The 1987 cult film "Wings of Desire" by Wim Wenders was an important milestone in Ganz's career. Opposite stage actor Otto Sanders, he portrays a sensitive and thoughtful angel who falls in love with a human being. Shot in the divided city of Berlin, the movie has gone down in film history - as has its 1998 Hollywood remake, "City of Angels," starring Nicolas Cage.

Born in 1941 in Zurich, Bruno Ganz grew up in humble conditions. An acting career did not quite fit in his family background - and even less the fact that he dropped out of school to join the theater world. Already in his early 20s, Ganz had become a celebrated stage actor. In spite of his success on screen, he remained true to his theater roots - here in 1986 in the Berlin theater, Schaubühne.

Bruno Ganz worked with countless outstanding film and stage directors. In 2000, he played Faust - for a total of 21hours! The extensive staging by Peter Stein celebrated its premiere during the World Expo in Hanover - without Ganz, who had been badly injured during a rehearsal so that he had to be substituted. But he did appear in the following shows, and is pictured here in Berlin.

"Bread and Tulips" added to Bruno Ganz's fame once again. In this 2000 box office hit, he plays a contemplative waiter struggling to win the love of his unhappy wife. The film was produced in Italian - which was no problem for Ganz, whose mother is Italian. During the shooting, Bruno Ganz fell in love with the city of Venice, where he later bought an apartment.

Otto Sander and Bruno Ganz came to share numerous successes - among them, the 2003 stage production of "Oedipus" at Vienna's Burgtheater. Ganz wrote upon Sander's death in 2013: "And yet, we never found an answer to the question of how to perform. There are laws on the stage. We continued to explore them in the cafeteria, pubs, apartments, the cloakroom, in the outdoors, even on the high seas."

"I did know that I wouldn't be able to distance myself from that role for quite some time. But I wasn't aware of quite how long when I accepted the offer," Ganz told the German daily "Berliner Morgenpost" about his role as Adolf Hitler. In "Downfall" in 2004, Ganz portrayed the human side of Hitler, providing an impressive and rather frightening performance.

In the controversial 2010 film "Satte Farben vor Schwarz" (Colors in the Dark), Bruno Ganz starred opposite German actress Senta Berger. It's about the dilemma of a couple who had planned to stay together forever, but now the husband is suffering from cancer. The couple makes a radical decision. All film critics agreed that Ganz and Berger made a perfect couple - on screen, at least.

Each year, the 1,600-member German Film Academy hands out the Lola awards in several categories. From 2010 to 2013, Bruno Ganz and and German actress Iris Berben were co-presidents of the prestigious institution.

Bruno Ganz is chevalier of the French Legion of Honor, and since 1996, bearer of the Iffland Ring as "the most siginificant and honorable actor." The ring is passed from one actor to another. His list of additional awards is long: Actor of the Year in 1973, European Film Prize in 2000, Federal Cross of Merit in 2006 and, here, the Golden Camera for his lifework in 2014, to name a few.

With his performance as the fierce and yet loving Almöhi in a most recent version of "Heidi" in 2015, Bruno Ganz has once again presented hishigh degree of flexibility and sensitivity. His controversial performance of Hitler may still be present - but it hasn't overshadowed Ganz's career. Let's hope that even after his 75th birthday, he will continue to surprise us with new films.