Mario Adorf

Italian-German actor Mario Adorf has built an impressive career, that has stretched across six decades and two continents, resulting in numerous award nominations. Adorf's first on-screen appearance was in the 1954 World War I drama "08/15," which led to consistent work in motion pictures, and later, television. Some of Adorf's best-known roles include 1957's serial-killer thriller "The Devil Strikes at Night," 1972's crime drama "Caliber 9," and the lead role in 1979's controversial adaptation of Gunter Grass's fantasia "The Tin Drum," among others.

Adorf is also known for supposedly turning down roles in movies that would go on to become classics: Francis Ford Coppola's mobster masterpiece "The Godfather," Billy Wilder's hectic Cold War satire "One, Two, Three," and Sam Peckinpah's violent revisionist western "The Wild Bunch." Celebrating his 80th birthday in 2010, Adorf continued to act well into the early 21st century, largely in movies made for German or Italian television.