Christoph Waltz Biography
Christoph Waltz is an Austrian-German actor born on October 4, 1956 in Vienna. He comes from a family with a rich theatrical heritage, including his grandmother who was a Burgtheater and silent film actress and his step-grandfather, great-grandfather who were both stage actors.
Christoph Waltz had a passion for opera as a youth but went on to study acting at the Max Reinhardt Seminar and the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna. He had a prolific television career in the 1980s to 2000s before making his directorial debut in 2000.
Waltz’s breakthrough role came in Quentin Tarantino’s film Inglourious Basterds alongside Bond girl Léa Seydoux. Waltz played SS officer Hans Landa in the Tarantino movie, earning him an Academy Award, BAFTA Award, Golden Globe Award, Best Actor Award at the Cannes Film Festival, and Screen Actors Guild Award for Best Supporting Actor. He went on to star in Django Unchained.
In 2015 he starred as James Bond’s longest running arch enemy Ernst Stavro Blofeld in Spectre (2015), and reprised the role in No Time To Die which was released in 2021.
Waltz has appeared in several other films including The Legend of Tarzan, Tulip Fever, Downsizing, Alita: Battle Angel, and Georgetown. He also directed a production of the opera Falstaff in 2017.
Waltz has four children with his first wife and a daughter with his second wife, a German costume designer. He splits his time between Berlin, Vienna, and Los Angeles.
