Christoph Waltz: 10 Facts About the Oscar-Winning Actor
Translated & summarized from Srugim by baba
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- Christoph Waltz turns 70, known for "Inglourious Basterds" and "Django Unchained."
- His international fame came at age 52 with Tarantino's "Inglourious Basterds."
- Waltz has won two Academy Awards for Best Supporting Actor.
- He has a close personal connection to Judaism and has visited Israel.
- His son studied at a yeshiva in Israel and assisted Tarantino with Yiddish.
- Waltz voiced Theodor Herzl in a documentary about the state's founder.
Austrian actor Christoph Waltz is celebrating his 70th birthday, widely recognized for his chilling portrayal of SS Colonel Hans Landa in Quentin Tarantino's "Inglourious Basterds." However, Waltz's career extends far beyond Hollywood, encompassing a musical aspiration and a surprising family connection to Israel.
Waltz was born in Vienna into a family deeply involved in the arts; his mother was a costume designer, his father a set builder, and his grandmother a stage and silent film actress. Before pursuing acting, Waltz studied opera and singing in Vienna, even being accepted into a program, though he was advised his singing voice was not exceptional. He later returned to opera as a director.
His international breakthrough came at age 52 with "Inglourious Basterds" in 2009, a role that earned him the Best Actor award at the Cannes Film Festival. Tarantino had struggled to cast the complex Landa role, requiring a multilingual actor who could convey both sophistication and menace, and Waltz's audition resolved the issue. Waltz is fluent in German, English, and French, and while he convincingly uses Italian in the film, his fluency in that language is less pronounced.
Waltz's collaboration with Tarantino yielded two Academy Awards for Best Supporting Actor: the first in 2010 for "Inglourious Basterds," and the second in 2013 for his role as Dr. King Schultz in "Django Unchained."
Beyond his on-screen roles, Waltz has a close personal connection to Judaism. He has three Jewish children from his first marriage to a Jewish woman. His son studied at a yeshiva in Israel and reportedly assisted Tarantino with Yiddish translations for "Inglourious Basterds." Waltz himself has visited Israel privately on several occasions.
In March 2013, just two weeks after winning his second Oscar, Waltz attended his daughter Miriam's wedding to Pinchas near the Tower of David in Jerusalem. He stayed in a local apartment and was seen touring the city before the ceremony. More recently, Waltz lent his voice to Theodor Herzl in the documentary "It Is No Dream: The Life of Theodor Herzl," a project by the Simon Wiesenthal Center, portraying the visionary who led to the establishment of Israel.