Sylvester Groth (born 31 March 1958) is a German theater, television, and film actor. He is best known to international audiences from his appearances in Hollywood movies including Inglourious Basterds and The Man from U.N.C.L.E. Furthermore, he has appeared in the Netflix series Sense8, Fargo, and Dark.

Sylvester Groth
close-up of Sylvester Groth wearing a white shirt with a dark red jacket, looking just right of camera
Groth in 2009
Born (1958-03-31) 31 March 1958 (age 66)
OccupationActor
Years active1980–present

Biography

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Groth is the youngest of five siblings from Jerichow (Bezirk Magdeburg) in the former German Democratic Republic, where he also spent his childhood. His family is from Upper Silesia. Groth's father died while he was still young, and his mother married a second time. When he was 14 years old, the family moved to Leipzig. In 1986, he escaped from East Germany to West Germany.

He studied acting and singing at the Ernst Busch Academy of Dramatic Arts in Berlin. This was followed by engagements in Schwerin, Dresden, and Berlin, where he worked as a guest actor at the Deutsches Theater and from 1986 to 1989 at the Schaubühne. He also worked at the Residenz Theater, the Munich Kammerspiele, the Berliner Ensemble, the Burgtheater in Vienna, and the Salzburg Festival.[1]

In addition to an extensive theater career, Groth has also acted in numerous television productions and feature films. His first major film role was in 1983 in the East German film The Turning Point, based on a novel by Hermann Kant. In 1986, he appeared in Johannes Schaaf's adaptation of Michael Ende's story Momo. In 1992, he acted in the war drama Stalingrad and in 2006 he took on the role of Nazi Minister of Propaganda Joseph Goebbels in Dani Levy's My Führer – The Really Truest Truth about Adolf Hitler.

Groth is known to English-language audiences for appearing in Quentin Tarantino's 2009 film, Inglourious Basterds, in which he again portrayed Goebbels.[2] More recently, he held a leading role in the Netflix series Dark as Clausen, a police investigator, as well as appearing in the first episode of the third season of Fargo.

In January 2013, the Film Museum in Potsdam honoured Groth with a retrospective.[3] On 1 December 2017, he received an award from the DEFA Foundation for his outstanding achievements in German film.

Selected filmography

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Film

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List of film appearances, with year, title, and role shown
Year Title Role Notes
1983 The Turning Point Mark Niebuhr
1986 The House on the River Heinz Hüsgen
1986 Momo Agent BLW/553 X
1992 The Last U-Boat Funker Maschke
1993 Stalingrad Otto
2003 The Third Wave Dauphin
2006 Nevermore Pfarrer Ekdahl
2007 My Führer – The Really Truest Truth about Adolf Hitler Joseph Goebbels
2008 The Reader Prosecutor
Buddenbrooks Kesselmayer
2009 Hilde Boleslaw Barlog
Inglourious Basterds Joseph Goebbels
2010 Aghet – Ein Völkermord Martin Niepage Documentary
2015 Naked Among Wolves Helmut Krämer
The Man from U.N.C.L.E. Uncle Rudi
2017 In Times of Fading Light Kurt Umnitzer
2019 Berlin, I Love You Frosch
2022 The 355 Jonas Muller

Television

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List of television appearances, with year, title, and role shown
Year Title Role Notes
1990 Rote Erde Fritz Rewandowski
2003 Tatort: Stiller Tod Justus Fürmann, public prosecutor
2004 Mein Leben & Ich 4 episodes
2005 Tatort: Rache-Engel Chief of police
2007 Rosa Roth Michael Katzmann
2007, 2013 Der Kriminalist 2 episodes
2010 KDD – Kriminaldauerdienst Richard Plötz 1 episode
2011 Tatort: Das Dorf Medical examiner
2012, 2014 The Old Fox 2 episodes
2012 Tatort: Die schöne Mona ist tot Christian Seitz
2010 Generation War Sturmbannführer/Standartenführer Hiemer 2 episodes
Tatort: Schwarzer Afghane Norbert Müller
Tatort: Wer das Schweigen bricht Rainer Vaske
2013–2015 Polizeiruf 110 Jochen Drexler 4 parts
2015 Sense8 Sergei Bogdanow 4 episodes
Deutschland 83 Walter Schweppenstette 8 episodes
2016 NSU German History X: The Investigators [de] Walter Ahler
2017 Tatort: Wacht am Rhein Dieter Gottschalk
Fargo Colonel Horst Lagerfeld 1 episode
2018 Deutschland 86 Walter Schweppenstette 10 episodes
2019 Dark Clausen
Criminal: Germany Detective Chief Inspector Karl Schultz 3 episodes
2020 Deutschland 89 Walter Schweppenstette 8 episodes

Awards and honours

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References

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  1. ^ "Wer ist Sylvester Groth?" [Who is Sylvester Groth?]. bild.de (in German). 18 March 2013. Retrieved 8 March 2020.
  2. ^ Inglourious Basterds credits
  3. ^ "Filmmuseum Potsdam: Ausstellungen: Retrospektive Sylvester Groth" [Filmmuseum Potsdam: Exhibitions: Retrospective Sylvester Groth]. filmmuseum-potsdam.de (in German). 8 January 2014. Archived from the original on 8 January 2014. Retrieved 8 March 2020.
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