Ben Becker (born 19 December 1964) is a German film, theatre and voice actor.

Becker in 2017

Biography

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Becker was born in Bremen, the son of actress Monika Hansen and actor Rolf Becker. He is the brother of actress Meret Becker and the stepson of Otto Sander. His grandmother was the comedian Claire Schlichting. Becker is Jewish through his maternal grandmother Claire Schlichting's father who was a Jewish merchant from Wuppertal.[1]

As a child, Becker participated in radio dramas and had several small roles in films. Between 1985 and 1987 he trained as an actor in the Berliner Schaubühne theatre. His first contract was with Ernst Deutsch Theater in Hamburg. Later he joined the Staatstheater Stuttgart (Stuttgart State Theatre), where he was mostly remembered for his role (1991–1992) as Ferdinand in Schiller's Intrigue and Love. Later, he worked with the Düsseldorfer Schauspielhaus, and played the role of Tybalt in Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet in the Deutschen Schauspielhaus in Hamburg.

His first memorable role in cinema was in 1991, in the film The Serbian Girl [sr], where he played the role of the arrogant German boyfriend of the pregnant Serbian heroine. His big break was in 1995 as Peter, who fell in love with a man, in Joseph Vilsmaier's Schlafes Bruder. In the film Comedian Harmonists he played the singer Robert Biberti [de].

In 1995 he created his own production of Sid & Nancy with his sister Meret in the main role. Becker appeared in Rosa von Praunheim's film The Einstein of Sex (1999). In 1999 he played the main role in the Maxim-Gorki-Theater's production of Alfred Döblin's Berlin Alexanderplatz. In 2005 he played in the unique film, Just an Ordinary Jew [de], which consisted of a monologue.

Becker is also involved in music and owns a pub, the Trompete, in Berlin/Tiergarten. He has one daughter, Lilith (born in 2000).

In 2008 Becker worked with the German band Schiller (thus following in the footsteps of his stepfather Otto Sander), where Ben did spoken lyrics for the album Sehnsucht. One song is called "Nacht", a video of which can be seen on YouTube.[2] The lyrics[3] are a shortened version of a poem in German called Die Seele[4] that is attributed to Lord Byron. It appears to be a translation of the Byron poem, "When coldness wraps this suffering clay" s:When coldness wraps this suffering clay from the collection, Hebrew Melodies. The identity of the translator/author of Die Seele is unknown although the text may be from "Lord Byrons Werke In sechs Bänden" translated by Otto Gildemeister, 3rd Volume, Fifth Edition, Berlin 1903 (pages 134-135).[5]

Selected filmography

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Year Title Role Director Notes
1991 The Serbian Girl [sr] Hans Peter Sehr [de]
1992 Rising to the Bait Funke Vadim Glowna
Landschaft mit Dornen Ric Bernd Böhlich TV film
1995 Brother of Sleep Martin Joseph Vilsmaier
1996 Life Is a Bluff Harry Butzbach Peter Zingler [de]
Samson and Delilah Prince Sidqa Nicolas Roeg TV film
1997 Code Red Johannes Stanek Carlo Rola [de] TV film
Comedian Harmonists Robert Biberti [de] Joseph Vilsmaier
Spiel um dein Leben Nick Friedemann Fromm [de] TV film
1999 Our Island in the South Pacific Dr. Helmut Kupert Thomas Bahmann
Gloomy Sunday Hans Wieck Rolf Schübel
The Einstein of Sex Adolf Brand Rosa von Praunheim
2001 Female 2 Seeks Happy End Gregor Reuther Edward Berger
Sass [de] Franz Sass Carlo Rola [de]
2002 Trenck [de] Friedrich von der Trenck Gernot Roll TV film
2005 Just an Ordinary Jew [de] Emanuel Goldfarb Oliver Hirschbiegel
2009 Der Tiger oder Was Frauen lieben! [de] Tiger Niki Stein [de] TV film
2010 Habermann Koslowski Juraj Herz
2012 The Child [de] Andreas Borchert Zsolt Bács [de]
2014 Rough Road Ahead [de] Ruby's Father Christian Frosch [de]
2015 CHIX – Back on Stage Roy Jan Ruzicka [de] TV film

Awards

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References

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  1. ^ "Familiengeschichte in Düsseldorf: Ben Beckers Oma betrieb ein Altstadt-Lokal". Westdeutsche Zeitung. 1 March 2017.
  2. ^ PattiSmith0 (13 April 2008). "Schiller & Ben Becker – Nacht". Archived from the original on 21 December 2021 – via YouTube.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  3. ^ "SCHILLER | the official website". Archived from the original on 16 June 2011. Retrieved 23 October 2010.
  4. ^ Byron, Lord. "Gedicht "Die Seele"". www.karo.b-hoffmann.de.
  5. ^ "Frage.de – dein Frageportal". www.satsangforum.de.
  6. ^ . 25 March 2009 https://web.archive.org/web/20090325011005/http://www.bayern.de/Anlage19170/PreistraegerdesBayerischenFilmpreises-Pierrot.pdf. Archived from the original (PDF) on 25 March 2009. {{cite web}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
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