Gert Günther Hoffmann

Gert Günther Hoffmann was born in Berlin-Lankwitz on February 21, 1929. After completing a commercial apprenticeship, he became interested in acting. He appeared in several stage plays before he started working as radio announcer for Berliner Rundfunk and as voice actor. One of his first voice works was dubbing Ben Johnson in Rio Grande (1950). Afterwards he spoke Rock Hudson, Paul Newman, Lex Barker, Michel Piccoli and Sean Connery in most of their movies. In some movies he was also the German voice of Clint Eastwood, Richard Harris, Kirk Douglas and Cary Grant. In addition to that he dubbed leading actors in many successful TV-Series, like William Shatner in Star Trek (1966), Patrick Macnee in The Avengers (1961) and Robert Culp in I Spy (1965). Hoffmann also worked as dialogue writer, dubbing director and talent scout (he discovered Thomas Danneberg in 1965). On screen he played minor as well as major roles and performed on stage in Berlin, Hamburg and Munich. In the 1970s he starred as Arnold Matofski in Sonderdezernat K1 (1972). One of the most well-known German dubbing voices, the "King of Dubbing", as he was often called, died of cancer on November 17, 1997 in Feldafing near Lake Starnberg, Bavaria.