Otto Sander
Otto Sander (German: [ˈɔtoː ˈzandɐ]; June 30, 1941 – September 12, 2013) was a German film, theater, and voice actor.
Sander grew up in Kassel, where he graduated in 1961 from the Friedrichgymnasium. After leaving school he spent his military service in 1961/62 with the Bundesmarine and left as reserve fenrik. Sander then studied theatre science, history of art and philosophy. In 1965 he made his acting debut at the Düsseldorfer chamber plays. After his first film work in the same year he abandoned his studies in 1967, and went to Munich to become a full-time actor.
His career is closely connected with the Schaubühne theatre in Berlin under the direction of Peter Stein. From 1980 onwards Sander appeared on several of Berlin's theatre stages, among others at the Schillertheater in 1981, at the Freie Volksbühne in 1985 and in 1989 at the Komödie am Kurfürstendamm. More recently he starred in Hauptmann von Köpenick at the Schauspielhaus Bochum (2004).
In 1990, he was a member of the Jury at the 40th Berlin International Film Festival.
Among his best-known film roles are the angel Cassiel in Wings of Desire and its sequel Faraway, So Close! by Wim Wenders, and a shell-shocked U-boat commander, Kapitänleutnant Philipp Thomsen, in Wolfgang Petersen's Das Boot. Sander also appeared in The Tin Drum (1979) as a trumpeter and in Comedian Harmonists, a biopic about the musical group of the same name. He also played a professor in the movie The Promise about the division of Berlin by the wall. In 1999 he played a role in Rosa von Praunheim's movie The Einstein of Sex.
| Known For | Acting |
|---|---|
| Most Rating | 0.4708 |
| Birthday | 1941-06-30 |
| Place of Birth | Hanover, Germany |
| Also Known As |
1987
Wings of Desire
7.762/1487
Two angels, Damiel and Cassiel, glide through the streets of Berlin, observing the bustling population, providing invisible rays of hope to the distre...
Watch Now
Wings of Desire
1979
The Tin Drum
6.96/531
In 1924, Oskar Matzerath is born in the Free City of Danzig. At age three, he falls down a flight of stairs and stops growing. In 1939, World War II b...
Watch Now
The Tin Drum
1983
A Love in Germany
5.5/8
In May of 1983, a man turns 49 and, with his 17-year old son, journeys to the village in Baden that he left 40 years before. He wants to discover what...
Watch Now
A Love in Germany
1997
Conversation with the Beast
10/1
An American historian (Mr Webster) comes to Berlin to visit an old man who claims to be the real Adolf Hitler and to be 103 years old. The Hitler who...
Watch Now
Conversation with the Beast
1993
The Film Narrator
9/1
Germany in the Thirties. A movie teller realizes that his profession is not longer needed. Silent movies are not produced any longer. Telling stories...
Watch Now
The Film Narrator
1993
Faraway, So Close!
6.932/177
A group of angels look longingly upon the life of humans. Berlin now is a very different place: unified in name but overrun with crime, corruption, an...
Watch Now
Faraway, So Close!
2003
Werner - Gekotzt wird später!
5.938/80
Werner, Andi and Eckat play dice to determine the next king of the trio. When Werner is crowned king, he decides for all of them to skip work and star...
Watch Now
Werner - Gekotzt wird später!
2007
The Heart Is a Dark Forest
5.5/13
A woman's life is destroyed when she discovers that her husband has another family.
Watch Now
The Heart Is a Dark Forest
2001
Sass
5.423/13
Brothers Franz and Erich Sass grew up poor. Together with his brother Franz, Erich specializes in cracking safes. Erich spends the money with his hand...
Watch Now
Sass
1990
Werner and the Wizard of Booze
6.628/191
Comic artist Brösel trades a magic pen that helps him come up with funny stories for the promise to fulfill one of Rumpelstiltskin's wishes. The resul...
Watch Now
Werner and the Wizard of Booze
1982
Remembrance: Film for Curt Bois
4/2
Voted for in Sight & Sound's 2022 Greatest Films of All Time poll
Watch Now
Remembrance: Film for Curt Bois
2002
Happy Too
7/1
A raw, honest look at the relationship between filmmakers, actors, and the characters they create together. Sometimes comical, sometimes infuriating,...
Watch Now
Happy Too
1972
The Ignoramus and the Madman
0/0
Watch Now
The Ignoramus and the Madman
2007
Little King Macius
4/1
The sudden death of his father will take Macius the enormous responsibility that comes with being king, despite having only nine years. After being in...
Watch Now
Little King Macius
1970
No Pawing, Darling
7.667/3
A man is thrown out by his girlfriend and moves in with a friend who is part of a group of terrorists plotting an assault on a department store.
Watch Now
No Pawing, Darling
1994
Movie Days
6.091/11
This Icelandic tale, loosely based on the real-life experiences of director Fridrik Fridriksson tells the saga of a boyhood spent in Iceland in the 19...
Watch Now
Movie Days
1999
Girls under investigation
7/1
Two young women are hitchhiking when they get picked up by a man who proceeds to sexually assault them. He disappears after that. The suspicion that t...
Watch Now
Girls under investigation
1986
Rosa Luxemburg
6.589/56
Polish socialist and Marxist Rosa Luxemburg works tirelessly in the service of revolution in early 20th century Poland and Germany. While Luxemburg ca...
Watch Now
Rosa Luxemburg
2012
Fly Away
5.7/5
Proud Annegret Simon is new to the retirement home. She doesn't particularly like the change of scenery. And rightly so, says Mr. Tiedgen, who would a...
Watch Now
Fly Away
1995
Bauernschach
5.5/2
Franz Hofnagel has been a prisoner in a psychiatric institution for 22 years, where he was sent by his own lawyer. The fact that he has become fat dur...
Watch Now
Bauernschach
2012
Die Schuld der Erben
2/1
Watch Now
Die Schuld der Erben
2013
Roland Klick: The Heart Is a Hungry Hunter
6.4/5
The gritty, kinetic, visionary cinema of Roland Klick is ripe for rediscovery. After shooting with international stars, such as Mario Adorf and Dennis...
Watch Now
Roland Klick: The Heart Is a Hungry Hunter
1989
The Break
4.6/5
A story about massive robbery from the safe of German railways set in 1946.
Watch Now
The Break
1988
The Case of Mr. Spalt
9/4
The filmmaker René Perraudin made five comedic short films with Otto Sander in the leading role and knits them into a feature film.
Watch Now
The Case of Mr. Spalt
1986
Eine Reise wert… Der Dichter Günter Kunert (be)sucht Berlin
0/0
Follows the writer Günter Kunert on his return to West Berlin after his emigration from the GDR.
Watch Now
Eine Reise wert… Der Dichter Günter Kunert (be)sucht Berlin
2002
Atlantic Affairs
8/1
A cinematic journey into the music of Udo Lindenberg.
Watch Now
Atlantic Affairs
1981
Das Boot
8.082/2490
A German submarine hunts allied ships during the Second World War, but it soon becomes the hunted. The crew tries to survive below the surface, while...
Watch Now
Das Boot
2021
Das Boot Revisited: An Underwater Success Story
7.2/6
In 1981, a film about the misadventures of a German U-boat crew in 1941 becomes a worldwide hit almost four decades after the end of the World War II....
Watch Now
Das Boot Revisited: An Underwater Success Story
1986
Boundaries of Time - Caspar David Friedrich
7.167/6
A study of German 19th Century Romantic art through the writings and paintings of Carl David Friedrich and his fellow artist, Carl Gustav Carus.
Watch Now
Boundaries of Time - Caspar David Friedrich
2000
The Einstein of Sex: Life and Work of Dr. M. Hirschfeld
5.412/17
The life story of Dr. Magnus Hirschfeld, a German Jew, who as a physician established the field of sexology, and fought militantly against German anti...
Watch Now
The Einstein of Sex: Life and Work of Dr. M. Hirschfeld
1974
One or the Other of Us
4.727/11
Psychological thriller that focuses on the intense conflict between a university professor and a blackmailer.
Watch Now
One or the Other of Us
1996
The Killer Condom
5.207/92
In New York City, detective Luigi Mackeroni investigates a string of mysterious penile mutilations at the Hotel Quickie. After Mackeroni attempts to h...
Watch Now
The Killer Condom
2000
Marlene
5.684/19
In this biopic, Marlene Dietrich leaves Berlin for Hollywood, where she establishes herself as an international star through various film roles.
Watch Now
Marlene
1995
Matulla und Busch
7/1
Watch Now
Matulla und Busch
1995
Nikolaikirche
4.5/4
The story of a Leipzig family from 1987 to the Monday demonstrations in 1989. After the death of her father, a high-ranking officer in the People's Po...
Watch Now
Nikolaikirche
1980
Palermo or Wolfsburg
5.679/14
An impoverished young man from Sicily travels to Wolfsburg, West Germany to find work. He takes a job in the Volkswagen factory after he travels throu...
Watch Now
Palermo or Wolfsburg
1976
Four Against the Bank
6.333/3
One evening, the once successful architect Helmut is tired of the recession giving no jobs, he gets the idea of robbing a bank. He recruits members of...
Watch Now
Four Against the Bank
1995
The Promise
6.556/18
East-Berlin, 1961, shortly after the erection of the Wall. Konrad, Sophie and three of their friends plan a daring escape to Western Germany. The atte...
Watch Now
The Promise
2001
100 Pro
5/3
Two young lads in Munich, Germany manage to score dates with drop-dead gorgeous underwear models. Now they must find a way to get past the formidable...
Watch Now
100 Pro
1977
Heinrich Zille
7/1
Watch Now
Heinrich Zille
1981
Der Mann im Pyjama
6.667/3
A man just wants to buy some cigarettes - but when he hurries out onto the street in his pyjamas to buy a pack from the vending machine, a chain of co...
Watch Now
Der Mann im Pyjama
1976
The Marquise of O
6.734/79
A German Marquise has to deal with a pregnancy she cannot explain and an infatuated Russian Count.
Watch Now
The Marquise of O
1980
Der Mond scheint auf Kylenamoe
9/1
Watch Now
Der Mond scheint auf Kylenamoe
1993
Inge, April und Mai
4.667/3
While everything is in ruins in Berlin in the spring of 1945, the British bombers are flying overhead and the Red Army is not far away, 15-year-old Ka...
Watch Now
Inge, April und Mai
1981
Who's Going Crazy Here, Doctor?
8.667/3
Patient No. 7, a man who has been wrongly committed to a psychiatric hospital for years, escapes and embarks on a chaotic journey through the outside...
Watch Now
Who's Going Crazy Here, Doctor?
1979
Phantom
0/0
Open your eyes: Otto Sander is one actor beside 4999 other main actors: 5,000 individuals searching for their real identity, 10,000 eyes that carefull...
Watch Now
Phantom
1981
Strike Back
5.643/7
Dave knows what it is to suffer. Especially when he takes the rap for a gang of motorbike thieves and ends up in jail. All for the love of Corinna, hi...
Watch Now
Strike Back
1976
Summer Guests
7.25/4
A group of people from the wealthy middle class in engage in quasi intellectual quarrels and discussions trying to find some meaning in their comforta...
Watch Now
Summer Guests
1995
Das Loch
9/1
A man dressed city-like walks across a wood and fields when he suddenly finds a perfectly circle-shaped black hole in the ground. The man begins to in...
Watch Now
Das Loch
1999
Männer sind wie Schokolade
7/2
Linda Lano loves her job in an advertising agency and she also loves the men. But most men think of them as machos, as does charming big business Mike...
Watch Now
Männer sind wie Schokolade
1978
Die Ängste des Dr. Schenk
10/1
Watch Now
Die Ängste des Dr. Schenk
1981
Im Schlaraffenland. Ein Roman unter feinen Leuten
0/0
Watch Now
Im Schlaraffenland. Ein Roman unter feinen Leuten
1964
Ludwig
6/4
A film about a young man (Otto Sander) in a poor Bavarian village who plays the role of the village idiot.
Watch Now
Ludwig
1999
E-m@il an Gott
8/1
Watch Now
E-m@il an Gott
1979
Trilogie des Wiedersehens
7/1
Watch Now
Trilogie des Wiedersehens
1998
Stan Becker - Auf eigene Faust
8/1
Watch Now
Stan Becker - Auf eigene Faust
1974
Die Bakchen
10/1
Austrian flmed staged production of Euripedes' The Bacchae, portraying a conflict between the deity Dionysus, son of Zeus, and his cousin Pentheus, ru...
Watch Now
Die Bakchen
1971
Die Mutter
10/1
Watch Now
Die Mutter
1979
Plastikfieber
0/0
Romy Haag portrays Clarissa Vornfeist who dreams of fame, while Otto Sander in his role as Wilfried plans to transform her into a plastic doll using a...
Watch Now
Plastikfieber
1989
Wie du mir..
10/1
Watch Now
Wie du mir..
1995
Lumière & Company
6.331/71
40 international directors were asked to make a short film using the original Cinematographe invented by the Lumière Brothers, working under condition...
Watch Now
Lumière & Company
1975
Lehmanns Erzählungen
8/1
Watch Now
Lehmanns Erzählungen
1986
Wahnfried
5.2/5
Lake Lucerne in 1868: a passionate and forbidden affair flares up between the gifted composer Richard Wagner and the much younger Cosima von Bülow - t...
Watch Now
Wahnfried
1994
The White Horse Inn in St. Wolfgang
8.5/2
Watch Now
The White Horse Inn in St. Wolfgang
1993
Schlusschor
0/0
Watch Now
Schlusschor
2002
Tödliches Vertrauen
6.5/2
Watch Now
Tödliches Vertrauen
2003
Wings of Desire: The Angels Among Us
8.3/2
This is a documentary about the making of "Wings of Desire" (1987). The director, writer, actors, composer and other contributors speak at length and...
Watch Now
Wings of Desire: The Angels Among Us
2008
Krabat
5.861/223
A 14-year-old orphan named Krabat flees the horrors of the 30 Years War by becoming an apprentice to an ominous master of a mysterious mill. Krabat is...
Watch Now
Krabat
1997
Liebe Lügen
7/1
The security guard at a pawn shop in a small port town, the seasick scion of a family of sailors, falls in love with the mistress of one of his best c...
Watch Now
Liebe Lügen
1973
Prinz Friedrich von Homburg
7/1
Watch Now
Prinz Friedrich von Homburg
1981
Gesucht wird... Drei Geschichten um nicht ganz ehrenwerte Herren
0/0
Watch Now
Gesucht wird... Drei Geschichten um nicht ganz ehrenwerte Herren
2003
The Danube
6.333/3
As the ship Donau makes its final journey from Vienna to the Black Sea, a young man sworn to fulfill a dying woman's wish lures a reluctant captain in...
Watch Now
The Danube
1984
Der Mord mit der Schere
9/1
Watch Now
Der Mord mit der Schere
1980
Die Ursache
0/0
Watch Now
Die Ursache
1970
Sonntags am Meer
0/0
Watch Now
Sonntags am Meer
1999
Der Kuß des Vergessens
9/1
Watch Now
Der Kuß des Vergessens
2003
Aus Liebe zu Deutschland - Eine Spendenaffäre
8/1
Watch Now
Aus Liebe zu Deutschland - Eine Spendenaffäre
1998
Am I Beautiful?
6.81/21
Between Munich and Seville, the destinies of sixteen characters intertwine and intersect, missing each other or colliding head-on. They are all, witho...
Watch Now
Am I Beautiful?
1975
Berlin 10. 11. 74 - 28. 1. 75: Exercises in 9 Pieces
0/0
A series of 9 performance art pieces and surrealist shorts created and primarily performed by Rebecca Horn.
Watch Now
Berlin 10. 11. 74 - 28. 1. 75: Exercises in 9 Pieces
1990
Vorwärts
8/1
Watch Now
Vorwärts
1986
Miko: From the Gutter to the Stars
6.667/3
Together with her bisexual friend and manager Stefan, singer Miko is working on a great career that has so far failed to materialize.
Watch Now
Miko: From the Gutter to the Stars
1974
Ermittlungen gegen Unbekannt
10/1
Watch Now
Ermittlungen gegen Unbekannt
2010
Life Is Too Long
5/4
No crisis is as disastrous, overwhelming and unjust as that of Alfi Seliger. The Jewish filmmaker, hypochondriac and family man is up to his neck in p...
Watch Now
Life Is Too Long
1975
Meine Sorgen möcht' ich haben
8/1
Watch Now
Meine Sorgen möcht' ich haben
1970
Sonnabend, der 1.
0/0
Watch Now
Sonnabend, der 1.
2025
About Narration
8/1
Interdisciplinary studies put into practice is a plane on which HaF's interests and mine coincide. Ideas of fictional research projects in films emerg...
Watch Now
About Narration
2004
Kaluoka'hina: The Enchanted Reef
8/1
The vastness of our planets oceans guards unimaginable secrets. One of its most precious is Kaluokahina, the enchanted reef whose magic protects it ag...
Watch Now
Kaluoka'hina: The Enchanted Reef
1997
The Harmonists
6.709/67
Comedian Harmonists tells the story of a famous, German male sextet, five vocals and piano, the "Comedian Harmonists", from the day they meet first in...
Watch Now
The Harmonists
1993
The Olympic Summer
3/3
In 1936 Nazi Germany, a young, innocent apprentice, full of Olympic fever, leaves his rural village to see the ceremonies in Berlin. Upon arriving in...
Watch Now
The Olympic Summer
1990
Time of Vengeance
7/1
Orhan, who is ten years old, comes to Vienna from a small Village in Anatolia. Armed with his grandfather's revolver, he intends to avenge his father,...
Watch Now
Time of Vengeance
1992
Bescheiß kein Kind!
0/0
A cautionary tale about what happens if you scam a kid.
Watch Now
Bescheiß kein Kind!
1994
Three Sisters
4/2
A screen adaptation of Anton Chekhov's play about three sisters yearning for a better life.
Watch Now
Three Sisters
1992
Lyrische Suite. Das untergehende Vaterland
10/1
An experimental documentary film about Friedrich Hölderlin. In the middle of the film, there is a short excerpt from a Nazi propaganda film: O. E. Has...
Watch Now
Lyrische Suite. Das untergehende Vaterland
1987
Close Up
0/0
Secret agents from the East and the West scheme to obtain an ingenious invention.
Watch Now
Close Up
1994
Hölderlin-Comics
7/1
Second part of Hölderlin-trilogy with Udo Samel and Otto Sander in cast.
Watch Now
Hölderlin-Comics
1986
Drei Schwestern
8/1
Watch Now
Drei Schwestern
1999
Majestät brauchen Sonne
8/1
A documentary about Germany's last emperor Kaiser Wilhelm II.
Watch Now