- Along with Sean Connery, he is one of only two actors to appear in both films based on books by Cornelius Ryan: Le Jour le plus long (1962) and Un pont trop loin (1977).
- He played three World War II German Field Marshals: Albert Kesselring in La bataille pour Anzio (1968), Erwin Rommel in Le 5ème commando (1971), Gerd von Rundstedt in Un pont trop loin (1977) and Walter von Brauchitsch in Le souffle de la guerre (1983) and Les orages de la guerre (1988).
- German actor who typically played Nazi menacers in WWII films and starred as criminal mastermind Dr. Mabuse in a number of post-war films, appearing in over 100 pictures during his long career.
- He was exempted from military service during World War II.
- He appeared in two films which depicted the D-Day landings on June 6, 1944: Le Jour le plus long (1962) and La légion des damnés (1969). Curd Jürgens also appeared in both films.
- Grandfather of Laura Preiss.
- Born at 3:45am-CET
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