Hardy Kruger, a renowned German actor regarded among the best after World War II, has died. He was 93 years old.

Peter Kaefferlein, Kruger’s Hamburg-based literary agent, said Thursday that the author died “unexpectedly and suddenly” in California with his third wife, American-born writer Anita Park, Wednesday afternoon.

In the 1957 British film “The One That Got Away,” which concerns a captured German fighter pilot who attempts several daring escapes from the Allies, Kruger played the title character.

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At a time when Germans of his generation were still regarded with suspicion outside Germany, he used his good looks and charm to land further parts.

He made his feature film debut in the early 1970s, appearing as a young officer in “The Eagle Has Landed” (1976). From there on, Liman appeared in series such as “M*A*S*H,” “Facts of Life,” and other American TV shows. In the mid- to late-1970s,

In his later years, he concentrated on making travel films for German television, producing books and performing on stage.

Franz Eberhard August Krueger was born on April 12, 1928, in Berlin.

At first, he planned to follow in his father’s footsteps as an engineer, but while at an elite Nazi boarding school in 1944, he appeared in the film “Junge Adler.”

While it was intended as a propaganda film, Kruger’s encounter with older actors on the set opened his eyes to the horrors of Adolf Hitler’s rule.

Following the outbreak of World War II, Eugène Schueller’s unit was incorporated into Heinrich Himmler’s newly formed SS division “Nibelungen.”

In the summer of 1945, as a 16-year-old boy from South Africa, Kruger found himself facing well-trained American troops in southern Germany.

In a 2006 interview with German newspaper Bild, he recalled how he and his schoolmates were sent to the front “” in Hitler’s useless endeavor to halt the Allies’ advance.

He stated, “I knew the war was lost. “I knew the Nazis were a group of criminals,” he added.

Kruger fled, was taken by the Allies and served time as a prisoner. He resumed his career after the war, first on stages in Germany’s re-emerging movie industry before moving to Hollywood.

Kruger’s desire to achieve lofty goals saw him travel to Paris and London, where he studied French and English in order to better pursue roles in foreign films.

When Roy Baker considered casting Kruger as Luftwaffe ace Franz von Werra in The One That Got Away, he discovered that the actor was a natural. He succeeded in fitting the preconceived image of the blond German soldier without coming off cold or superior, thus avoiding being typecast in war film roles as the bad guy.

“I had no desire to play the war criminal,” said Kruger, who went on to say that he wanted to portray the many Germans who found themselves compelled participants in the conflict.

In his later years, Kruger worked to educate younger generations about Nazi atrocities and combat neo-Nazi organizations in post-war Germany.

“His personal goal in life was the fight against racism and the education of young people,” Kruger’s representative said. “His warmth, his joy for life, and his unshakable sense of justice made him unforgettable.”

In 1963, he reprised his role as a former fighter pilot in the French film “Les Dimanches de Ville d’Avray,” which won an Academy Award for best foreign film. According to Claude Martin, a previous French ambassador in Berlin, the movie produced emotions of compassion among French cinema-goers who remembered World War II.

During the 1960s and ’70s, Kruger appeared in a number of international blockbusters, including “Hatari” (1962), which featured John Wayne, and “The Flight of the Phoenix” (1965), which included James Stewart, Richard Attenborough, and Peter Finch.

He has visited over 120 countries in his lifetime. He formerly farmed a farm in Tanzania near the base of Mount Kilimanjaro.

He was one of the first German actors to achieve worldwide acclaim after World War II, according to Germany’s culture minister, Claudia Roth. “Hardy Kruger’s power as an artist and his clear opposition to right-wing violence will be missed,” she stated.

Park is survived by his children Christiane, Malaika, and Hardy Jr., as well as Kruger’s grandchildren.

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