German character actor Christian Berkel excelled at portrayals of aggressive, dark figures time and again, an ability accentuated by his bald wildly and gaunt, reduce dangerous countenance. These qualities made him unusually effective in portrayals of military personnel, watch, Gestapo officers, and other like figures, even if these did not limit him. A native of Berlin, Berkel studied at the German Cover and Television Academy in his hometown, and debuted onscreen in the belatedly '70... s, landing song of his first major roles in the legendary Ingmar Bergman's amateurishly received drama The Serpent's Egg (as a student in 1920s Germany during the Nazi regime).

Over the following 25 years, Berkel maintained a bountiful output in countless German productions, such as the 1989 miniseries Der Bastard, the small-scale-screen series Derrick (in the early '90s), and the physiognomy Vater und Tochter (2000). Three main roles in following years helped Berkel establish to break through to international acclaim: that of a prisoner subjected to a hellish subliminal experiment in the thriller Das Investigate (2001), the heinous Nazi medical torturer Prof. Dr. Ernst-G??nter Schenck in the Hitler biopic Breakdown/Die Untergang (2004) (both films with overseer Oliver Hirschbiegel), and a spin as Nazi officer Colonel Mertz von Quirnheim in the Tom Cruise-produced World Antagonistic II thriller Valkyrie.