Til Schweiger

Tilman Valentin 'Til' Schweiger was born on 19 December 1963 in Freiburg, West Germany. His parents were teachers. He finished school with the grade '1,6' (in Germany: '1' - excellent, '5' - bad). He desired to follow in his parents' footsteps, studied German language and literature and even entered the faculty of Germanic studies.

But most of teachers were jobless at that time in Germany so Til chucked his studies and plunged into studying of medicine but this attempt was not a success. Eventually he went to army and served in Netherlands in air forces.

His girlfriend, studying in drama school, convinced him he had an outstanding actor's talent, and so encouraged him to enter the drama school in Cologne under the name ' Der Keller '. In 3,5 years he successfully graduated.

He got his first earnings for backup of pornofilms to German language.
In 1989 Til was invited to work in the theatre ' Kontra-Krais ' in Bonn. On the screen Til appeared in 1990 in a popular at that time German serial ' Lindenstrasse'. He debuted as a film actor in the comedy "Risky races", for which Til received the award 'the Best young actor' 93 on Max Ophuls Festival.

Handsome German actor Til Schweiger was voted one of the Most Erotic Male Actors in a 2000 poll in Germany's Cinema magazine. After his film debut in the comedy Manta,_Manta, he won an award for Best Young Actor at the 1993 Max Ophüls Festival. He has since built up acting credits in dozens of German and international movies, in addition to work as a writer, director, and producer. On the small screen, he has appeared on some of Germany's most popular TV series and appeared as himself on Pop 2000. After his first starring role in Maybe...Maybe Not in 1994, he stuck with comedies until he found a place for himself in action-thrillers and dramas. He combined genres for the road movie Knockin' on Heaven's Door in 1997; he co-authored the screenplay and won an award from the Moscow Film Festival for his lead performance. The next year he stayed behind the scenes to direct Der Eisbär (The Polar Bear).

Returning to acting, he quickly gained international appeal with Bandyta and eventually ended up in Hollywood for small roles in The_Replacement_Killers, Judas_Kiss, and SLC Punk. He went on to star in the comedy Magicians, the action-thriller Driven, and What to Do in Case of Fire. In 2003, he stuck with Hollywood for U-Boat, Sea Devils, and Lara Croft and the Cradle of Life: Tomb Raider 2.
Private life

On June, 19th, 1995 Til Schweiger married the former model and actress, American Dane Karlsen and lived with 10 happy years. Til moved to Hollywood due to his wife. She acted in film together with him in "Reach heavens" and "Barefoot on a roadway". In due course their family was an ideal in Germany. They have four children: son Valentine (1995) and three daughters - Luna (1997), Lille-Camilla (1998) and Emma (2002).
The family lived in the USA till 2004.

On November, 21st, 2005 spouses declared about divorce. The reason was not died away feelings, but because they had no time for each other. The family tried to return to Germany (to Hamburg), but this action did not prevent them from split.

Now they are officially divorced, but they are still friends and try to bring up children together.
At the moment Til has a new beloved - Olga Ponomarenko (Russian model).

Interesting facts

Til is a left-handed person.

During the shooting his film Keinohrhasen (2007) Til managed to get roles for all his four children and became friends with Vladimir Klichko.

Filmography

1991 Manta, Manta (Bertie )
1994 Maybe, Maybe Not (Axel Feldheim)
1995 Männerpension (Steinbock)
1997 Knockin' On Heaven's Door (Martin Brest)
1997 Bandyta (Bastard) Brute Best Actor - Polish Film Festival
1998 Judas Kiss (Ruben Rubenbauer)
1998 SLC Punk! (Mark)
1998 The Replacement Killers (Ryker)
1999 Der große Bagarozy (Stanislaus Nagy)
2000 Magicians (Max)
2001 Driven (Beau Brandenburg)
2001 Investigating Sex (Monty)
2001 Was tun, wenn's brennt? (Tim)
2002 Joe and Max (Max Schmeling)
2003 Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life (Sean)
2004 King Arthur Cynric
2004 In Enemy Hands (Captain Jonas Herdt)
2004 (T)Raumschiff Surprise - Periode 1 (Rock Fertig Aus)
2005 Deuce Bigalow: European Gigolo (Heinz Hummer)
2005 Barfuss (Nick Keller)
2006 One Way (Eddie Schneider)
2006 Wo ist Fred? (Fred)
2007 Already Dead (The Man)
2007 Body Armour (John Ridley )
2007 Keinohrhasen (Ludo Decker)
2008 The Red Baron (Werner Voss)
2008 Phantomschmerz (Marc)
2008 Far Cry (Jack Carver)
2008 1 1/2 Ritter - Auf der Suche nach der hinreißenden Herzelinde (Ritter Lanze)
2009 Inglourious Basterds Sgt. Hugo Stiglitz Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture
2009 Männerherzen (Jerome Ades)
2009 Zweiohrküken (Keinohrhasen 2) Ludo Decker