Müller-Stahl, Armin

(1930- )

   Actor. Müller-Stahl is a film actor with an international reputation, but he began studies in the former German Democratic Republic in music and painting. In 1952 he decided to become an actor, and after brief studies for his new profession, he debuted that year with the Berliner Ensemble at the Theater am Schiffbauerdamm. The following year he became a member of the Volksbühne company and by the early 1960s his was a well-known face on East German television and in East German films. In 1976 the GDR banned him from all performance work because he had signed a petition protesting the treatment of singer Wolf Biermann, and for three years he struggled to survive. He escaped the GDR in 1979 and has since established himself both in German films and in Hollywood.