Eric Braeden
Actor
Birth Name: Hans Jörg Gudegast
Birth Date: April 3, 1941
Age: 84 years old
Birth Place: Bredenbek, Germany
Children: Christian Gudegast
An aloof, craggy-faced leading man best known as business wizard Victor Newman on the CBS daytime drama "The Young and the Restless," Eric Braeden has parlayed a ruddy complexion, stiff European demeanor and German accent into a long-running TV career in America. Born in Germany during World War II, he was the son of the mayor of Bredenback, a small town near the port city of Kiel. After World War II, his father, who had been a Nazi party member, was imprisoned by the British for a year (although there is no evidence he participated in any atrocities).
When his father died in 1953, his mother turned to factory worker to support her four sons. At age 19, Braeden, then known by his birth name of Hans Gudegast, moved to the USA and resided with a cousin in Houston, where he found work dissecting cadavers for medical research. After a short period at Montana State University on a track and field scholarship, he moved to Los Angeles to study at Santa Monica City College.
After landing a bit part in "Operation Eichmann" (1961), he decided to become an actor. For much of the 1960s, Braeden/Gudegast was useful in Hollywood playing Germans in movies and TV programs set during World War II; he made numerous guest appearances on "Combat" and from 1966-1968 played Captain Dietrich, the adversary to "The Rat Patrol" (ABC). As the decade came to a close and realizing he was more or less typecast, the actor changed his name to Eric Braeden and attempted to reposition himself in Hollywood. He landed the lead in the feature "Colossus: The Forbin Project" (1970), a well-made thriller about a world where computers run amok. But screen stardom did not follow.
Finding himself playing supporting roles in such fare as "Herbie Goes to Monaco" (1977), Braeden turned to the small screen, making several unsuccessful pilots and series guest appearances (usually as suave or unctuous villains). He was perhaps most memorable as a critic who verbally tears everything to shreds--even the WJM News--in a 1977 episode of "The Mary Tyler Moore Show." In 1980, he accepted what was originally a three-month stint on the CBS soap "The Young and the Restless" in the role of ruthless businessman Victor Newman. Braeden, however, clicked with both the audience and the creative powers, and has been one of the series leading men for close to two decades, earning five Daytime Emmy nominations for the role.
With steady employment and a certain clout, he has accepted occasional roles in TV-movies and in features. In 1990, Braeden was well-cast as Dimitri Stanislopolous in "Jackie Collins' 'Lucky/Chances'" (CBS, 1990) and more recently, embodied John Jacob Astor in James Cameron's Oscar-winning blockbuster "Titanic" (1997).
Credits
Den of ThievesStream
Celebrity PageStream
The Rich Eisen Show
The Queen Latifah Show
CBS This Morning
The Marilyn Denis Show
The Talk
The Man Who Came BackStream
The Man Who Came BackStream
etalk
Between the Lines With Barry Kibrick
SOAPnet Selects: The Best of '06
How I Met Your MotherStream
Entertainment Tonight Canada
Tavis Smiley
Hope & Faith
The German Americans
Meet the Deedles
The NannyStream
Diagnosis MurderStream
A Perry Mason Mystery: The Case of the Wicked Wives
La Ambulancia de la Muerte
The Ambulance
The Bold and the BeautifulStream
AirwolfStream
Entertainment Tonight
The Aliens Are Coming
The Power Within
Happily Ever After
CHiPsStream
How the West Was WonStream
Code Name: Diamond Head
Herbie Goes to Monte CarloStream
Wonder WomanStream
Charlie's AngelsStream
Bronk
Death Scream
The New, Original Wonder Woman
Kolchak: The Night StalkerStream
Suspenso Terminal
The Ultimate Thrill
The Ultimate Chase
KojakStream
The Young and the RestlessStream
The Six Million Dollar ManStream
The Six Million Dollar ManStream
Barnaby JonesStream
The Six Million Dollar Man: Wine, Women and War
Lady Ice
Death Race
Triangle
Assignment: Vienna
The Rookies
The Judge and Jake Wyler
Cannon
Escape From the Planet of the ApesStream
The Mary Tyler Moore ShowStream
McCloudStream
Máscara de la Reina de Shaba
Bearcats
Marcus Welby, M.D.Stream
Quest for the Mask of Sheba
100 RiflesStream
The Mask of Sheba
Honeymoon With a Stranger
Colossus: The Forbin Project
Quest
Cerveau d'acier
Le masque de Sheba
Dayton's Devils
MannixStream
JerichoStream
Rat Patrol
Wackiest Ship in the Army
The Man from U.N.C.L.E.Stream
12 O'Clock High
Combat!
GunsmokeStream
Photos
News aboutEric Braeden
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‘The Young and the Restless’ Turns 50: Its 10 Longest-Serving Stars
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‘Young & Restless’ Star Eric Braeden Calls Out Eva Longoria’s ‘Derogatory’ Soap Comments
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As ‘Y&R’ Prepares to Turn 50, Eric Braeden Says Soaps Are Still Good as Gold
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Melody Thomas Scott Waxes Nostalgic for ‘Y&R’s Victor-Nikki Episodes
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Eric Braeden Reflects on 40 Years as Victor Newman on ‘Young & the Restless’
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The Best and Worst in Soaps 2015
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