Richard Sammel

Multilingual character actor Richard Sammel worked in theater for a decade before bringing his talents to the big screen. Though he is little-known in his native Germany, he has found success as a regular on French television, including a multi-season stint as Schwartz, a member of an elite team of international agents on "Interpol." Owing to his thick accent and fluency in his native language, Sammel has also become known for playing German characters in the American, Italian and French film industries. Cinema-du-look director Luc Besson chose him to portray a German gangster in the 1998 action film "Taxi." Post-grindhouse auteur Quentin Tarantino cast him as Sgt. Werner Rachtman, the ruthless interrogator turned Allied prisoner-of-war beaten to death in the opening scenes of the 2009 jingoist revenge fantasy "Inglourious Basterds."

And as Gettler, the one-eyed villain in 2006's "Casino Royale," he vibrated with cartoonish enthusiasm. Sammel has won many roles in period films set during World War II, including that of notorious Gestapo leader Heinrich Müller on the 2009 television mini-series "A French Village" and a background role as an S.S. Officer in "Life Is Beautiful," writer-director Roberto Begnini's heartbreaking tale of fascist Italy. The 2011 love-triangle thriller "The Berlin Project" paired him with the similarly ubiquitous Udo Kier.