Manfred Krug (German: [manˌfʁeːt kʁuːk]; 8 February 1937 – 21 October 2016) was a German actor, singer and author.
Life and work
Born in Duisburg, Krug moved to East Germany at the age of 13, and worked at a steel plant before beginning his acting career on the stage and, ultimately, in film. By the end of the 1950s, he had several film roles, and in 1960 he appeared in Frank Beyer's successful war movie Fünf Patronenhülsen (Five Cartridges). Many more film roles followed, with Krug often cast as a socialist hero. Krug also achieved notability as a popular jazz singer, often in collaboration with composer Günther Fischer.
In 1976, the East German government (GDR) forbade Krug to work as an actor and singer because he participated in protests against the expulsion and stripping of GDR citizenship of singer and dissident Wolf Biermann. On 20 April 1977, he requested to leave the GDR, and as soon as he got the approval, he left the GDR and moved to Schöneberg in West Berlin. After moving back to West Germany he very soon got new roles as an actor but very rarely sang in public for a long time. In 1978, Krug appeared as one of the male leads of the action-drama television series Auf Achse, and would continue to appear on the series until 1995, one year before the show ended its long run. Krug's various television roles even included a two-year stint on the children's program Sesamstraße, the German version of the American children's program Sesame Street. In the 1980s and 1990s, he also starred as Hauptkommissar Paul Stoever in the Tatort series of TV crime movies, which would eventually run for forty instalments in total. He died on 21 October 2016 in Berlin and was buried at the Stahnsdorf South-Western Cemetery.
Television
1968: Ways across the Country (TV miniseries)
1973: Stülpner-Legende (TV miniseries)
1978: Paul kommt zurück
1979: Phantasten
1980–1993: Auf Achse (TV series, 73 episodes)
1980: Ein Mann fürs Leben
1981: Flächenbrand
1981–1983: Das Traumschiff (TV series, 2 episodes)
1982: Die Fischer von Moorhövd (TV series, 14 episodes)
1982–1988: Die Krimistunde (TV series, 2 episodes)
1982: Väter (anthology film)
1982–1984: Sesamstraße (TV series, 292 episodes)
1983: Rendezvous der Damen (anthology film)
1983: Wer raucht die Letzte?
1983: Konsul Möllers Erben (TV miniseries)
1983: Jakob und Adele (TV series, 1 episode)
1983: Geschichten aus der Heimat (TV series, 1 episode)
1984: Joseph Süß Oppenheimer
1984–2001: Tatort (TV series, 41 episodes)
1984: Krumme Touren (anthology film)
1985: Ein Heim für Tiere: Caesar (TV series episode)
1986–1998: Liebling Kreuzberg (TV series, 58 episodes)
1986–1987: Detektivbüro Roth (TV series, 34 episodes)
1994–1995: Wir sind auch nur ein Volk (TV miniseries)
Film about Manfred Krug
1998: Abgehauen (TV film), with Peter Lohmeyer as Manfred Krug
Discography
1962: Auf der Sonnenseite
1964: Jazz und Lyrik
1965: Manfred Krug und die Modern Jazz Big Band
1966: Lyrik - Jazz - Prosa (with Eberhard Esche, Annekathrin Bürger and others, in different editions and under different names, some of them in censored versions without Manfred Krug)
1969: Onkel Toms Hütte (audiobook, Krug singing to spirituals)
1970: Fredmanns Episteln an diese und jene aber hauptsächlich an Ulla Winblad (after Carl Michael Bellman)
1971: Das war nur ein Moment
1973: Ein Hauch von Frühling
1974: Greens
1976: Du bist heute wie neu
1977: Abgehauen
1979: Da bist Du ja
1997: Anthologie
2000: Tatort – die Songs (with Charles Brauer)
2000: Evergreens - Das Beste von Manfred Krug - 1962–1977
2000: Deutsche Schlager
2000: Schlafstörung
2001: Manfred Krug Live mit Fanny (with Fanny Krug)
2002: Leben bis Männer (Audiobook; from Thomas Brussig)
2002: Der Weihnachtskrug
2003: Sweet Nothings (with Decebal Badila and Fanny Krug)
2005: Geschichten Vom Herrn K. (Audiobook; from Bertolt Brecht)
2005: Lust des Beginnens (Audiobook; from Bertolt Brecht)
2005: Neuigkeiten an Manfred Krug und Otti (Audiobook; from Jurek Becker)
Literature
Abgehauen (1997) ISBN 3-548-75041-9
Mein schönes Leben (2003) ISBN 3-430-15733-1
Awards
1962 Heinrich-Greif-Preis First Class for On the Sunny Side, ensemble award
1963 Erich-Weinert-Medaille for Beschreibung eines Sommers with Christel Bodenstein
1965 Erich-Weinert-Medaille for The Adventures of Werner Holt, ensemble award
1968 National Prize of East Germany First Class for Ways across the Country, ensemble award
1971 National Prize of East Germany Second Class
1972 "Ehrende Anerkennung" (Special Award) at Workers' Filmfestival of Czechoslovakia for The Stolen Battle
1973 Verdienstmedaille der DDR
1979 Goldene Europa of Europawelle Saar
1984 Goldener Bambi
1990 Bayerischer Fernsehpreis for TV series Liebling Kreuzberg (SFB/NDR/WDR), together with Jurek Becker and Werner Masten
1990 Bavarian Film Awards, Best Actor
2006 Platin Romy lifetime award