Steven Berkoff

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Steven Berkoff (born August 3, 1937 in London ) is a British playwright , actor and director .

Life

After studying at the École internationale de théatre Jacques Lecoq in Paris , he founded the London Theater Group, where he directed his own adaptations of classics, such as in 1969 when he played the role of the young man in Franz Kafka's The Metamorphosis who was transformed into a beetle himself. In addition to the theater, Berkoff also starred in films such as Barry Lyndon (1975), James Bond 007 - Octopussy (1983), Beverly Hills Cop - I'll definitely solve the case (1984), Rambo II - The Mission (1985), Fair Game (1995), Riders (2002) and Head in the Clouds (2004) with. In 1981 he worked in the series Die Profis (episode: A murder robot named Quinn) , in which he already played a role similar to that in James Bond 007 - Octopussy . This episode was probably partly the reason why he was then mostly cast as a Russian opponent.

His own pieces include Greek (1979), in which the Oedipus myth was transposed to contemporary London, and West (1983), an adaptation of the Anglo-Saxon Beowulf legend. His play Decadence (1981) contrasted the sexual and social activities of an upper-class couple with that of a working-class woman and a detective. In Kvetch (1987), the fears of a group of West End Jews are transformed into a comic dinner party. Other plays and arrangements include Agamemnon (1977), The Fall of the House of Usher (1977, see Edgar Allan Poes Der Untergang des Haus Usher ), The Trial (1981, see Kafka's The Process ), Sink the Belgrano (1986), In the Penal Colony (1988) and Brighton Beach Scumbags (1991). He was also the author of books such as I am Hamlet (1989) and Corolianus in Germany (1992).

Filmography (selection)

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Chambers Biographical Dictionary, Edinburgh 2002, pp. 150-151
personal data
SURNAME Berkoff, Steven
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British playwright, actor and director
DATE OF BIRTH August 3, 1937
PLACE OF BIRTH London