Werner Herzog Biography

Fast Facts

• Worked nights as a welder in a steel factory in order to finance his first film, 1962 short Herakles
• Traveled from Germany to attend Pittsburgh's Duquesne University but quit after just three days; Herzog subsequently lost the Fullbright scholarship on which he was attending, as well as his visa
• Along with Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Wim Wenders and Volker Schlondorff, was one of the leading figures in the German cinema's New Wave of the late 1960s and 1970s
• Breakthrough film was 1972 historical drama Aguirre, the Wrath of God, notable for its exotic locations and stunning landscapes captured under arduous circumstances, both Herzog trademarks
• Had a love/hate relationship with Polish actor Klaus Kinski, whom he directed in five films and made a documentary about titled My Best Fiend (1999)
• Appeared in Les Blank's documentary Werner Herzog Eats His Shoe (1980), in which he did as the title describes in order to settle a bet with filmmaker Errol Morris
• Was wounded during a 2006 interview with the BBC when he was shot with an air rifle; he called the shot an "insignificant bullet
• " Has staged several operas around the world and written many books