Klaus J. Behrendt

Klaus Johannes Behrendt (born 7 February 1960) is a German actor. Since 1992 he has starred in the Westdeutscher Rundfunk version of the popular television crime series Tatort; he also starred in the 2008 film Die Bienen – Tödliche Bedrohung. Life and education Behrendt was born in Hamm, North Rhine-Westphalia, the son of a pediatrician, he grew up in Ibbenbüren in North Rhine-Westphalia, where he learned the profession of a mountain mechanic. After completing his civil service, he then took acting lessons from 1981 to 1984 at the Hamburg drama school stage studio with Hedi Höpfner (another actress) and then joined a festival engagement at the Theater Bremen. He performed there until 1988 in various works including Danton's Death (by Georg Büchner), The Seagull (Chekov), A Midsummer Night's Dream (Shakespeare) or Three Sisters (Chekov). Career Behrendt launched his television career in 1989, with a role in the television series Rote Erde as 'Jupp Kowalla'. Behrendt gained great popularity from 1992 to 1994 and again since 1997 through his role as investigator Max Ballauf in the WDR crime series Tatort. He was initially as assistant to Commissar Flemming (Martin Lüttge) in Düsseldorf, later he was commissary leader with his colleague 'Freddy Schenk' (Dietmar Bär) in Cologne. In 1990, in the Tatort episode 234 (Schimanski's weapon) Behrendt had taken an supporting role as 'Erwin Spilonska'.