Wolf Kahler (born 3 April 1940) is a German character actor in stage, film, television, and voice actor.
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Early life
Kahler was born in Kiel, Germany.
Career
With blue eyes, sculpted jawbone, and height of 1.88 m (6 ft 2 in), Kahler was often chosen to play unsympathetic German characters or Nazis.
He appeared in the British production of The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes as the young Bohemian king in "A Scandal in Bohemia". Nearly thirty years later he would return to a Sherlock Holmes production in Guy Ritchie's film Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows.
Since 1975, he has appeared in many English-language American and British television and film productions. One of his early roles was that of Kaiser Wilhelm II in Michael York's adventure film The Riddle of the Sands. One of his best-known roles was that of Hermann Dietrich in Raiders of the Lost Ark.
Among the characters he has voiced in video games is Kaiser Vlad in Battalion Wars. Kahler played the Prince of Tübingen in Stanley Kubrick's 1975 film, Barry Lyndon. In 2001, he played a Wehrmacht General in a television miniseries about World War II, Band of Brothers. In the Clint Eastwood spy thriller Firefox (1982), Kahler played KGB chairman Yuri Andropov. In 2011 Kahler appeared as Dr. Hoffmanstahl in Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows. In 2017, he played a German Commander in the Warner Bros./DCEU film Wonder Woman.
Personal life
Kahler is an expatriate living in London.
Filmography
Short films
2008 Haber as Erich Ludendorff
2010 Stasi Dog as the narrator
2012 Cold Warrior as Bochinsky
2016 Millefeuille as Hans-Peter (Opa)
2016 Rubicon as Dirk Van de Cleef
2020 Cognition as Dr. Zoger
2025 Whispers of Freedom as Bruno Kabát
Video games
1998 Metal Gear Solid as Donald Anderson / Revolver Ocelot / Jim Houseman (German dub)
1999 Syphon Filter as Thomas Markinson (German dub)
2003 Tomb Raider: The Angel of Darkness as Grant Muller
2004 Half-Life 2 as Dr. Wallace Breen (German dub)
2005 Battalion Wars as Kaiser Vlad
2007 Battalion Wars 2 as Kaiser Vlad / Lord Ferrok
2008 The Club as Enemy Characters
2009 IL-2 Sturmovik: Birds of Prey as German Voice
2010 Kirby's Epic Yarn as The Narrator (German Version)
2011 Crysis 2 as Karl Ernst Rasch (German & English dub)
2013 Crysis 3 as Karl Ernst Rasch (German & English dub)
2013 Company of Heroes 2 as German Announcer
2015 Calvino Noir as Arno
2017 Raid: World War II as Dr. Maximillion Reihnhart
2018 Call of Cthulhu: The Official Video Game as Thomas Fuller
2019 Close to the Sun as Aubrey King
2022 Sniper Elite 5 as Abelard Möller
Thanks
2012 Raiding the Lost Ark: A Filmumentary (special thanks)
Soundtrack
2008 Inspector George Gently (performer: The Lambton Worm Song – Episode: "Bomber's Moon")
Radio
The Scarlet Pimpernel of the Vatican, a drama by Robin Glendinning, was first broadcast in 2006, on BBC Radio4. Kahler played Herbert Kappler, a Nazi war criminal, who is befriended in his cell by a Vatican priest; the story is based on the real-life adventures of Monsignor Hugh O'Flaherty.