THREAD: Just fell down a wormhole on Wilhelm von Homburg's life. I only really knew him as Vigo the Carpathian and that guy in Die Hard, turns out he started his controversial career as a wrestler. His stage name being Prince Wilhem Von Homburg (birth name Norbert Grupe).
His wrestling name was also incorporated into Vigos full name Prince Vigo von Homburg Deutschendorf (the Carpathian). Anyway he wrestled in the 60s in a tag team with his father. They were Viking heels and he later regretted his stage name as it landed him with Nazi connotations. 
It didn't help that his father was a boxer and an actual Nazi. They emigrated in the 60s to pursue a wrestling career. Their relationship broke down after his father accused him of raping his step-mother though it was never investigated. He may have been his half-sisters father.
He left wrestling and became a light middleweight boxer at his peak ranking 7th in the world. Famously he was disqualified for head butting in a title challenge. His boxing career ended in 1970 with 29 wins, 11 losses and 6 draws in 46 bouts, with 24 wins coming by knockout
During this time he lived in the red light district and his personality was increasingly controversial. Abrasive & stand offish, menacing and threatening. He was also openly bisexual at an unforgiving time, living lavishly and getting all the wrong media attention.
He ended up in prison after selling weed to an undercover policeman. In 80s he was jailed again for bodily injury and aiding prostitution. He spent around 5 years total in prison.
He started acting in the 60s with some TV appearances but went for it after his boxing career ended. Lots of roles as brutes, boxers, people on the wrong side of life including Werner Herzog casting him Stroszek as a pimp.
There was around decade hiatus in the middle largely due to his prison time but he came back with Die Hard and then Ghostbusters II (which on set he was not very popular, producer Micahel C Gross calling him a bigoted asshole.
I also didn't realise his dialogue was dubbed by Max Von Sydow in GBII causing Von Homburg to storm out of the first screening as he wasn't aware they had done it.
His last film appearance was in Carpenter's In the Mouth of Madness. After that he rented a room from a friend until he ran out of money and then lived in his VW Campervan with his dog. He drove to Mexico in 2004 to see a friend and died one month later from prostate cancer.
Never meant to go down this wormhole. Certainly hadn't been planning this thread. I just found it fascinating that someone so iconic in a particular role, that had a huge impact on me, had such an interestingly tragic life and thought you might be interested too.
• • •
Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to
force a refresh
