Werner Herzog

Known For: Directing
Gender: Male
Date of Birth: September 5, 1942 (83 years old)
Place of Birth: Munich, Bavaria, Germany
Werner Herzog (German: [ˈvɛɐ̯nɐ ˈhɛɐ̯tsoːk]; born 5 September 1942) is a German film director, screenwriter, author, actor, and opera director, regarded as a pioneer of New German Cinema. His films often feature ambitious protagonists with impossible dreams, people with unique talents in obscure fields, or individuals in conflict with nature. He is known for his unique filmmaking process, such as disregarding storyboards, emphasizing improvisation, and placing the cast and crew into similar situations as characters in his films. Herzog started work on his first film Herakles in 1961, when he was nineteen. Since then he has produced, written, and directed more than sixty feature films and documentaries, such as Aguirre, the Wrath of God (1972), The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser (1974), Heart of Glass (1976), Stroszek (1977), Nosferatu the Vampyre (1979), Fitzcarraldo (1982), Cobra Verde (1987), Lessons of Darkness (1992), Little Dieter Needs to Fly (1997), My Best Fiend (1999), Invincible (2000), Grizzly Man (2005), Encounters at the End of the World (2007), Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans (2009), and Cave of Forgotten Dreams (2010). He has published more than a dozen books of prose, and directed as many operas. French filmmaker François Truffaut once called Herzog "the most important film director alive." American film critic Roger Ebert said that Herzog "has never created a single film that is compromised, shameful, made for pragmatic reasons, or uninteresting. Even his failures are spectacular." He was named one of the world's 100 most influential people by Time magazine in 2009. Description above from the Wikipedia article Werner Herzog, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.
2025
2024

Actor Narrator (voice)
Orion and the Dark

Actor Narrator (voice)
The Fire Within: Requiem for Katia and Maurice Krafft

Actor Self (archival footage)
Celebrating the Rice Media Center

Actor
About a Hero

Actor Self (Archive Footage)
Kinski

Director
The Fire Within: Requiem for Katia and Maurice Krafft

Writer
The Fire Within: Requiem for Katia and Maurice Krafft

Executive Producer
The End
2023
2022

Actor Self (archive footage)
Nosferatu: A Film Like a Vampire

Actor Narrator (voice)
Last Exit: Space

Actor Self (Voice)
Tegoyo

Actor Self
Werner Herzog: Radical Dreamer

Executive Producer
Last Exit: Space

Director
Theater of Thought

Producer
El Poso

Producer
Flores del precipicio

Executive Producer
Theater of Thought

Screenplay
Theater of Thought

Creative Consultant
Notes from a Dromedary
2021
2020

Actor Self - Narrator (voice)
Fireball: Visitors from Darker Worlds

Actor Self
AGFA Mystery Mixtape #2: Later in L.A.

Actor Self
Wim Wenders, Desperado

Actor Narrator (voice)
Dear Werner (Walking on Cinema)

Actor The Painter (Narrator)
The Andinist

Director
Fireball: Visitors from Darker Worlds

Writer
Fireball: Visitors from Darker Worlds
2019

Actor Self
90 Years of the Music Box Theatre

Actor Self
Jihad in Hollywood

Actor Self - Interviewer and Narrator (voice)
Nomad: In the Footsteps of Bruce Chatwin

Actor Self
Meeting Gorbachev

Actor Self
Tattoo Uprising
Consulting Producer
Love Birds

Executive Producer
The Last Scene

Director
Meeting Gorbachev

Writer
Nomad: In the Footsteps of Bruce Chatwin

Director
Nomad: In the Footsteps of Bruce Chatwin

Writer
Meeting Gorbachev

Writer
Family Romance, LLC

Director of Photography
Family Romance, LLC

Director
Family Romance, LLC

Camera Operator
Family Romance, LLC
2018

Actor Self
The Great Buster: A Celebration

Actor Self
Manaslu: Mountain of Souls

Actor Narrator (voice)
Paradox Bullets

Actor Self
Film Beyond Cinema: The Dumpster Kid Experiment and Other Utopias

Actor Self
I'm a Soldier
Consulting Producer
The whole world is country
Executive Producer
The Golden Gate

Thanks
The Empty Goal
2017
2016

Actor Self
Jihad in Hollywood

Actor Narrator (voice)
Into the Inferno

Actor Man with One Story (uncredited)
Salt and Fire

Actor Self
Lo and Behold: Reveries of the Connected World

Thanks
The Blimp-Maker

Director
Lo and Behold: Reveries of the Connected World

Director
Into the Inferno

Producer
Lo and Behold: Reveries of the Connected World

Writer
Into the Inferno

Director
Salt and Fire

Writer
Salt and Fire

Producer
Salt and Fire

Writer
Lo and Behold: Reveries of the Connected World
2015
2014

Actor Self (archive footage)
Alfonso Sansone: Producer by Chance

Actor Self - Filmmaker
Life Itself

Actor Documentary Filmmaker (voice)
Penguins of Madagascar
Actor Neighborhood Hero
Lemonade War
Actor Self
Werner Herzog: On Death Row and Life as a Director

Actor Self (archival)
Atari: Game Over

Executive Producer
Red Army
2013

Actor Self
The Unbelievers

Actor Self
Jack Reacher: When the Man Comes Around

Actor Self (uncredited)
Mistaken for Strangers

Actor Self
An Appreciation of Les Blank by Werner Herzog

Actor Self
Werner Herzog and Errol Morris on 'The Act of Killing'

Actor Alexander von Humboldt
Home from Home – Chronicle of a Vision

Director
From One Second to the Next

Thanks
The Last Shepherd
2012
2011

Actor Narrator (voice)
Into the Abyss
Actor Self
Dubai Winter Diary VI: Light and Reflections

Actor Self
Champions: A Comic Tale

Actor Self
I, I, I José Lewgoy

Actor Self
On Borrowed Time

Actor Self
Hans Zimmer: The Sound of Hollywood

Director
Into the Abyss

Writer
Into the Abyss

Director
Ode to the Dawn of Man

Sound
Ode to the Dawn of Man

Cinematography
Ode to the Dawn of Man

Producer
Into the Abyss
2010

Actor Narrator (voice)
Cave of Forgotten Dreams

Actor Narrator (voice)
Happy People: A Year in the Taiga
Actor Self
Werner Herzog Defends Dade
Actor Self
Behind the Madness: The Making of My Son, My Son

Actor Self
Anyone who dares will take the cold off their horse

Actor Himself
The Making of Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans
Actor Narrator (voice)
When Herzog Rescued Phoenix

Actor Self
I am My Films, Part 2... 30 Years Later

Director
My Son, My Son, What Have Ye Done

Screenplay
My Son, My Son, What Have Ye Done

Executive Producer
Happy People: A Year in the Taiga

Director
Happy People: A Year in the Taiga

Writer
Happy People: A Year in the Taiga

Screenplay
Cave of Forgotten Dreams

Director
Cave of Forgotten Dreams
Thanks
A Night Out
Technical Advisor
A Night Out
2009
2008

Actor Self
Counter Shot: Departure of the Filmmakers

Actor Father Umbrillo
Mister Lonely

Actor Self
Bierbichler

Actor Self
40 x 15: The Forty Years of the Directors' Fortnight
Actor Self (archive footage)
Back to Room 666

Actor Self
Capturing Reality

Actor Narrator (voice)
BLAST!

Stage Director
Lohengrin: Bayreuth Festival Opera
2007

Actor The German
The Grand

Actor Self
Making of a True Story: Rescue Dawn

Actor
All In This Tea
Actor Self
Munich (Filmfest) Stories - 25 years of Munich Filmfest

Actor Self
Pierre Rissient: Man of Cinema

Actor Narrator (voice)
Encounters at the End of the World

Director
Encounters at the End of the World

Writer
Encounters at the End of the World

Sound
Encounters at the End of the World
Creative Consultant
The Devil's Muse
2006
2005
Actor Self
Dreams and Burdens
Actor Self
Perpetuum Mobile: Voices in the Blue Space
Actor Self
Q & A with Jana Sevcikova and Werner Herzog

Actor Self
In the Edges: The 'Grizzly Man' Session

Actor Self / Narrator (voice)
Grizzly Man

Director
Grizzly Man

Screenplay
The Wild Blue Yonder

Director
The Wild Blue Yonder

Thanks
What Is It?
2004
2003
2002
2001
2000
1999
1998
1997
1996
1995
1993
1992
1991

Actor Narrator (voice)
Jag Mandir: The Eccentric Private Theatre of the Maharaja of Udaipur

Actor TV-Regisseur
Scream of Stone
Actor Self
SnowwhiteRosered

Actor Self
Film Lesson

Producer
Jag Mandir: The Eccentric Private Theatre of the Maharaja of Udaipur

Director
Jag Mandir: The Eccentric Private Theatre of the Maharaja of Udaipur

Screenplay
Jag Mandir: The Eccentric Private Theatre of the Maharaja of Udaipur

Director
Scream of Stone

Director
Film Lesson
1990
1989

Actor Self
To the End of the World... and Then a Little Bit Further

Actor Businger
Bride of the Orient
Actor Self
The Heart and the Legs

Actor Narrator (voice)
Wodaabe: Herdsmen of the Sun

Director
Wodaabe: Herdsmen of the Sun

Director
Giovanna d'Arco

Writer
Wodaabe: Herdsmen of the Sun

Co-Producer
Wodaabe: Herdsmen of the Sun
1988
1987
1986
1985
1984

Actor Self (voice)
Ballad of the Little Soldier

Actor Lawyer (uncredited)
Where the Green Ants Dream

Director
Where the Green Ants Dream

Producer
Ballad of the Little Soldier

Writer
Ballad of the Little Soldier

Director
Ballad of the Little Soldier

Producer
Where the Green Ants Dream

Writer
Where the Green Ants Dream
1983
1982
1981
1980
1979

Actor Hand and Feet in Box with Rats (uncredited)
Nosferatu the Vampyre

Actor Self
The Making of 'Nosferatu'

Actor Self
I Am My Films: A Portrait of Werner Herzog

Actor Self (archive footage) (uncredited)
Scénario de 'Sauve qui peut la vie'

Director
Woyzeck

Screenplay
Woyzeck

Producer
Nosferatu the Vampyre

Director
Nosferatu the Vampyre

Writer
Nosferatu the Vampyre
1977

Actor Narrator (voice)
La Soufrière: Waiting for an Inevitable Catastrophe

Actor Self
Journey Through History

Director
Stroszek

Screenplay
Stroszek

Director
La Soufrière: Waiting for an Inevitable Catastrophe

Sound Engineer
La Soufrière: Waiting for an Inevitable Catastrophe

Producer
Stroszek

Producer
La Soufrière: Waiting for an Inevitable Catastrophe
1976

Actor Glass Transporter
Heart of Glass

Actor Self
How Much Wood Would a Woodchuck Chuck

Actor Self
Signs of Vigorous Life: The New German Cinema

Director
Heart of Glass

Writer
Heart of Glass

Producer
How Much Wood Would a Woodchuck Chuck

Director
How Much Wood Would a Woodchuck Chuck

Director
No One Will Play with Me

Producer
Heart of Glass

Sound
How Much Wood Would a Woodchuck Chuck

Writer
No One Will Play with Me
1975
1974
1972
1971

Actor Hurenmörder
Tales of the Dumpster Kid

Director
Land of Silence and Darkness

Screenplay
Land of Silence and Darkness

Director
Handicapped Future

Director
Fata Morgana

Sound Recordist
Handicapped Future

Producer
Handicapped Future

Sound Recordist
Land of Silence and Darkness

Producer
Land of Silence and Darkness

Screenplay
Fata Morgana

Writer
Handicapped Future

Producer
Fata Morgana

Sound
Fata Morgana

Sound
Handicapped Future
1970
1969
1968
1967
1962
Others
Actor Self
No Mr. Werner Herzog, this isn't your Cinématon
Actor Self
Jösta Hagelbäck & Werner Herzog
Actor Director
Tales from the Opera
Actor Self
Shards of Cinema and Philosophy

Actor
Untitled Bong Joon-ho Animated Film

Actor Self
Werner Herzog, Filmmaker

Writer
The hunger in the world explained to my son
Director
The Conquest of Mexico
Writer
The Conquest of Mexico

Director
The Twilight World

Novel
The Twilight World
Writer
Bucking Fastard
Director
Bucking Fastard