
Though born in Czechoslovakia, actor Karel Stepanek was generally regarded as a German actor due to his extensive film work in Germany (as Karl Stepanek) in the years before World War II. Stepanek fled to England in 1940, where, like many European refugee actors, he specialized in portraying Teutonic villains. He tried to stay away from out-and-out Nazi roles, but his predilection for wearing black uniforms and barking out guttural commands left little doubt as to the political preferences of Stepanek's screen characters. One of his most typical characterizations could be found in the 1946 POW drama, The Captive Heart; Stepanek also registered well as a friendlier foreigner in The Fallen Idol (1949). Commuting between London and Hollywood, Karel Stepanek continued to fight World War II, usually on the wrong side, into such '60s films as Sink the Bismarck! (1960), I Aim at the Stars (1960) and Operation Crossbow (1965).

Allo Berlin? Ici Paris!

Pozdní láska

Jerry Cotton - Der Mörderclub von Brooklyn

Der Florentiner Hut

Das Kriminalmuseum

第三の男

Walzerkrieg

The Fallen Idol

The Games

Fünf von der Jazzband

No Highway in the Sky

The Traitor

テレマークの要塞

Sink the Bismarck!

追想

Schachnovelle

Operation Crossbow

State Secret

Our Man in Havana

Hotel Sacher

Man of the Moment

Affair in Trinidad

They Met in the Dark

The Man in the Road

The Captive Heart

Rough Shoot

Tomorrow We Live

The Third Visitor

Die Unbekannte

Broken Journey

Counterblast

The Cockleshell Heroes

Before Winter Comes

Berlin-Alexanderplatz

Cairo Road

Operation Amsterdam

Conspirator

Never Let Me Go

Give Us This Day

Licensed to Kill

The File of the Golden Goose

A Prize of Gold

Walk East on Beacon

Dangerous Cargo

City Beneath the Sea

The Frozen Dead

Spione im Savoy-Hotel

Devil Doll

Secret Mission

No Hiding Place

Die Fledermaus

Sperrbezirk

Secret Venture

Tale of Three Women

West of Suez

Escape to Danger

Ein Lied für Dich

War es der im 3. Stock?

Der Außenseiter

Narren im Schnee

The Heroes of Telemark: Location report from Norway

Golden Arrow

Na růžích ustláno

Our Film

Die Werft zum grauen Hecht