Corinna Harfouch

Corinna Harfouch — Biography

On 16 October 1954 Corinna Harfouch, born Corinna Meffert, came into the world in Suhl, a town in the Thuringia region that then lay within East Germany; she became a German actress. Working on the theatre stage, in cinema and in voice acting, Harfouch has appeared in more than a hundred film and television productions over her career and has won awards for many of the roles she has played.

The daughter of a teacher, Harfouch spent her first school years in Großenhain and then trained as a nurse in Dresden. She turned to acting through the training she received at the Ernst Busch Academy of Dramatic Arts in Berlin between 1978 and 1981. After graduating she began working in the theatre and over time appeared in a great many stage productions.

Her breakthrough in cinema came at the end of the 1980s. She played Maria Rheine in the 1988 production Die Schauspielerin and appeared the same year in Yasemin. These were followed by Pestalozzis Berg in 1989, Der Tangospieler in 1991 and Das Versprechen in 1994, in which she brought to life the characters Juliette Benoit, Elke and Sophie Sellman respectively. With Das Mambospiel in 1998 and Fandango in 2000 she was one of the most sought-after names in German cinema at the turn of the millennium.

International recognition came with the role of Magda Goebbels that she took on in the 2004 film Downfall; the same year she also acted in C(r)ook. In 2006 she appeared in Elementary Particles and Perfume: The Story of a Murderer, and in the following years she took roles in productions such as Berlin Calling (2008), Finsterworld (2013) and Lara (2019). On television she appeared in the series Deutschland 83 and Deutschland 89, and she also worked with her voice on recordings such as Schlumperwald und andere Geschichten. Over her career she has won awards including the German Film Award, the Bavarian TV Award and the Goldener Ochse, and was nominated for Best Actress at the European Film Awards; she is a member of the Academy of Arts, Berlin.

In her private life she married the actor and director Michael Gwisdek. Two sons, Johannes and Robert Gwisdek, were born of the marriage; Robert Gwisdek also works as an actor. Her sibling is Catherine Stoyan.