Ulrich Gerhard Scheurlen, better known as Ulrich Tukur (born 29 July 1957 in Viernheim, West Germany) is a classically trained German actor, and musician.
He is perhaps best known internationally for playing Kurt Gerstein, a SS officer who tried to inform as many foreign authorities as possible, including Pope Pius XII, about the Death Camps in Amen, and for playing Gibarian in Steven Soderbergh's Solaris.
Selected filmography:
- Felidae (1994) as Francis (voice)
- Solaris (2002) as Gibarian
- Amen (2002) as SS-Obersturmführer Kurt Gerstein
- Operation Valkyrie (2004 TV film) as Generalmajor Henning von Tresckow
- The Axe (2005) as Gerard Hutchinson
- The Lives of Others (2006) as Oberstleutnant Anton Grubitz
- The White Ribbon (2009) as the Baron
- John Rabe (2009) as John Rabe
- The Burma Conspiracy (2011) as Dwight Cochrane
- Rommel (2012 TV film) as Generalfeldmarschall Erwin Rommel
- Tatort (2014-2015) as Kriminalhauptkommissar Felix Murot / episode narrator / himself
Tropes in his works:
- Chronically Killed Actor: Notably, at least four characters he played committed suicide — Kurt Gerstein in Amen (hangs himself), Henning von Tresckow in Stauffenberg (blows himself up with a grenade), Erwin Rommel in Rommel (ingests a cyanide pill) and Gérard Hutchinson in The Axe (shoots himself). Three of them were World War II German officers who did something against the Nazi regime.
- Period Piece: He's played a lot of roles in settings such as World War II or East Germany.
- Production Posse: He is a regular in the films of Costa-Gavras since Amen.
- Typecasting: Men of honor/men with a conscience living in Nazi Germany who do (or try to do) something against the regime. They usually end up paying it with their life.
