Nowadays, Austrian actor Christoph Waltz is an international star who has amassed honors from critics associations all over the world as well as from the Screen Actors Guild, the Golden Globes, the BAFTAs and the Academy Awards for his work in Quentin Tatarantino's Inglourious Basterds and Django Unchained. For Americans, Waltz and his awe-inspiring talent and sparkling swagger seemed to come out of nowhere. I mean, who is this guy?
Well, before he was Colonel Hans Landa or Dr. King Schultz, Waltz's career was predominantly made up of appearances in German and Austrian made-for-TV movies. In the midst of more than a hundred titles he has to his credit, there is a smattering of theatrically released films, but none resonated Stateside until he met Tarantino. Thankfully, the Tumblr of a 16-year-old fan named Devinn reveals the young Waltz in action.
Named for the threatening farewell his Inglourious Basterds character shouts, Au revoir, Shoshanna has a collection of gifs culled from Waltz's first feature film, Kopfstand. Check some of them out below:
Written and directed by Austrian filmmaker Ernst Josef Lauscher, Kopfstand--which translates to Headstand--stars Waltz as Markus Dorn, a young man sent to a mental institution once his mother's accusations of drug use spur him into a violent rage. His escape attempts from the institution are punished with electroshock treatments, but all is not lost. A young doctor new to the institution stops these treatments and releases Markus to social services, which pairs him with a kind old woman who needs a caretaker. With her, he discovers the loving mother figure he has so long longed for.
In these images, Waltz is no doubt handsome. But I prefer him now, as the silver fox he has become:
Django Unchained is now in theaters.
