Diane Kruger

Biography of Diane Kruger

Diane Kruger, actually Diane Heidkrüger was born on July 15, 1976 in Algermissen, Lower Saxony. She is a German-American actress. She mainly appears in English and French language films.

She grew up as the eldest child of a computer specialist and a bank clerk in Algermissen and attended the Josephinum Gymnasium in Hildesheim up to the 10th grade. She also took lessons at the Hildesheim ballet school Freese-Baus and passed several children's ballet tests.

She shortened her surname from Heidkrüger to Krüger and then Kruger with her role in the film Bad, Bad Things.

On June 26, 1992, at the age of 15, Diane Kruger was in the world finals of the modeling agency Elite's Look of the Year competition. She went to Paris and worked as a model under her real name. After a few years, she took acting classes there and eventually got minor film roles.

In 2004, Kruger played the role of Helena in Wolfgang Petersen's Hollywood film Troy, which marked her international breakthrough in the film business. As the actress of the most beautiful woman of antiquity she prevailed against 3000 applicants. That same year, she starred opposite Nicolas Cage as Abigail Chase in the adventure film National Treasure: Book of Secrets. In 2007, she reprized the role in the sequel The Legacy of the Secret Book.

At the 60th Cannes Film Festival, she was the first German to host the opening ceremony on May 16 and the prize gala on May 27, 2007. In 2008 she was appointed to the competition jury for the 58th Berlinale.

The film Inglourious Basterds by Quentin Tarantino, in which other German actors took on roles alongside Kruger, was a great success at the Cannes Film Festival in 2009 and grossed over 300 million dollars worldwide.In April 2010, Kruger made a brief cameo appearance on the US television series Fringe (Season 2 Episode 17), which co-starred with her longtime boyfriend Joshua Jackson.

In 2012 she was appointed to the competition jury of the 65th Cannes International Film Festival and in 2015 to the jury of the 72nd Venice International Film Festival. In 2017 she was seen in Fatih Akin's feature film In the Fade in her first purely German-language role. She was awarded the Best Actor Award at the 70th Cannes Film Festival for her performance.

In 2018 she was appointed to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, which awards the Oscars annually.

Diane Kruger is fluent in English and French andvoicesher roles in many films herself. She became a US citizen in 2013.

On September 1, 2001, Krugermarriedfellow French actorGuillaume Canet. The couple divorced after five years. From 2006 to the summer of 2016, Kruger was in arelationshipwith fellow Canadian actorJoshua Jackson. Her new life partner is the American actorNorman Reedus, with whom she has had a daughter since 2018.