The film world lost another notable actor from the world of late 20th century cinema last week – Hardy Krüger, who has died at the age of 93. Krüger was one of a small number of post war German film actors who achieved international status, demonstrating that not all Germans are bad people. Krüger himself, born in 1928 in Berlin, was almost inevitably a member of the Hitler Youth and was conscripted into the German army as a teenager shortly before the end of the war. He always despised the Nazi ideology and subsequently campaigned against right wing politics.

In the 1950s he made three films for the Rank Organisation in the UK and then moved to Hollywood where he worked with directors such as Howard Hawks and Robert Aldrich. His was a truly international career: as well as his anglophone performances he featured in French, Italian and Spanish productions in addition to his early work in Germany. He made over 60 feature films, mostly in the action genre, but he also appeared in Kubrick’s Barry Lyndon. Gone are the days when the death of such an actor would offer fans the consolation of a season of their films on TV but by coincidence Hatari, his Hollywood debut, directed by Howard Hawks, and in which he starred with John Wayne, is showing on Film4 on Thursday 27th at 14.40