Date of Birth

16 December 1978, Barcelona, Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain

Birth Name

Daniel César Martín Brühl González

Height

5' 9¼" (1.76 m)

Mini Biography

Daniel Brühl was born in Barcelona, Spain. His father was German TV director Hanno Brühl (1937-2010), who was born in São Paulo, Brazil. His Spanish mother was a teacher. He also has a brother and a sister, Oliver and Miriam. Shortly after his birth, his family moved to Cologne, Germany, where he grew up and attended the Dreikönigsgymnasium. Brought up in a fully multilingual home, he speaks fluent German, English, Portuguese, Spanish, French and Catalan.

Trivia

• Daniel's father was German director Hanno Brühl, who was born in São Paulo, Brazil. Daniel's mother is Spanish.
• Used to be in a band called Purge, he was the singer.
• Was formerly engaged to Jessica Schwarz from 2001 to 2006.
• 2003: Named as one of European films' Shooting Stars by European Film Promotion.
• He was raised trilingual (German, Catalan and Spanish).
• Was born in Barcelona to a Spanish mother and a German father. Said in an interview that the reason he was born in Spain was that his mother didn't trust German hospitals and the family returned to Cologne soon after his birth. He spent a lot of his summers in Barcelona though.
• Jessica Schwarz gave him the nickname "Gollum" because he looks like the character on The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001) when he wakes up in the morning.
• Started his acting career at the age of 4 when he frightened his mother by playing a dead man or fainting theatrically.
• Being a pacifist, he was a conscientious objector and did civilian service.
• Broke Will Smith's world record for most public appearances on the red carpet in 12 hours together with Jürgen Vogel by attending the premiere of their movie A Friend of Mine (2006) in Munich, Berlin, Hamburg, Düsseldorf and Cologne (22 October 2006).
• Brühl, Leonardo DiCaprio, Tilda Swinton, Marion Cotillard, Emma Thompson, Tom Hanks, Jake Gyllenhaal and Amy Adams are the only actors to receive a Golden Globe, SAG, BAFTA and Critics' Choice Award nomination for the same performance and then fail to be Oscar-nominated for it: for their performances in Rush (2013), The Departed (2006), We Need to Talk About Kevin (2011), Rust and Bone (2012), Saving Mr. Banks (2013), Captain Phillips (2013), Nightcrawler (2014) and Arrival (2016), respectively.
• Is fluent in Catalan, English, French, Spanish and German.
• Brühl's starring role in 7 Days in Entebbe (2018) marked the second time he has acted in a film with a title that started, "7 Days in..."--the first was 7 Days in Havana (2012).
• Nominated for the 2019 Golden Globe Award in the Best Performance by an Actor in a Limited Series or a Motion Picture Made for Television category for his role as Laszlo Kreizler in The Alienist (2018), but lost to Darren Criss for American Crime Story (2016).
• Has a son, Anton Hanno (b. 2016).

Quotes

• We Germans should know that we're good at constructing cars and we have a lot of good qualities. But we're not the funniest.
• [on owning the 'Bar Raval' in Berlin-Kreuzberg] My cooking skills are not the best. That's why I decided to open a restaurant. I have some great chefs and professional cooks who do very, very good Spanish food, Spanish tapas in Berlin. Still far away from a Michelin star.[2015]
• A dream my girlfriend and I have is to move to New York for a year or two because we just love the city. I would take some acting classes.
• Eating is my main hobby now, and most of what I do on the weekend revolves around that.
• I always try to start my weekend by running on the beach, which is great fun here in Barcelona.
• I enjoy passing time in my house. I'll get up, head out on the terrace, think about what to do, fool around oiling the floorboards or hanging pictures askew.
• Well, my first languages are German and Spanish because I was brought up by a Spanish mother and a German father, so I always spoke both languages at home. I'm very thankful that I was brought up in a bilingual house.
• I have one car that works; it's fast and safe: an Audi 5. And I have two old cars that never work: an old Peugeot convertible, and an Alfa Romeo Giulia.
• When I was a kid, we all knew who Niki Lauda was. He was a hero, a living legend in Germany. Everybody knows him. And he's still very present on TV because he's commenting for Formula One.
• I was lucky to start working when German cinema was having an interesting moment. Now the quality is going downhill again because they're insisting on doing comedies.
• I live between Barcelona and Berlin. Staying in Spain over the winter and Berlin for spring and summer is an ideal combination.
• When I was around 15, I did my first movie. I was at a kids' agency, and the third time I was invited to an audition, they offered me a little part in some kiddie thing, and I earned my first money. I was very proud that I could buy my first mountain bike with my own money.
• I have spent every holiday in my parents' Spanish country house which is located in an alleged vampire village. There were also dares, like who manages to go to the cemetery alone at midnight. In that house I then also watched "The Exorcist" alone. It made me yell and cry. Even today (2012) it happens that I get scared s***less when I am alone in that house and hear noises.
• I'm a terrible hypochondriac. I am embarrassed to admit it, particularly to my girlfriend, but I suddenly get these panic attacks and I am sure that I have come down with some dreaded disease. I have been to the doctor for the most stupid reasons. But as my girlfriend is a psychologist, she understands that it is pathological. She psychoanalyzes me, and my profession has helped me confront my fears. But when I read the script of Rush, I s*** myself.
• Yes, [I was a child who suffered from nightmares] extremely, and I also continue to do so today (2012). They are universal children's fears, like in the film [Intruders], which will never ever go away. They can get stuck in your head so much that you think, even once you are in your thirties, what is actually the matter with you.
• As a young boy I was rather embarrassed to talk about that [my fears]. But I was rather hypochondriacal, and that was what annoyed my parents more. On the contrary [it's not like I am not a hypochondriac anymore], that hasn't changed, and yet I smoke. When I read something online about an illness, I have got that illness immediately. It was really extreme with the Spanish cucumber that was thought to have caused E.coli last summer [2011]. I was panicky for weeks and with every trip to the toilet I thought, now E.coli has arrived.