AllMovie

Hamburg-born Gerard Herter is a character actor who was visible in dozens of European movies (especially those made in Italy) from the end of the 1950s to the beginning of the 1970s. Along that 14-year career arc, during which he was sometimes billed as Gerald Herter or Gerhard Herter, he worked with some of the best directors in a multitude of genres, in horror films by Mario Bava (Caltiki, The Immortal Monster), spaghetti westerns by Sergio Sollima (The Big Gundown), and historical drama by Luchino Visconti (Ludwig). With his intense features and demeanor, Herter specialized in highly driven, usually villainous portrayals -- highlights of his career include the one-armed madman in Bava's Caltiki and the coldly murderous Teutonic hunter and duelist in Sollima's The Big Gundown. He seems to have retired from movies following his work in Visconti's Ludwig (1973).