1964 to 1976 He met the film director
Luchino Visconti in 1964. Visconti gave him his first acting role in the film
Le streghe (
The Witches, 1967) (in the episode "La Strega Bruciata Viva"). He gained international prominence as Martin von Essenbeck in Visconti's
The Damned (1969). In that film, in what is perhaps his best-known scene, he pretends to be
Marlene Dietrich as she appeared in the film
The Blue Angel (1930). He then performed the title role in the
Oscar Wilde adaptation
Dorian Gray (1970) and a leading role in the Oscar-winning Italian drama film
The Garden of the Finzi-Continis (1970). In Visconti's
Ludwig (1972), Berger portrays
Ludwig II of Bavaria from his youth to his dissolute final years.
Romy Schneider starred alongside him. This performance earned him a
David di Donatello award. In 1974, Berger starred with
Burt Lancaster in Visconti's
Conversation Piece. The story of
Conversation Piece is often considered an allegory of the personal relationship between Berger and Visconti. On several occasions Berger mentioned this film as his favorite. He then played leading roles in such international productions as
Ash Wednesday (1973) alongside
Elizabeth Taylor and
Henry Fonda and
The Romantic Englishwoman (1975) alongside
Michael Caine and
Glenda Jackson. He also appeared in
Tinto Brass's controversial film
Salon Kitty with
Ingrid Thulin in 1976. Well-known photographers including
Helmut Newton,
Mary Ellen Mark, and
David Bailey published a series of pictures of him.
Andy Warhol made Polaroids of him and produced serigraphs. Berger was also, in 1970, alongside his girlfriend
Marisa Berenson, the first man photographed for the cover of
Vogue.
1976 to 1999 The death of Luchino Visconti in 1976 plunged him into a personal crisis. Exactly one year after Visconti died, Berger tried to commit suicide but was found in time to be saved. Drug and alcohol abuse began to shadow his acting career. In 1980 Berger was cast by
Claude Chabrol as
Fantômas before he went to the United States to work in television in the role of
Peter De Vilbis in nine episodes (1983–1984) of the U.S. prime time soap opera
Dynasty, which he said he did only for money. He later said he was "crying on the way to the set but laughing on the way to the bank". This was his last appearance in a long-running television series. He continued working in the U.S. on various projects, most notably starring in
Code Name: Emerald in 1985. In Europe, he acted in the TV-miniseries
The Betrothed in 1989. In 1990, Berger appeared in
The Godfather Part III as corrupt banker Frederick Keinszig. He later appeared in the music video of
Madonna's song "
Erotica" in 1992 and appeared in Madonna's book
Sex. In 1993, Berger reprised his role as King Ludwig II in the critically acclaimed film
Ludwig 1881. Throughout the second half of the 1990s, he concentrated mainly on European productions, acting in films directed by
Christoph Schlingensief,
Yves Boisset, and many others. In 1997,
Quentin Tarantino included some archival footage of the film
Beast with a Gun in his film
Jackie Brown and thanked Berger in the closing credits for his performance.
2000s to 2023 From the early 2000s to 2009, Berger largely withdrew from the acting world, moving to
Salzburg to care for his mother, who died in 2009. He then returned to acting in bigger production films. In 2012,
Schwarzkopf & Schwarzkopf Verlag published
Helmut Berger – A Life in Pictures, a
coffee table book about his life, featuring many previously unreleased photographs plus essays in German, English, Italian, and French. The book was well received by the reviewers. In the
thriller film Iron Cross (2009), Berger played Shrager, an aging character believed to be an old
SS commander responsible for murdering Jews during
World War II. In the early 2010s, Berger starred in two films directed by
Peter Kern,
Blutsfreundschaft (shown at the
60th Berlin International Film Festival (2010)) and
Mörderschwestern (2011). In 2014, Berger appeared in
Saint Laurent as the older
Yves Saint Laurent for which he was "celebrated" at the
Cannes Film Festival. The short film
Art!, in which Berger had a starring role, had its world premiere at the
Paris Independent Film Festival 2015. In 2015, Austrian filmmaker
Andreas Horvath released a feature-length documentary about Berger called
Helmut Berger, Actor. The film premiered at the
Venice Film Festival. In the magazine
Artforum, American film director
John Waters chose
Helmut Berger, Actor as the 'Best Motion Picture of the year 2015'. Berger later filed a lawsuit against Horvath. On 22 February 2018, the premiere of
Albert Serra's play,
Liberté, starring Berger and
Ingrid Caven was performed at the
Volksbühne theatre in Berlin. It was the first stage role in Berger's career. In 2019, another documentary film
Helmut Berger, meine Mutter und ich was released, dealing with his personality and an attempted comeback. After suffering several bouts of
pneumonia, Berger announced his retirement from acting in November 2019 and stated that he wanted to spend his remaining years away from the public eye. ==Personal life==