Photo Gallery The Deified Monster
Kinski with the German director Werner Herzog on the set of "Cobra Verde" (1987).
Kinski in the 1978 French film "La Chanson de Roland." It had always been clear to fascinated audiences, as they watched the Kinski dance on the precipice of lunacy, that they wouldn't be able to stand the man in real life.
Kinski on the set of "Cobra Verde" (1987). The masterpieces he made with Werner Herzog were bleak journeys not just into the lost biographies of his heroes, all of which were diabolic characters. They were also trips into the soul of his tortured lead actor -- and that is what lent his works their power.
A visitor passes by a Kinski poster at Düsseldorf's theater museum. Herzog got to know Kinski as a wild-eyed madman, which is exactly how he cast him in his films.
