Christoph Waltz

"Water for Elephants" Berlin Photocall

Waltz in 2011, photo by PR Photos

Place of Birth: Vienna, Austria

Date of Birth: 4 October, 1956

Ethnicity: German, Austrian, likely small amount of Slovenian

Christoph Waltz is an Austrian actor. He has twice won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, for Inglourious Basterds (2009) and Django Unchained (2012). His roles also include the films Water for Elephants, Carnage (2011), Epic, The Zero Theorem, Big Eyes, Spectre, The Legend of Tarzan, Downsizing, Alita: Battle Angel, No Time to Die, The French Dispatch, and Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio, and the series Most Dangerous Game and The Consultant.

Christoph is the son of Johannes Waltz and Elisabeth Urbancic, set and costume designers. His father was German and his mother is Austrian. He is fluent in French, German, and English. He also has German citizenship.

Christoph is married to costume designer Judith Holste. He has three children with his former wife, dance therapist Jacqueline; and a daughter with Judith. One of his children with his Jewish first wife has studied at a Yeshiva in Israel.

Christoph’s paternal grandfather was born in Hesse.

Christoph’s paternal grandmother was named Erna.

Christoph’s maternal grandfather was Rudolf von Urbantschitsch/Urban (the son of Viktor Urbantschitsch and Caroline Fröschl). Rudolf was a psychiatrist, who wrote the book Sex Perfection and Marital Happiness (1949). He was born in Vienna, and died in Carmel, California. Christoph’s great-grandfather Viktor was the son of Alois/Alojša Urbantschitsch/Urbančič, who was born in Preddvor, Slovenia, and of Wilhelmine/Wilhelmina Mengele.

Christoph’s maternal grandmother was Austrian actress Maria Mayen (the daughter of Ignaz Mayen).

Christoph’s grandfather Rudolf was married to Friederike Persicaner, who was a first cousin of Gertrud “Trude” Lichtwitz, the mother of actress and inventor Hedy Lamarr. Rudolf, who was not Jewish, hid Friederike, who was Jewish, from the Nazis during WWII.

Sources: http://www.mainpost.de

Genealogy of Christoph Waltz – http://www.geni.com

Biography of Christoph’s maternal grandfather, Rudolf von Urban – http://en.wikipedia.org

Biographies of Christoph’s maternal great-grandfather, Viktor Urbantschitsch – http://pl.wikipedia.org
http://www.biographien.ac.at

Christoph’s maternal grandmother, Maria Mayen, at the German Wikipedia – http://de.wikipedia.org

ethnic

Curious about ethnicity

27 Responses

  1. transemacabre says:

    He may have remote Hungarian roots. His 3x-great-grandmother, Elisabeth Doraszille/Doropill/Doraskil, was born to Antonia Mayer and a father named Johann. This surname appears to be a German attempt at rendering Doraszil or some similar name.

  2. transemacabre says:

    The only things I could find on his paternal grandparents were in his mother Elisabeth’s book, ‘Vier Kinder und ein Zeichentisch’. She mentions her father-in-law was born in Hesse, and that her mother-in-law (and thus Christoph’s paternal grandmother) was named Erna.

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