Karl Friedrich May was a German author. He is best known for his novels of travels and adventures, set in the American Old West, the Orient, the Middle East, Latin America, China and Germany. He also wrote poetry, a play, and composed music. He was a proficient player of several musical instruments. Many of his works were adapted for film, theatre, audio dramas and comics. Later in his career, May turned to philosophical and spiritual genres. He is one of the best-selling German writers of all time, with about 200,000,000 copies sold worldwide.
Stewart Granger was a British film actor, mainly associated with heroic and romantic leading roles. He was a popular leading man from the 1940s to the early 1960s, rising to fame through his appearances in the Gainsborough melodramas.
Winnetou is a fictional Native American hero of several novels written in German by Karl May (1842–1912), one of the best-selling German writers of all time with about 200 million copies worldwide, including the Winnetou trilogy. The character made his debut in the novel Old Firehand (1875).
Old Shatterhand is a fictional character in Western novels by German writer Karl May (1842–1912). He is the German friend and blood brother of Winnetou, the fictional chief of the Mescalero tribe of the Apache. He is the main character in the Eurowestern by the same name from 1964, starring Lex Barker, as well as in six more films of the Winnetou film series.
Martin Böttcher was a German composer, arranger and conductor.
Pierre-Louis Le Bris, known as Pierre Brice, was a French actor, best known as portraying fictional Apache-chief Winnetou in German films based on Karl May novels.
The film Old Shatterhand is a successful Eurowestern based on the character Old Shatterhand, written by German novelist Karl May and part of the Winnetou series. It is a West German CCC Film production co-produced with French, Italian, and Yugoslav companies and filmed in 70mm. Financed with roughly DM 5,000,000, the film was the most expensive Karl May western. Composer Riz Ortolani used a chorus for his film score.
Der Schuh des Manitu is a 2001 German Western parody film. Directed by Michael Herbig, it is a film adaptation of the Winnetou sketches from his ProSieben television show Bullyparade. With earnings of about 65 million Euro and 11.7 million visitors in cinemas, it is one of the most successful German movies after the Second World War.
Gojko Mitić is a German-Serbian actor and director. He gained great popularity in the German Democratic Republic (GDR) as the leading actor in historical and fictional Indian personalities in numerous DEFA Indian films. His popularity may be recognizable from the fact that both in the GDR and later in the Federal Republic of Germany attempts were made to attach labels to him: "DEFA bosses" on the one hand, "Winnetou of the East" on the other. However, Gojko Mitić never portrayed the latter role in a film. This Winnetou formulation refers more to the popularity of Gojko Mitić compared to the actor of the role from the West, the Frenchman Pierre Brice.
Lawrence Kenneth Pennell was an American television and film actor, often remembered for his role as Dash Riprock in the television series The Beverly Hillbillies. His career spanned half a century, including starring in the first-run syndicated adventure series Ripcord in the leading role of skydiver Theodore "Ted" McKeever, and as Keith Holden in Lassie. He was also a baseball player, playing on scholarship for the University of Southern California (USC) and later professionally for the Boston Braves organization.
Killer's Carnival is a 1966 crime film directed by Alberto Cardone and starring Stewart Granger.
The Desperado Trail is a 1965 West German film directed by Harald Reinl.
Among Vultures is a 1964 Red Western film directed by Alfred Vohrer and starring Stewart Granger, Pierre Brice, Elke Sommer and Götz George. It was also released as Frontier Hellcat.
Mein Freund Winnetou is a 1980 German television miniseries, starring Pierre Brice in the title role and directed by Marcel Camus. A Western, it is part of an extended series of films and television series in which Brice played the fictional Apache chief Winnetou, first introduced in novels by Karl May. It also featured performances from actors such as Ralf Wolter and Siegfried Rauch. In some countries it was released in fourteen episodes, while in others it was released in seven longer episodes.
Apache Gold, also known as Winnetou the Warrior, is a 1963 Western film directed by Harald Reinl. It is based on the story of Winnetou, a fictional Native-American Apache hero from the Winnetou series of German novels. It was a major commercial success, selling about 77 million tickets at the worldwide box office.
The Treasure of the Silver Lake is a 1962 Western film directed by Harald Reinl, loosely based on German author Karl May's 1891 novel of the same name. It was the first in a highly-successful series of films based on May's works by the West German studios Rialto and Constantin Film, starring American actor Lex Barker as the frontiersman Old Shatterhand and French actor Pierre Brice as the Apache warrior Winnetou.
The Oil Prince is a 1965 West German-Yugoslav western film directed by Harald Philipp and starring Stewart Granger, Pierre Brice and Harald Leipnitz. It was also known as Rampage at Apache Wells. The screenplay is based on a novel by Karl May and was one of a series of film adaptations of his work made by Rialto Film.
Winnetou and Old Firehand is a 1966 western film directed by Alfred Vohrer and starring Pierre Brice, Rod Cameron, and Marie Versini.
Winnetou and the Crossbreed is a 1966 West German Western film directed by Harald Philipp and starring Lex Barker, Pierre Brice, Götz George and Uschi Glas. It is part of the series of Karl May adaptations produced by Rialto Film during the decade. It was co-produced with Italy and Yugoslavia. The budget was an estimated three and a half million Deutschmarks.
The Valley of Death or Winnetou and Shatterhand in the Valley of Death is a 1968 western film directed by Harald Reinl and starring Lex Barker, Pierre Brice and Rik Battaglia. It was the last in a series of films based on Karl May novels. These had previously enjoyed major commercial success, although this film's box office returns were disappointing. It was effectively a remake of an earlier film in the series Treasure of the Silver Lake.
