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Jeremy Kemp

While some performers play against type, the prolific English actor Jeremy Kemp has often played against heritage, appearing as Germans in a number of films. He played Willi von Klugermann, a World War I flying ace, in "The Blue Max," which starred James Mason and George Peppard. He reenlisted in the Kaiser's military as Colonel Kurt Von Ruger for Blake Edwards's "Darling Lilli," in which Julie Andrews played a British spy. And years later, he riffed on his Teutonic characterizations in "Top Secret!," a Cold War spoof set in East Germany. He played Prussians on TV as well, such as Brigadier General Armin von Roon in the miniseries "The Winds of War," a part he reprised in "War and Remembrance." For Trekkies, Kemp will always be a Frenchman: specifically Robert Picard, the surly older brother of the Enterprise's captain on "Star Trek: The Next Generation." But the actor has run a much wider gamut of roles, including some derived from Shakespeare (in TV movies of "The Winter's Tale" and "King Lear," opposite Laurence Olivier), and others derived from pulp fiction (like Hissah Zul, in the TV saga "Conan," opposite the barbarian).