Rainer Bock was born in Kiel in 1954, where he also took up his first engagement at the Stadttheater in 1982. His further stations took him from the Schleswig-Holstein State Theater via Heidelberg, Mannheim and the Stuttgart State Theater to the Bavarian State Theater (Residenztheater) in Munich in 2001, where he was permanently engaged under Dieter Dorn until 2011. This city remains his second home to this day. From 2011, he decided to work freelance, as his performance as the village doctor in the film “Das weiße Band” by Michael Haneke aroused interest in the film and television industry and offers began to pile up. These gave him the opportunity to work with directors such as Steven Spielberg, Brian de Palma, John Curran, Christian Petzold, Andreas Prohaska and Ildikó Enyedi. Repeated collaborations with Alexander Dierbach and Richard Huber were very important to him. A highlight of his film work was his portrayal of Walter in the feature film “Atlas”, directed by David Nawrath. He was still able to make guest appearances at the Düsseldorf and Zurich theaters and at the Salzburg Festival before devoting himself entirely to filming at the end of 2017. He has won the German Actor Award, the Bavarian Television Award and several national and international nominations. The American TV series “Better Call Saul” had him working in Albuquerque, New Mexico, for three months - a job that allowed him to get to know the USA and made a deep impression on him. He was most recently seen as a judge in the feature film “Die Ermittlung” (directed by RP Kahl), based on the play of the same name by Peter Weiss. Rainer Bock lives in Munich and is an enthusiastic fly fisherman in his spare time. He returns to the stage and the Schauspielhaus Zürich as Lear in Anne Lenk's production of KÖNIG LEAR.
Photo: Stefan Klueter