Urs Rechn

Urs Rechn is a German actor, most famous for his appearance in the 2015 Cannes Grand Prix-winning Holocaust drama Son of Saul. Urs Günther Rechn was born on January 18, 1978, in Halle an der Saale, then German Democratic Republic, now Saxony-Anhalt, Germany, to Günther Rechn (a renowned painter and graphic artist from East Germany) and his wife Beate Rechn, the second of their three children.

From 1987 onwards, Rechn attended the Special Grammar School for Music "Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy" in Halle, where he excelled in violoncello, French horn, and singing. After the Fall of the Berlin Wall, the family relocated to Cottbus, Brandenburg, where Rechn attended the 1. Heinrich Heine Academic High School for Music and Fine Arts and the Konservatorium Cottbus, where he gained an outstanding reputation as junior conductor of the youth symphony orchestra and brass band.

Despite having received no formal previous training in acting, Rechn segued into an acting career, encouraged by the honoured and renowned East German director and impresario Christoph Schroth. He appeared on the stage plays Hamlet (1995), The Beaver Coat (1996), and Steig'in das Traumboot der Liebe (1996) and as a chorister in the opera The Magic Flute (1995) at the State Theater Cottbus.

In 1997, owing to conscription, Rechn served with the German paratrooper corps, and later in the German special forces. In the meantime, he appeared in several TV episodes thanks to an agreement with his colonel. Upon completion of the active service in 2002, Rechn attended the University of Music and Theater Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy, Leipzig, and graduated in 2004. He became then – and still is – a visiting scholar at this institution.

Rechn has spent most of his acting career on stage: 2003-2005 Staatsschauspiel Dresden, 2005-2007 Landestheater Tübingen, 2008-2013 Theater Chemnitz, (Chemnitz Opera) e.g.: The Seagull - Treblev; Cat on a Hot Tin Roof - Brick; The Merchant of Venice - Antonio; Julius Caesar - Marcus Antonius; Caligula - Caligula; A Streetcar Named Desire - Stanley Kowalski; The Threepenny Opera - Jonathan Peachum.

Rechn attracted international attention for his role of the Jewish Oberkapo Biedermann in the film Son of Saul by Hungarian director László Nemes which won the Grand Prix at the 2015 Cannes Film Festival as well as several further international awards. In June 2015, Hungary announced its submission of Son of Saul as their candidate for the foreign language film Oscar at the 2016 Academy Awards. On February 28, Son of Saul won the Oscar.