Norbert Grupe (August 25, 1940 – March 10, 2004), better known outside Germany by his stage name Wilhelm von Homburg, was a German boxer, actor, and professional wrestler known for his villainous supporting roles in various high-profile films of the 1980s and 1990s, including Vigo the Carpathian in Ghostbusters II (1989), the henchman James in Die Hard (1988), and Souteneur in Werner Herzog's Stroszek (1977).[2]
Norbert Grupe was born in Berlin on August 25, 1940. He was the son of Richard Grupe (1915 – August 5, 1988), who worked as a baker in Nazi Germany, and later become both a championship-winning boxer and a local policeman who worked at the Buchenwald concentration camp. Richard would later say of this period, "I was never a Nazi. I never joined the party. I was not in the Hitler Youth...I was a pastryman...I have not much luck with the Jewish people. But I never hated them. Never hated them. I'm very sorry for what Hitler did to the Jewish people." After the war, Richard boxed professionally from 1946 to 1952, earning a record of 26 wins (20 by knockout), 8 losses, and 6 draws. He then toured Europe as a wrestler. Norbert was born to a girlfriend of Richard's, while Richard's first wife gave birth to Grupe's brother Winfried. Richard's second wife Ursula, much younger and closer in age to Norbert Grupe himself, gave birth to Grupe's sister, Rona. Ursula left the family five years later. According to Rona, Grupe exhibited a bitter jealousy toward Winfried, because Winfried's mother was a daily presence for him, whereas Grupe's absent mother would not even speak to him.[3]Years later, when Rona was in her mid-teens, Richard informed her that at some point in 1959, the year prior to Rona's birth, Richard was away from home, most likely on a wrestling trip, and Ursula was home alone. Grupe climbed the fire escape into the house and raped her. Richard said it was possible that Grupe was Rona's biological father. Decades later, however, when Richard was in a coma near his death, Rona had a blood test, which proved that Richard was her father.[3]
In his youth, Grupe worked as a meatpacker, butcher, longshoreman, and a waiter. By the time he finished school, Grupe, who had begun training in boxing at age 10, had won several amateur boxing matches. Around 1960, Richard emigrated to the United States to further his wrestling career, and Grupe, who stood at 6'3" and 227 pounds by this time, would soon follow, spending time at California's notable Venice weight pen, where he became acquainted with future film star Arnold Schwarzenegger. The father and son duo would don Viking costumes, with which they were billed as the tag-team by the name of The Vikings, wrestling at the Los Angeles Coliseum and Madison Square Garden. They subsequently changed their name to the Von Homburg Brothers, under which they performed as heels for less than a hundred dollars a night in total. Grupe thought his last name sounded too much like the word groupie, and changed it to Prince Wilhelm von Homburg. He sometimes wore a monocle and German eagle. He would later regret using it in Hollywood, saying, "In an industry that was ruled by the Jews, it was really dumb to call myself 'von Homburg.' Who do they think that is? A Nazi nobleman." After their wrestling partnership ended, the father and son grew estranged.[3][4]
Von Homburg switched careers to boxing in 1962, employing the showmanship and the boastful, cocky persona he had developed as a wrestler. He won 16 of 21 professional fights in the U.S., fighting throughout California as a light heavyweight before traveling across the U.S. and then his native Germany where he wore fur coats, smoked cigars, and taunted referees and crowds in a way that stunned the normally sedate German boxing world. One reporter for Der Spiegel ranked Von Homburg as seventh in the world. He grew his blonde hair over his ears, for which he was nicknamed the "Beatle Boxer."[3]
Von Homburg got his first championship match in 1966 against Piero del Papa for the EBU Regional Light Heavyweight title in Berlin. Homburg was disqualified in the eleventh round, after having knocked out Del Papa, because the referee declared a subtle head movement by Von Homburg to have been an illegal headbutt. The match would haunt Von Homburg for the rest of his life, and he would blame it on bias on the part of the referee, saying, "I was the best thing German boxing had back then, and then I had a 70-year-old Frenchman as the referee. We all know what the Germans did to his parents and his sister."[3]
Throughout his boxing career, von Homburg appeared in bit roles in various films and television shows, usually billed as Wilhelm von Homburg. In "The Promoter", the April 25, 1964, episode of Gunsmoke for example, he played a boxer named Otto who is offered a large bribe to throw a fight.[3]
After losing his next three fights, von Homburg retired from boxing in 1970 at age 30, and went to live in St. Pauli Kiez, a red-light district of Hamburg, developing a reputation in that area's underground, where he associated with pimps and Hells Angels, and engaged in a number of affairs with both men and women. He also used drugs and alcohol to excess.[3]
After spending some years in prison, von Homburg attempted to pursue an acting career in earnest. German director Werner Herzog, who had seen him box in his youth, cast him as a bullying pimp in his 1977 film Stroszek. Herzog commented, "The Prince was so clear and intelligent and radiated, at the same time, a feeling of danger that absolutely terrified me. He was almost like a German Mike Tyson." A decade later, Von Homburg was cast as James, one of Hans Gruber's henchmen in the 1988 action thriller Die Hard, who dies after Bruce Willis' character detonates plastic explosives down an elevator shaft. Von Homburg's biggest role came at age 50, when he was cast as the primary villain in the 1989 comedy sequel Ghostbusters II, playing Vigo the Carpathian, a despotic sorcerer whose soul is released from a medieval painting. The character's full name was Vigo Von Homburg Deutschendorf, which paid homage to the name he had chosen as a performer. The film was released less than a year after Von Homburg's father Richard died, though he had not reconciled with his father or sister. His last major role was as Charles Macum Diggs, a vegetative ex-boxer in Diggstown, which was a commercial flop.[3]
Von Homburg spent the last years of his life effectively homeless, alternating between sleeping at a YMCA, in the homes of friends, or in his van. He developed prostate cancer, and following its metastasis to his pelvis, spine, and brain, he went to the home of his friend Walter Staudinger, where he spent his final days.[3]