Franka Potente is a German actress, she was born on July 22, 1974. She made her acting debut in the 1995 comedy After Five in the Forest Primeval, for which she was nominated for a Bavarian Film Award for Best Young Actress. Her big break came in the famous action film Run Lola Run, where she played the title character and earned a BAMBI Award for Best Actress. For her portrayal in the television movie Opernball, she also garnered more praise from the critics and a Bavarian Television Award nomination (also 1998).
Franka Potente made the switch to Hollywood with her performance in the biographical crime thriller Blow (2001) after nearly a decade of well-received roles in German movies. She then gained broader fame for her roles in The Bourne Identity (2002) and The Bourne Supremacy (2004). In Che (2008), she played communist revolutionary Tamara Bunke, and in The Conjuring 2, she played psychotherapist Anita Gregory (2016). Her other well-known movies include Muse, Eichmann, Romulus, My Father, The Princess, and the Warrior, Anatomy, and The Princess and the Warrior (2017).
In addition to Claws, Potente also starred in Taboo (2017) and Copper (2012–2013). She also has recurring parts in The Bridge (2012) and American Horror Story.
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Table of Contents
Early Life
Franka Potente was born in Münster, West Germany to Dieter, a teacher, and Hildegard, a medical assistant. She grew up close by in Dülmen. Potente’s great-grandfather, a Sicilian slater, gave her Italian ancestry. She went to Munich’s Otto Falckenberg School of Performing Arts for her higher study.
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Career
In Films
As the lead role in the German romantic comedy “After Five in the Forest Primeval,” which was helmed by her then-boyfriend Hans-Christian Schmid, Potente made her feature film debut in 1995. But it wasn’t until “Run Lola Run,” a Tom Tykwer action thriller in which she portrays the title character, that she had her big break. The $1 million budgeted movie became a huge international smash, grossing $14.5 million worldwide, and Potente won the BAMBI Award for Best Actress. The films “Am I Beautiful?,” “Paradise Mall,” and “Downhill City” were Potente’s subsequent credits.
In the popular German horror movie “Anatomy,” she played a medical student who stumbles into a gruesome cult conspiracy in 2000. She collaborated once again with director Tom Tykwer to appear in his love story “The Princess and the Warrior,” for which she was nominated for both a European Film Award and a German Film Award for Best Actress.
In the biographical crime movie “Blow,” which also starred Johnny Depp and Penélope Cruz, Potente made her English-language cinematic debut. She also made a cameo in the dramedy “Storytelling” by Todd Solondz. After that, Potente co-starred with Matt Damon in the popular action thriller “The Bourne Identity” as Marie Kreutz, a love interest. She returned in the 2004 follow-up “The Bourne Supremacy.”
Between the two movies, Potente appeared in the American and German films “Blueprint,” “All I Want,” and “I Love Your Work.” She also reprised her part from “Anatomy” in the follow-up “Anatomy 2.” She later starred in the plays “Atomised” and “Romulus, My Father,” the horror thriller “Creep,” as well as the biographical movies “Eichmann” and “Che.” In addition to “Shanghai,” “The Conjuring 2,” and the German road movie “25 km/h,” Potente has appeared in additional films.
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Television Career
In the 1997 television movie “Coming In,” Potente made his debut on a tiny screen. The next year, she appeared in “Opernball,” another television movie. Potente didn’t return to television until 2007 when she played the character Diro Kesakhian in an ongoing episode of the crime drama series “The Shield.” She followed that up in 2008 with “Manhunt” and “The Bridge,” two television movies.
Franka Potente made guest appearances in episodes of the detective dramedy “Psych” and the medical drama “House” to end the decade. She appeared in “The Sinking of the Laconia” and “Beat Uhse,” two television movies in 2011 that were based on actual historical occurrences. She played the titular German pilot and sex pioneer in the latter.
In the drama “Copper” on BBC America from 2012 to 2013, Potente played her first major part in a regular series. She portrayed Eva Heissen, a Prussian entrepreneur and brothel madam in New York City in the 1860s. Also in 2012, Potente played a lady who claims to be Anne Frank in a two-episode arc on “American Horror Story: Asylum.”
In 2014, Potente played cartel fixer Eleanor Nacht in a recurring role in the second season of the crime thriller series “The Bridge.” Two years later, she played Chief Inspector Shaddick in another, more limited recurring role in the Canadian science fiction series “Dark Matter.”
In the BBC limited series “Taboo,” a historical drama set in 1814 London, Potente played brothel madam Helga von Hinten in 2017. She then made two subsequent appearances in “Claws” episodes on TNT. Among Potente’s other credits is the fourth season of the DC Comics superhero series “Titans,” where she plays Mother Mayhem.
Personal Life
Like everyone else, Franka was looking for love, and while she was looking, she met Eric Melvin. One of the best-known independent bands of all time, the punk rock group NOFX, features Eric on guitar. Eric, who was also a founding member of the group, met Franka early on and the two grew close. The brief relationship between Eric and Franka didn’t last long due to his touring commitments and her acting career.
Also rumored but never confirmed was Franka’s romance with actor Elijah Wood.
In 2012, Franka Potente got married to actor Derek Richardson. In 2009, the two had initially come into contact while working on a “House” episode. Their daughters are named Polly and Georgie.
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Who Is Derek Richardson?
American actor Derek Richardson Jr. was born on January 18, 1976. He is most known for playing young Harry Dunne in the movie Dumb and Dumberer: When Harry Met Lloyd and for his TV work on Men in Trees and Anger Management.
His Early Life
Derek Richardson, the oldest of Ellen and Dr. Derek Richardson’s five children, was born in Queensbury, New York. He attended Colorado College after graduating from the Holderness School in New Hampshire for high school (1994–98).
His Career
He made his acting debut in supporting roles on Strangers with Candy and Law & Order.
He was chosen to play Keri Russell’s love interest in a recurring role on J. J. Abrams’ Felicity after relocating to Los Angeles in 2002. Later, he co-starred as a younger Harry Dunne, played by Jeff Daniels, in the Dumb and Dumber prequel Dumb and Dumberer: When Harry Met Lloyd.
In the Lions Gate Entertainment horror film Hostel, which was directed by Eli Roth and executive produced by Quentin Tarantino, Richardson played one of the leads opposite Jay Hernandez. He was nominated for “Best Frightened Performance” at the 2006 MTV Movie Awards for his work in the horror movie. He debuted as “Patrick Bachelor” in the television series Men in Trees in 2006.
He appeared in all 100 episodes of the Charlie Sheen FX original series Anger Management from 2012 to 2014 as Nolan Johnson.
