On a recent episode of The Cannon Canon, Geoff and Frank mentioned that the hired bad guys in Die Hard had been in so many of their favorite movies. As I was mentioned in regards to having the facts, now I have to live up to it and write this article. That said, this is the kind of thing I love. Who are those goons, who played them and where else have you seen them before? And have any of them been in a Cannon movie?
Hans Gruber (played by Alan Rickman)
Who is he: Hans Gruber is an East German criminal mastermind from who holds the Nakatomi Plaza hostage over the holidays in an attempt to steal $640 million in negotiable bearer bonds. He comes from a family of evil, as his brother Simon (Jeremy Irons) is the main villain of Die Hard with a Vengeance.
At some point in his life, he became part of the Volksfrei, a radical West German terrorist organization. Even this violent group wanted nothing to do with him, as he was kicked for his love of violence and that he was stealing not for the good of the group but for his own personal gain.
Alan Rickman said of the character, “As far as I’m concerned, I’m not playing the villain. I’m just playing somebody who wants certain things in life; has made certain choices, and goes after them.”
This is the same mindset the character was written to have. Steven de Souza, the film’s writer, wrote him as the protagonist. He wrote, “If he had not planned the robbery and put it together, Bruce Willis would have just gone to the party and reconciled or not with his wife. You should sometimes think about looking at your movie through the point of view of the villain who is really driving the narrative.”
According to Hans Buhringer, the German actor who portrayed Fritz, Rickman did an excellent German accent beyond just the basics. Rickman even got the dialect of German English down. When Hans tells Takagi that he enjoyed making models as a boy, he says: “I always enjoyed to make models when I was a boy.” That’s how a German person would speak English.
Where else have you seen Alan Rickman: After Die Hard, Rickman — who made his screen debut in the film — became a bad guy in many films, including the Sheriff of Nottingham in Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves and the potentially bad Severus Snape in the Harry Potter movies. He also played Metatron in Dogma, Alexander Dane in Galaxy Quest and was the voice of Marvin in Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, as well as hundreds of stage roles. He sadly died of cancer in 2016.
Karl Vreski (played by Alexander Godunov)
Who is he: Karl Vreski is an East German terrorist and the second-in-command for Hans Gruber. It’s thought that he also was part of the Volksfrei. He and his brother Tony cut the telephone lines — and one assumes the separate internet and alarm lines, which his out-of-control brother almost destroys — to take over Nakatomi Plaza.
He carries a Steyr AUG as his weapon of choice and for much of the movie is obsessed with killing John McClane to get revenge for the death of his brother. John believes that he’s killed him by hanging him with a chain, but Karl has a tremendous desire for revenge which allows him to escape. He nearly kills John and his wife Holly before Sgt. Al Powell is able to use his service weapon to shoot him between the eyes.
In Die Hard With a Vengeance, Simon Gruber also has a henchman named Karl. He is no relation and is played by Sven Toorvald.
Where else have you seen Alexander Godunov: The actor was a Russian ballet dancer who defected to the U.S. in 1979, which was dramatized in the movie Flight 222. Godunov joined American Ballet Theatre and danced as a principal dancer until 1982, when he had a falling out with childhood friend Mikhail Baryshnikov, the director of the company. He’s also in Witness and The Money Pit, but often turned down roles that had dancing or had him recreate his role as Karl. You can also see him as Scarabis in Waxwork II: Lost in Time and as an Amish dad in North (maybe he thought playing Amish again was funny and not typecasting). Sadly, he died at the age of 45, the victim of complications from hepatitis secondary to chronic alcoholism.
Theo (played by Clarence Gilyard Jr.)
Who is he: Theo says early on, “You didn’t bring me along for my charming personality.” That’s true. As you can tell, he uses the muscle of the other criminals — and then jump kicks a dead guard — to get to his job: locking down the building and then opening the security codes that it will take to get to the money that Hans Gruber wants.
He also does surveillance work for the crew, spotting the police vehicle that is blown up with a rocket launcher before yelling, “Oh my god and the quarterback is toast!”
He’s knocked out by Argyle, making him and Kristoff the only two henchmen not to die. He would attack McClane years later with his own gang in the 2020 commercial Die Hard Is Back.
Where else have you seen Clarence Gilyard Jr.: He was Radar Operator Sundown in Top Gun, as well as private investigator Conrad McMasters on Matlock and Texas Ranger Jimmy Trivette on Walker, Texas Ranger. He was also Reverend Bruce Barnes in the Left Behind movies, wrote ten books and was an associate professor in the College of Fine Arts – Department of Theatre at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.
Franco (played by Bruno Doyon)
Who is he: Franco works mostly with Fritz. They guard the hostages and later heads to the 30th floor where he sees Marco’s body on Sgt. Al Powell’s police car. He’s later killed by McClane machine gunning his knees and then he falls headfirst into a glass window. This scene was stunt-doubled by Steve Picerni.
Where else have you seen Bruno Doyon: His career was brief, as he appeared in the movie The Morning Man, the mini-series Crossing, an episode of a TV series called Le Parc Des Braves and appearing in the industrial movie Head Start: Meeting the Computer Challenge.
Tony Vreski (played by Andreas Wisniewski)
Who is he: After nearly fighting his brother as they cut the phone lines, Tony guards Nakatomi’s head executive Joe Takagi on the 34th floor as Hans asks for the code to the vault. He’s the first villain to be killed by John McClane, who breaks his neck as they fall down the steps. He then writes “Ho ho ho now I have a machine gun” on the killer’s chest. Some think it’s in blood, but I’ve seen other writing that says that it’s in red marker. His death drives his brother Karl to get revenge.
Tony is named for Anton “Little Tony the Red,” the main villain in Roderick Thorp’s novel Nothing Lasts Forever, the book that this movie is made from.
Where else have you seen Andreas Wisniewski: A year before this movie, Wisniewski played the killing machine Necros in The Living Daylights. A former dancer, he also appears in the videos for “Venus” by Bananarma and “Nikita” by Elton John, as well as Gothic, Death Machine and Mission: Impossible.
Alexander (played by Joey Plewa)
Who is he: After Marco’s body is thrown on Sgt. Al Powell’s police car, Alexander fires his M60E3 machine gun but misses the doughnut-loving officer. He is the one who fires the rocket launcher that destroys the police armored vehicle but is killed along with James when McClane throws C4 at them.
Where else have you seen Joey Plewa: After playing one of the Bad Boys in Bruce Willis’ vanity project The Return of Bruno — distributed by HBO/Cannon Home Video — Piewa was also in Roadhouse, three episodes of My Wife and Kids, the movie Bright Day! and despite getting blown up, he returned as Alexander in the Die Hard Is Back commercial. He’s also produced several music videos, including “Tease Me Please Me” by The Scorpions, “Blaze of Glory” by Jon Bon Jovi, “The More Things Change” for Cinderella and “Livin’ La Vida Loca” for Ricky Martin. He was also the voice — alongside Christopher Guest and Bill Murray — for the English version of the French cartoon B.C. Rock.
Marco (played by Lorenzo Caccialanza)
Who is he: Marco’s body is thrown from the 34th floor by John McClane. This brings Sgt. Al Powell into the action.
Where else have you seen Lorenzo Caccialanza: Caccialanza played soccer for several years in the Italian leagues before moving to the United States to pursue an acting career. In 1986, he played for the Hollywood Kickers when they won the Western Soccer Alliance championship.
He’s best known for being on Knot’s Landing, Days of Our Lives and The Bold and the Beautiful. He’s also in Funny About Love, Don Juan DeMarco, Entangled, Just Married and Monster-In-Law.
Kristoff (played by Gérard Bonn)
Who is he: He’s barely in the movie and his fate isn’t even told! He could still be up on the 34th floor for all we know!
Where else have you seen Gérard Bonn: He was in the French movie Vanille fraise, the TV series College, the TV movie Message from Nam and Killing Zoe.
Eddie (played by Dennis Hayden)
Who is he: How is Eddie the next to last bad guy to die? Well, he was originally written to die halfway through the film. Hayden hired the future sister-of-law of writer Steven E. de Souza as his publicist and used that to get Eddie to be killed next-to-last. He’s also not Huey Lewis, even though the singer voiced Eddie in The Cleveland Show episode “Die Semi-Hard.”
Where else have you seen Dennis Hayden: Hayden appears in a Cannon movie! He’s Sonny in Murphy’s Law. He’s also in Action Jackson, Beyond Desire, Another 48 Hrs., Wishmaster and Andrew Divoff’s Night of the Living Dead 3D: Re-Animation.
Uli (played by Al Leong)
Who is he: Despite only saying two lines — “Move it! Come on!” and “Got it!” — Uli is memorable because of his love for candy, eating both Nestle Crunch and Mars candy bars and the fact that he’s played by Al Leong,
Where else have you seen Al Leong: Everywhere. Leong is the king of movie henchmen and his resume is filled with movies where he’s backed up bad guys. An expert at Northern Shaolin Kung Fu, Tae Kwon Do, Kali and Jujutsu, Leong shows up in My Science Project, Big Trouble In Little China (he was also in John Cassavetes’ Big Trouble the same year), Running Scared, Lethal Weapon, Steele Justice, Action Jackson, Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure, They Live, Black Rain, Cage (a movie with Reb Brown and Lou Ferrigno and I haven’t seen it?), Savage Beach, I Come In Peace, Aftershock, Death Warrant, The Perfect Weapon, Showdown in Little Tokyo, Rapid Fire, Hard Hunted, Last Action Hero, Hot Shots! Part Deux, Beverly Hills Cop III, The Shadow, Double Dragon, Lethal Weapon Part IV, Escape from L.A., The Replacement Killers, Godzilla, Forbidden Warrior, The Scorpion King and that’s before you get into TV work and appearance in the video “Poppin’ Them Thangs” by G-Unit.
Heinrich (played by Gary Roberts)
Who is he: After setting up missiles on the 35th floor, Heinrich sets up the C4 on the roof. He’s killed by John McClane just before Marco is also killed.
Where else have you seen Gary Roberts: He is in two episodes of Falcon Crest, Beach Fever, “The Face” episode of Monsters, as a cop in Point Break and in the films Letters from a Killer, Direct Hit and Alien Intruder.
Fritz (played by Hans Buhringer)
Who is he: Fritz handles the hard work, like telling Karl that his brother is dead and being the one to tell Hans that there’s an intruder. After all that, when he yells, “They’re using artillery on us!” Hans calls him an idiot in front of everyone.
Hans Buhringer wasn’t available the day of his death scene so he’s played by Henry Kingi, who has a wig on.
Where else have you seen Hans Buhringer: This is his only movie. He did direct and wrote a movie, Contract Online, in 2008.
James (played by Wilhelm von Homburg)
Who is he: James is the ponytailed killing machine who is killed along with Alexander when John McClane throws C4 at them.
Where else have you seen Wilhelm von Homburg: A German boxer, wrestler and weight lifter — as well as a baker and policeman who worked at the Buchenwald concentration camp but claimed that he was never a Nazi — Homburg is also in The Last of the Secret Agents?, The Wrecking Crew, The Devil’s Brigade and In the Mouth of Madness. He’s best known for playing Prince Vigo von Homburg Deutschendorf in Ghostbusters II, a role he didn’t know he was going to be dubbed for, only finding out at the premiere.
Homburg’s real life is — charitably — bonkers. He lived a life chasing after excess, retiring from boxing to live in St. Pauli Kiez, a red-light district of Hamburg living a life of crime before coming to America and being part of the Venice Beach weightlifting scene. His life after being in the film Diggstown was one of sadness, as he spent the last years of his life homeless, either sleeping in his van, the YMCA or in friends’ homes until he died of prostate cancer.
Maybe that was his punishment, as this Deadspin account of his life is pretty astounding, telling the story of a man loved the idea that he may have fathered his half-sister.
Well, yippee-ki-yay, Mister Falcon! We did it! Did I miss anything?
References
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