Like his Italian-French counterpart Lino Ventura, who had been a wrestler before becoming an actor, Berlin-born Karl-Otto Alberty was an amateur boxer before he turned to acting, making his debut in a Konstanz theater in 1959. For three decades he was to be a regular of German cinema and television as well as of international English-speaking productions. However, unlike Ventura, Alberty did not become a star, remaining confined to supporting roles or even bit parts, most of the time as a German officer, although in widely seen international productions such as The Great Escape (1963), La caduta degli dei (Götterdämmerung) (1969) or Raid on Rommel (1971). A lookalike of Benito Mussolini (with the exception of his white-blond hair), he would have been an ideal Duce though. A missed opportunity indeed.