Josef Sommer

Maximilian Josef Sommer, born on June 26, 1934, in Greifswald, Germany, is a German-American retired actor whose career spanned stage, film, and television. In 1938, Sommer emigrated from Germany to the United States with his parents, Elisabeth and Clemens Sommer, and a sister. His father held a professorship in art history at the University of North Carolina. Sommer studied theatre at the Carnegie Institute of Technology and later trained as an actor at the American Shakespeare Festival in Connecticut, with additional service in the U.S. Army preceding his professional career.

His first stage appearance came in 1943, when the nine-year-old Sommer performed in the Carolina Playmakers production of Lillian Hellman's Watch on the Rhine. He subsequently worked with the Seattle Repertory Theatre before making his Broadway debut in 1970, playing Brabantio in Othello. The following year he appeared in the original production of Friar Daniel Berrigan's The Trial of the Catonsville Nine, taking on the role of the Defense. Throughout the 1970s, Sommer accumulated a substantial list of Broadway credits, including Dr. Karl Yaeger in Children! Children! (1972), Nikolai Skrobotov in Maxim Gorky's Enemies (1972), Antonio in The Merchant of Venice (1973), Schmidt in Full Circle directed by Otto Preminger (1973), Arnold J. Pilger in Peter Ustinov's Who's Who in Hell (1974), a role in Michael Cristofer's The Shadow Box (1977), and Francis in the musical Spokesong (1979).

His Broadway work continued into the 1980s and 1990s. In 1980, Sommer played Clifton A. Feddington in the original production of The 1940's Radio Hour and Dr. Michael Emerson in the revival of Brian Clark's Whose Life is it Anyway? He later took on the role of The Reverend Lionel Espy in the original production of Racing Demon in 1995. His 1991 Drama Desk Award nomination for Outstanding Featured Actor in a Play recognized his performance in Hamlet. Off Broadway, Sommer won Obie Awards for his work in Lydie Breeze (1982) and Václav Havel's Largo Desolato (1986), and appeared at Lincoln Center's Mitzi E. Newhouse Theater as Blair in the 1994 revision of Tom Stoppard's Hapgood.

Sommer's film career began with Dirty Harry in 1971. Subsequent film roles included The Stepford Wives (1975), The Front (1976), Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977), Reds (1981), and Still of the Night (1982), the same year he served as narrator on Sophie's Choice. He appeared in Silkwood (1983) and Peter Weir's Witness (1985) opposite Harrison Ford, playing a corrupt police officer. In 1988, he took the lead role in Dracula's Widow opposite Sylvia Kristel, and appeared in Shadows and Fog in 1991. The following year he played Gerald Ducksworth in The Mighty Ducks (1992), a benefactor of inner-city youth hockey who funds the team's equipment, rink time, and uniforms. Later film appearances included Malice (1993), Nobody's Fool (1994), Patch Adams (1998), and X-Men: The Last Stand (2006).

On television, Sommer played Roy Mills on The Guiding Light in 1974 and George Barton in the 1983 television adaptation of Agatha Christie's Sparkling Cyanide. He portrayed President Gerald Ford opposite Gena Rowlands in The Betty Ford Story (1987) and guest starred on The Equalizer in 1989 as Ernest Rasher in the episode "Endgame." He also held starring roles in the short-lived series Hothouse (1988) and Under Cover (1991). Sommer has a daughter named Maria.