Photo: CBS Television / Public domain (source: Wikimedia Commons)
My Take
Kenneth Mars is the kind of character actor I treasure - a face you may not name but a laugh you definitely remember. A Chicago native and Northwestern graduate, he poured that training into gloriously unhinged turns as the Nazi playwright in The Producers and the German inspector in Young Frankenstein, plus work for Bogdanovich and Woody Allen. What I love is the discipline behind the broadness: he commits totally yet always serves the scene rather than himself. Voice work, song, deadpan absurdity - he could do it all. He passed in 2011, but those over-the-top accents still land, and that staying power is the mark of a real craftsman.
Overview
Kenneth Mars (April 4, 1935 – February 12, 2011) was an American actor. He appeared in two Mel Brooks films: as the deranged Nazi playwright Franz Liebkind in The Producers (1967) and Police Inspector Hans Wilhelm Friedrich Kemp in Young Frankenstein (1974). He also co-starred in Peter Bogdanovich's What's Up, Doc? (1972) as well as appearing in Woody Allen's Radio Days (1987) and Shadows and Fog (1991).
Summary adapted from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.
1. Profile
- Name (English)
- Kenneth Mars
- Name (Japanese)
- ケネス・マース
- Reading
- けねす・まーす
- Born
- April 4, 1935 – February 12, 2011
- Zodiac / Chinese zodiac
- Aries / Boar
- Origin
- Chicago, Illinois, United States
- Blood type
- Private
- Height
- Private
- Agency
- Private
- Occupation
- actor / voice actor / film actor / television actor / singer
2. Background
- Elementary school
- Private
- Junior high
- Private
- High school
- Bowen High School
- University
- Northwestern University
3. Relationships
- Spouse
- Private
- Children
- Private
- Parents
- Private
- Siblings
- Private
4. Personality
Motto
Private
6. Links
Actor — see all → · Voice actor — see all → · More people from United States →
7. About this entry
Tags
- Last updated
- 2026-06-02
Facts are limited to publicly available information up to 2024; non-public items are marked "Private / Unknown". English text is machine-assisted (facts translated by Sonnet, "My Take" written by Opus 4.8). The Japanese page is the source of record.