August Diehl (German pronunciation: [aʊ̯ˈɡʊst diːl]; born 4 January 1976) is a German actor, primarily known to international audiences for playing Gestapo major Dieter Hellstrom in Quentin Tarantino's Inglourious Basterds and Michael "Mike" Krause, Evelyn Salt's husband, in the movie Salt. He is also known for his leading roles in the films The Counterfeiters (2007), The Young Karl Marx (2017), and Terrence Malick's A Hidden Life (2019).
Diehl was born in West Berlin. His father is actor Hans Diehl, his mother is a costume designer and his brother is a composer. His family was frequently moving around. Diehl spent his childhood in Auvergne, France and moved back to Germany when he was nine years old. The family lived in Hamburg, Vienna, and Düsseldorf. Growing up in a family of artists, at the age of 18, he played Franz Mohr in a school theatre production of Die Räuber by Friedrich Schiller. After passing the Abitur exams, Diehl studied acting at the renowned Hochschule für Schauspielkunst Ernst Busch in Berlin.
In 2000, he was named one of European film's Shooting Stars by the European Film Promotion.

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