Ulrich Muhe, 'Lives Of Others' star, dies

WALBECK, Germany, July 25 (UPI) -- Ulrich Muhe, the actor who starred in the Oscar-winning "The Lives Of Others," has died in his Walbeck, Germany, home of stomach cancer at age 54.

Muhe, who died Sunday, starred in more than 30 movies, but is best remembered as the Stasi agent whose life was touched by the person he surreptitiously watched in the 2007 Academy Award-winning foreign film, The Hollywood Reporter reported on its Web site Wednesday.

Muhe said growing up under Communist rule in East Germany helped his interpretation of the role for which he earned several European awards, including the Best Actor Award at the 2006 European Film Awards.

On the stage, Muhe performed in "Gespenster" and "Peer Gynt" by Henrik Ibsen, "Egmont" and "Clavigo" by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, and "Hamlet" by William Shakespeare, among others.

Muhe was an outspoken critic of the East German regime and helped organize a major anti-government demonstration in East Berlin in November 1989.

German TV viewers knew Muhe as criminal pathologist Robert Kolmaar in the crime series "The Last Witness."

Muhe is survived by his wife, actress Susanne Lothar, their two children and another child from a previous marriage.