Dan van Husen (30 April 1945 – 31 May 2020) was a German actor. He started his career in the 1960s, playing in a number of Spaghetti Westerns (usually he was cast as the bad guy), and also performed in Italian and German films by renowned directors including Frederico Fellini and Werner Herzog and in German TV series. Starting in the 2000s he performed in Hollywood films, and in 2008 had a role in a Dutch World War 2 movie, Winter in Wartime.
He was first discovered by Italian producers while working as a club disc jockey in Spain and began working increasingly seriously as an actor in the late 60s.[2] He appeared in twenty Italo Westerns in six or seven years and before branching out to diverse roles and genres. In the years 1968-1974 he participated in more than 24 Italo Westerns, amongst others directed by Sergio Corbucci, Sergio Martino, Enzo G. Castellari etc. In 1977, he was also involved in the play Courage at the Schauspielhaus Bochum, directed by Jérôme Savary. He was cast as the bad guy in 90% of his films.[2]
He also worked in German TV series such as The Old Fox, Derrick, Alarm für Cobra 11 - Die Autobahnpolizei and many more. He was often cast as a rogue as in the television disaster film Tsunami or in the '80s cult film Ritchy Guitar of Michael Laux, and in the film Cold and Dark directed by Andrew Goth.
In 2006, he acted in the German television film Karol Woityla directed by Gero von Boehm and in 2007 in Gellert, a motion picture film under the direction of Ayassi with Ken Duken and the German TV crime series SOKO Wismar.
In February/March 2008, he worked on Winter in Wartime a Dutch movie based on the hit novel by the same name, written by Jan Terlouw and directed (and written) by Martin Koolhoven. In June and July 2010, he worked in southern California on the American Western film Scarlet Worm, in the role of the antagonist Heinrich Kley, directed by Michael Fredianelli.
Dan van Husen in 2007
In 2011, he worked on the American film production Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn, directed by Jo Kastner, and got invited to the Spaghetti Western Film Festival in Los Angeles on 19 March of that year. He attended the Almería Western Film Festival from 8 to 11 September 2011, and received a lifetime achievement award in the western film genre. He then got invited to the Lund International Fantastic Film Festival in Sweden, from 15 to 24 September 2011. He attended the Cinefest 2011, VIII, and Internationales Festival des deutschen Film-Erbes Hamburg from 12 to 20 November 2011.
