Steven Berkoff (born 3 August 1937) is an English actor, writer and director. He is best known for his performance as General Orlov in the James Bond film Octopussy, and is typically cast in villanous roles, such as Lt. Col Podovsky in Rambo: First Blood Part II, Victor Maitland in Beverly Hills Cop, and Adolf Hitler in epic mini-series War and Remembrance.
Berkoff was born Leslie Steven Berks, in Stepney, in the East End of London, on 3 August 1937, the son of Pauline (Hyman) and Alfred Berks (Berkovitch), who was a tailor. His family was of Romanian Jewish background. He attended Raine's Foundation Grammar School (1948-50), Hackney Downs School, the Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Art (1958), and the Ecole Jacques Lecoq (1965).
As well as being an actor, Berkoff is a playwright and director.
He joined the Repertory Company at Her Majesty's Theatre in Barrow-in-Furness for approximately two months in 1962.
His earliest plays are adaptations of works by Franz Kafka: The Metamorphosis (1969); In the Penal Colony (1969); and The Trial (1971); these complex psychological plays are said to be nightmarish and to create a disturbing sense of alienation in their audiences.
In the 1970s
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