He was diagnosed with antisocial personality disorder.
Because no actor would work with him, he performed on stage in one-man productions.
He turned down the role of the German villain Toht in Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981), although he wanted to make a film with Steven Spielberg, but thought "the script is as moronically shitty as so many other flicks of its ilk." Instead he chose to appear in Venom (1981) because the pay was better.
Of his three children, only his son Nikolai Kinski attended the funeral in California, where his ashes were scattered in the Pacific Ocean (February 1992).
For a short time he lived in a shared apartment in Munich (Elisabethstraße 3). One of the children living there was the thirteen-year-old Werner Herzog. They later collaborated on five films.
According to Kinski, he turned down offers to work with the famous directors Pier Paolo Pasolini, Federico Fellini, Luchino Visconti, Ken Russell and Steven Spielberg because the pay was too low.
He chose only films that were quick to shoot and earned the most money.
In 2013 his daughter Pola Kinski published her autobiography "Kindermund" in Germany, in which she accused her father of sexually abusing her between the ages of 5 and 19.
Father of the actress Nastassja Kinski, with Ruth Tocki.
In his memoirs, the actor claimed that as a child he had to steal food for his family because his father was unemployed.
In 1977, his provocative appearance on Je später der Abend (1973) became legendary because he did not answer a single question during an interview and called the host Reinhard Münchenhagen "Herr Münchhausen."
He appeared in two adaptations of Bram Stoker's 1897 novel "Dracula." He played Renfield in Count Dracula (1970) and Count Dracula in Nosferatu the Vampyre (1979).
He was honored by his birthplace, the city of Sopot.
He worked with Christopher Lee on The Devil's Daffodil (1961), The Secret of the Red Orchid (1962), Psycho-Circus (1966), Five Golden Dragons (1967) and Count Dracula (1970). His daughter Nastassja Kinski later worked with Lee on To the Devil a Daughter (1976).
As an actor he was entirely self-taught.
His father was a pharmacist and was allegedly also an opera singer who, like his mother, died during the Second World War.
His face and on-screen personality gave his film career momentum when he was cast in a series of German productions based on Edgar Wallace's thrillers in the 1960s.
The French government named him 'Commandeur de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres' on 5 February 1986, one of the highest honors awarded to a foreign artist.
His autobiography was first published under the title "All I Need Is Love," but was withdrawn in 1989 due to a contract dispute: a German publisher claimed that Kinski had previously published an autobiography entitled "Ich, Kinski" for them, and he sued the publishers. The book was reissued in 1997 under the title "Kinski Uncut," with material excluded from the first version added.
He was ambidextrous, as seen in "Fitzcarraldo" (1982). He writes with his right hand but eats and paints with his left.
According to Tony Anthony, Kinski auditioned for the role of En Plein in The Stranger Returns (1967), but could not get the part due to a nearly fatal accident at Cinecittà Studios. The horse he rode as part of the audition had not been ridden for months because it had been sheltered during the past winter months. While Kinski was on horseback, the skittish animal jumped, staggered, pinned him against a wall and fell on him, crushing him with its full body weight on a bar's steps. X-rays revealed that Kinski's spine was cracked and that he had narrowly escaped lifelong paralysis. The role of En Plein went to Dan Vadis, and Kinski received no compensation for the incident because the producers had no insurance. Weeks later, the so-called Western Man defied his doctor's orders not to exert himself or ride a horse by playing the villain in Pride and Vengeance (1967).
Werner Herzog collaborated with Kinski on 5 feature films: Aguirre, The Wrath of God (1972), Nosferatu the Vampyre (1979), Woyzeck (1979), Fitzcarraldo (1982) and Cobra Verde (1987). Only the director Alfred Vohrer worked with Kinski more often: he directed 7 of the 16 'Edgar Wallace' films in which Kinski appeared.
Alfred Vohrer, the director with the strongest artistic influence on the popular German film series based on Edgar Wallace's material, worked with Kinski on 7 of the 14 'Edgar Wallace' films he directed: Dead Eyes of London (1961), The Door with Seven Locks (1962), The Inn on the River (1962), Der Zinker (1963), The Indian Scarf (1963), Again the Ringer (1965) and The Creature with the Blue Hand (1967).
He was offered a role in Hammer's last film, To the Devil a Daughter (1976), but turned it down because shooting his scenes would take more than ten days.
Although he was better known throughout his career for his acting in many B-movies, he also worked with famous film directors such as David Lean, Billy Wilder, George Roy Hill, Sergio Leone and Werner Herzog. Other respected directors included Douglas Sirk, Damiano Damiani, James Toback, Andrzej Żuławski, Frank Cassenti, Giuliano Montaldo, Laslo Benedek, Fritz Kortner and Helmut Käutner. Two of Kinski's films were even nominated in the 'Best Picture' / 'Best Foreign Language Film' categories at the Oscars: Doctor Zhivago (1965) and Operation Thunderbolt (1977).
Over the course of his long film career, Klaus Kinski worked with 11 Academy Award-winning actors (Maximilian Schell, Ernest Borgnine, Christopher Plummer, Walter Matthau, Jack Lemmon, Diane Keaton, Anjelica Huston, Susan Sarandon, Julie Christie, Rod Steiger and Alec Guinness) and 4 Academy Award-winning directors (Billy Wilder, David Lean, George Roy Hill and Clint Eastwood).
He was the father of actor Nikolai Kinski.
He was the son of Polish-German pharmacist Bruno Nakszynski and his wife Susanne Lutze, the daughter of a German pastor from Danzig.
He was the father of actress Pola Kinski.
Grandchildren: Aljosha, Sonja and Kenya.
It was announced that he would play Dr. Hans Fallada in Lifeforce (1985), but he withdrew from the film. He was also considered for Dr. Bukovsky.
He was the uncle of actress Lara Lamberti.
He was the brother-in-law of Tommy Kent.