Downfall and Wings of Desire actor Bruno Ganz - best known for playing Adolf Hitler in his final days - dies at 77

Actor Bruno Ganz has died, aged 77 Credit: Andrew Medichini/AP

Swiss actor Bruno Ganz, who played Adolf Hitler cooped up in his Berlin bunker in Downfall and an angel in Wim Wenders’ Wings Of Desire, has died at the age of 77.

German news agency dpa reported that Ganz’s management said on Saturday that he died in Zurich.

Ganz, a prominent figure in the German-language theatre world, moved into films in the 1970s, appearing in Werner Herzog’s Nosferatu and Wenders’ The American Friend among others.

But it was 2004's Downfall, in which he plays the Fuhrer in his final days, which won Ganz most acclaim.

In one of his more recent appearances, he starred as Sigmund Freud in The Tobacconist, released in 2018.

Berlin Mayor Michael Mueller said Ganz was “one of the greats” of the screen and stage.

He said: “The death of Bruno Ganz is a great loss for the German-speaking theatre and film world.”

Actor Bruno Ganz at a press conference for the film The Party’ at the 2017 Berlinale Film Festival in Berlin, Germany Credit: Markus Schreiber/AP