Matthias Hues

Matthias Hues (born 14 February 1959) is a German-born, naturalized American actor and martial artist. He was born in Waltrop, Germany, to Dr. Josef Hues and Maria Humperdinck Hues who still resides in Germany. Maria is the niece of Engelbert Humperdinck, composer of the opera Hansel and Gretel. After graduating from school, Hues moved to Paris to enter hotel management. Once there he joined a health club in Paris, which had just been bombarded with the new Jane Fonda aerobic exercise program from the United States. Hues recognized an opportunity and after returning to Germany opened two health clubs, flying in aerobic teachers from the USA. During this time he became obsessed with the American way of life, and subsequently sold his clubs - boarding a plane to Los Angeles. He immediately joined Gold's Gym in Venice, California, the mecca of bodybuilding and entertainment personalities. Derek Barton, a former Hollywood stuntman and formerly one of Gold's managing directors, received a call from a producer who had just lost Jean-Claude Van Damme for his movie and needed a replacement. Barton sent Hues to test for the role, and he managed to convince the producers to give him the part despite having no prior acting experience. The movie, No Retreat, No Surrender 2 (1987), was a moderate success, and opened the door for Hues to make more films. His most commercially successful movie to date is Dark Angel (1990) and he has played a variety of roles in his films, from a gladiator turned private investigator in Age of Treason (1993) to an aging hit-man in Finding Interest (1994) to a bumbling idiot trying to kidnap a rich kid in Alone in the Woods (1996) to a dancing lion tamer in Big Top Pee-wee (1988). He also played a Klingon general in Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country (1991). Hues is one of the few foreign actors who has lost his accent to the extent that many people in his own country are unaware he is from Germany.