Born Diane Heidkruger, the beautiful blond model-turned-actress from Germany shortened her surname to ‘Kruger’ to help along her acting career.
Raised in a small German town, Diane studied ballet with the London Royal Academy of Dance and dreamt of becoming a dancer until injury forced her to change career. At the age of 15 she entered and won the Elite Model Look competition in Germany and went on to represent her country at the World Final in 1992.
Her modelling career soon took off. Diane walked for the likes of Chanel, Dior, Dolce & Gabbana, Marc Jacobs, Armani and Sonia Rykiel and appeared on the covers of magazines all over the world including Vogue, Elle, Glamour, Marie Claire, Tatler, Cosmopolitan, Harper’s Bazaar, In-Style and Esquire. Diane became the face of several prestigious beauty and fragrance campaigns, firstly as a model and later as an actress. Diane’s campaigns include Allure for Chanel, Acqua di Gio for Giorgio Armani , Miracle for Lancôme Beauty for Calvin Klein and L’Oreal Paris.
With a little encouragement from French film director Luc Besson, Diane began to pursue a career in film while living in Paris. Her fluency in English, French and German has enabled her to undertake roles in both the French and English-speaking film industry. Her first break was a movie called The Piano Player (2002), starring cult actors Christopher Lambert and Dennis Hopper. Her second major film, Mon Idole (2002), was directed by her then-husband, Guillaume Canet, who co-starred with Leonardo DiCaprio in The Beach. In this role she was nominated for Best Actress at the French César Awards in 2003.
Diane made an international break-through in Troy (2004) where she played the role of Helen of Troy alongside Hollywood stars Brad Pitt and Orlando Bloom. Diane then confirmed her reputation as a gifted actress in Quentin Tarantino’s off-beat Inglorious Basterds, in which she played a German spy, again appearing with Brad Pitt. This role earned her a nomination for the 2009 Screen Actors Guild Award for ‘Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Supporting Role’. Other successes include the French drama Anything For Her (2009). Her most recent film role was starring opposite Liam Neeson in the thriller mystery Unknown (2011).
